Chap. 62] WORK FOE EACH MONTH. 81 



CUAP. 61. WHEN TO SOW THE LEGT73IIN0US PLANTS AKD THE 



POPPY. 



Yarro^' has given no other sign but this^° for our guidance 

 in sowing the bean. Some persons are of opinion that it should 

 be sown at full moon, the lentil betwx-en the twenty-fifth and 

 thirtieth day of the moon, and the vetch on the same days of 

 the moon ; and they assure us that if this is done they will be 

 exempt from the attacks of slugs. Some say, however, that 

 if wanted for fodder, they may be sown at these periods, but 

 if for seed, in the spring. There is another sign, moreevideot 

 still, supplied us by the marvellous foresight of Nature, with 

 reference to which we will give the words employed by Cicero*^ 

 himself : 



*' The lentisk, ever green and ever bent 

 Beneath its ti'uits, aflFords a threefold crop: 

 Thrice teeming, thrice it warns us when to plough." 



One of the periods here alluded to, is the same that is now 

 under consideration, being the appropriate time also for sowing 

 flax and the poppy." With reference to this last, Cato gives the 

 following advice : ''Burn, upon land where corn has been grown, 

 the twigs and branches which are of no use to you, and when 

 that is done, sow the poppy there." The wild poppy, which 

 is of an utility that is quite marvellous, is boiled in honey as a 

 remedy for diseases in the throat,'*^ while the cultivated kind is 

 a powerful narcotic. Thus much in reference to winter sowing. 



CHAP. 62. WOEK TO BE DONE IN THE COtJNTST IN EACH 



MONTH KKSPECTIVELT, 



And now, in order to complete what we may call in some 

 measure an abridgment of the operations of agriculture, it is as 

 well to add that it will be a good plan at the same period to 

 Dianure the roots of trees, and to mould up the vines — a single 

 hand being sufficient for one jugerum. Where, too, the nature 

 3f the locality will allow it, the vines, and the trees upon which 

 tliey are trained, should be lopped, and the soil turned up wilh 



3« De Re Eust. i. 34. 4o The setting of the Vergilise. 



*^ De Divinat. B. i. c. 15. They are a translation from Aratus. 

 ' ♦■- De Re Eust. c. 38. Pliny has said above, that flax and the poppy 

 I should be sown in the spring. 



" The Papaver Rhceas of Linnaeus is still used for affections of the 

 iiroat. 



VOL. IT. Q 



