14 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVIII 



Homer^^ has remarked, with the greatest correctness, unwhole- 

 some vapours are always exhaled from rivers before the rising 

 of the sun. In hot localities, a farm-house should have i 

 northern aspect, but where it is cold, it should look towardi 

 the south ; where, on the other hand, the site is temperate, th( 

 house should look due east. Although, when speaking^- o 

 the best kinds of soil, I may seem to have sufficiently discussec 

 the characteristics by which it may be known, I shall take the 

 present opportunity of adding a few more indications, employ- 

 ing the words of Cato^^ more particularly for the purpose 

 " The dwarf-elder," says he, *'the wild plum,^ the bramble 

 the small bulb,^ trefoil, meadow grass,^^ the quercus, and th( 

 Maid pear and wild apple, are all of them indicative of a con 

 land. The same is the case, too, where the land is black, o] 

 of an ashy colour. All chalky soils are scorching, unless the} 

 are very thin ; the same, too, with sand, unless it is remarkabl) 

 fine. These remarks, however, are more applicable to cham- 

 paign localities than declivities." 



The ancients were of opinion, that before everything, mode- 

 ration should be observed in the extent of a farm ; for it was 

 a favourite maxim of theirs, that we ought to sow the less, anc 

 plough the more : such too, I find, was the opinion entertainec 

 by Yirgil,^ and indeed, if we must confess the truth, it is th( 

 wide- spread domains that have been the ruin^^ of Italy, anc 

 soon will be that of the provinces as well. Six proprietors 

 were in possession of one half of Africa, ^^ at the period when 



*' Od. V. 469. If the river has a bed of sand and high banks, it i.' 

 roully advantageous than otherwise. 



"- In B. xv[i. c. 3. 



*3 Not to be found in his works which have come down to us. 



"* Prunus spinosa of Linnreus. 



^^ See B. xix. c. 30 ; probably one of the genus Allium sphaeroce 

 phalum of Linnanis. 



«« " ilorba pratensis." It is not known with certainty to what plant he 

 aludcs. Fee suggests that it may be the Poa pratensis, or else a phleum, 

 alopecunis, or dactylis. All tlio plants here mentioned by Pliny will thrive 

 in a calcareous soil, and their presence, as Fee remarks, is of bad augury. 



«' He alludes to the famous maxim in the Georgics, B. ii. 1, 412 :— 



Laudato ingentia rura, 



Exiguum colito ■ 



*m -D - ''^""^'sc a large fami, cultivate a small one." 

 ■ Hy introducing slovenly cultivation. 



«'•* ;j'hat small part of it known to the Romans. Hardouin says that the 

 province ot Zeugitana is alluded to, mentioned in B. v. c. 3. 



