68 plint's natural histoet. [Book XVIII. 



There are very considerable diflPerences, too, in the nature of 

 water, as employed for the purposes of irrigation. In the 

 province of Gallia Narbonensis there is a famous fountain, 

 Orge by name ; within it there grow plants which are sought 

 for with such eagerness by the cattle, that they will plunge 

 over head into the water to get at them ; it is a well ascertained" 

 fact, however, that these plants, though growing in the water, 

 receive their nutriment only from the rains that fall. It is 

 as well then that every one should be fully acquainted with the 

 nature, not only of the soil, but of the water too. 



CHAP. 52. (23.) THE METHOD OF SOWIXG MORE THAN" OXCE 



IlSr THE TEAE. 



If the soil is of that nature which we have already'^* spoken 

 of as " tender,"'® after a crop of barley has been grown upon 

 it, millet may be sown, and after the millet has been got in, 

 rape. In succession to these, again, barley may be put in, or 

 else wheat, as in Campania ; and it w^ill be quite enough, iu 

 such case, to plough the ground when the seed is sown. There 

 is another rotation again — when the ground has been cropped 

 with spelt,-" it should lie fallow the four winter months ; after 

 which, spring beans should be put in, to keep it occupied till 

 the time comes for cropping it with winter beans. "Where the 

 soil is too rich, it may lie fallow one year, care being taken after 

 sowing it with corn to crop it with the leguminous plants the 

 third year.^^ Where, on the other hand, it is too thin, the land 

 should lie fallow up to the third year even. Some persons re- 

 commend that corn should never be sown except in land which 

 has lain fallow the year before. 



CHAP. 53. THE MANTJEING OF LAND. 



The proper method of manuring is here a very important 

 subject for consideration — we have already treated of it at 

 some length in the preceding Book.^^ rj^j^^ ^^^j point that is 



"' How was this ascertained ? Fee seems to think that it is the Fes- 

 tuca fluitans of Linnseus that is alluded to, it being eafferly sought by 

 cattle. o 8 J o / 



'*» In B. xvii. c. 3. 79 Tenerum. 



^^ Adoreuni. 



*' "Tertio" may possibly mean the ''third time," e. e. for every third 

 "<^P- 82 In B. xvii. c. 6. 



