Chap. 55.] HOW MUCH GEAIN IIEQUISITE FOE A JUGEEUM. /I 



one, nor should the produce of an early soil be sown in a late 

 one. Those who give advice to the contrary have quite mis- 

 applied their pains. 



CHAP. 55, WHAT QUANTITY OF EACH KIND OF GRAIN IS EEQUISITE 



FOE SOWING A JUGEEUM. 



^In a soil of middling quality, the proper proportion of seed 

 is five modii of wheat or winter- wheat to the jugerum, ten of 

 spelt or of seed- wheat — that being the name which we have 

 mentioned^^ as being given to one kind of wheat — six of 

 barley, one-fifth more of beans than of wheat, twelve of 

 vetches, three of chick-pease, chicheling vetches, and pease, 

 ten of lupines, three of lentils — (these last, however, it is said, 

 must be so\\ti with dry manure) — six of fitches, six of fenu- 

 greek, four of kidney-beans, twenty of hay grass,^^ and four 

 sextaiii of millet and panic. Where the soil is rich, the pro- 

 portion must be greater, where it is thin, less.^^ 



There is another distinction, too, to be made ; where the 

 soil is dense, cretaceous, or moist, there should be six modii of 

 wheat or winter-wheat to the jugerum, but where the land is 

 loose, dry, and prolific, four will be enough. A meagre soil, 

 too, if the crop is not very thinly sown, will produce a dimi- 

 nutive, empty ear. Kich lands give a number of stalks to each 

 grain, and yield a thick crop from only a light sowing. The 

 result, then, is, that from four to six modii must be sown, 

 according to the nature of the soil ; though there are some 

 who make it a rule that five modii is the proper proportion for 

 sowing, neither more nor less, whether it is a densely- planted 

 locality, a declivity, or a thin, meagre soil. To this subject 

 bears reference an oracular precept which never can be too 

 carefully observed^' — " Don't rob the harvest."^^ Attius, in his 

 Praxidicus,^^ has added that the proper time for sowing is, 



^'•^ This Chapter is mostly from Columella, B. ii. c. 9. 

 91 In c. 19 of this Book. 



95 Probably the mixture called "farrago " in c. 10 and c. 41. 



96 Upon this point the modern agriculturists are by no means agreed. 



97 From Cato, De Re Rust. c. 5. 



98 " Segetem ne defrudes," The former editions mostly read "defruges," 

 in which case the meaning would be, " don't exhaust the land." 



99 This passage of Attius is lost, but Hermann supposes his words to 

 have run thus : — 



serere, cum est 



Luna in Ariete, Geminis, Leone, Libra, Aquario. 



