64 PLTNT'S NA.TUEAL HISTOET. [Book XVIII. 



It is a fair day's work to plough one jugerum, for the first 

 time, nine inches in depth ; and the second time, one jugerum 

 and a half — that is to say, if it is an easy soil. If this, how- 

 ever, is not the case, it will take a day to turn up half a juge- 

 rum for the first time, and a whole jugerum the second; for 

 Kature has set limits to the powers of animals even. The 

 furrows should be made, in every case, first in a straight line, 

 and then others should be drawn, crossing them obliquely.* 

 Upon a hill-side the furrows are drawn transversely^^ only, 

 the point of the share inclining upwards at one moment and 

 downwards ^'^ at another. Man, too, is so well fitted for labour, 

 til at he is able to supply the place of the ox even ; at all events, 

 it is without the aid of that animal that the mountain tribes 

 plough, having only the hoe to help them.^^ 



The ploughman, unless he stoops to his work, is sure to pre- 

 varicate,^- a word which has been transferred to the Forum, as 

 a censure upon those who transgress — at any rate, let those be 

 on their guard against it, where it was first employed. The 

 share should be cleaned every now and then with a stick pointed 

 with a scraper. The ridges that are left between every two 

 furrows, should not be left in a rough state, nor should large 

 clods be left protruding from the ground. A field is badly 

 ploughed that stands in need of harrowing after the seed is in ; 

 but the work has been properly done, when it is impossible to 

 say in which direction the share has gone. It is a good plan, 

 too, to leave a channel every now and then, if the nature of the 

 spot requires it, by making furrows of a larger size, to draw off 

 the water into the drains. 



(20.) After the furrows have been gone over again transverse- 

 ly, the clods are broken, where there is a necessity for it, with 

 either the harrow or the rake;*^' and this operation is repeated 



5" Virgil says the same, Georg, i. 9. 



59 Crosswise, or horizontally. 



^ Zig-zag, apparently. 



«i A rude foreshadowing of the spade husbandry so highly spoken of 

 at the present day. 



62 " Prevaricare," *' to make a balk," as we call it, to make a tortuous 

 furrow, diverging from the straight line. 



«3 He probably means the heavy " rastrura," or rake, mentioned by 

 Virgil, Georg, i. 164. It is impossible to say what was the shape of this 

 heavy rake, or how it was used. Light, or hand rakes were in common 

 use as veil. 



