64 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVIII. 



degenerate into an ordinary pasture ; it is necessary, therefore, 

 directly the crop is an inch in height, to disengage it from 

 all weeds, by hand, in preference to the weeding-hook. 



It is cut when it is just beginning to flower, and this is re- 

 peated as often as it throws out new blossoms ; which happens 

 mostly six 7 times in the year, and four at the very least. 

 Care should be taken to prevent it from running to seed, as it 

 is much more valuable as fodder, up to the third year. It 

 should be hoed in the spring, and cleared of all other plants ; 

 and in the third year the surface should be well worked with 

 the weeding-hook. By adopting this method, the weeds will 

 be effectually destroyed, though without detriment to the lu- 

 cerne, in consequence of the depth of its roots. If the weeds 

 should happen to get ahead of it, the only remedy is to turn it 

 up repeatedly with the plough, until the roots of the weeds are 

 thoroughly destroyed. This fodder should never be given to 

 cattle to satiety, otherwise it may be necessary to let blood ; it 

 is best, too, when used while green. "When dry, it becomes 

 tough and ligneous, and falls away at last into a thin, useless 

 dust. As to the cytisus, which also occupies the very foremost 

 rank among the fodders, we have already spoken s of it at suf- 

 ficient length when describing the shrubs. It remains for us 

 now to complete our account of all the cereals, and we shall 

 here devote a portion of it to the diseases to which they are 

 subject. 



CHAP. 44. (17.) THE DISEASES OF GRAIN : THE OAT. 



The foremost feature of disease in wheat is the oat. 9 Barley, 

 too, will degenerate into the oat ; so much so, in fact, that the 

 oat has become an equivalent for corn ; for the people of Ger- 

 many are in the habit of sowing it, and make their porridge of 

 nothing else. This degeneracy is owing more particularly to 

 humidity of soil and climate; and a second cause is a weakness in 

 the seed, the result of its being retained too long in the ground 

 before it makes its appearance above it. The same, too, will 



7 By the aid of careful watering, as many as eight to fourteen cuttings 

 are obtained in the year, in Italy and Spain. In the north of Europe 

 there is but one crop. 



8 In B. xiii. c. 47. 



9 He borrows this notion of the oat being wheat in a diseased state, 

 from Theophrastus. Singularly enough, it was adopted by the learned 

 Buffon. 



