Chap. 60. ] THE PROPER TIME FOE WINTER SOWING. 79 



these days do not respectively give some indication of a change 

 in the weather. 



These four seasons again, are subdivided, each of them, into 

 two equal parts. Thus, for instance, between the summer 

 solstice and the autumnal equinox, the setting of the Lyre, 31 

 on the forty-sixth day, indicates the beginning of autumn ; be- 

 tween the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, the morn- 

 ing setting of the Vergiliae, on the forty-fourth day, denotes 

 the beginning of winter ; between the winter solstice and the 

 vernal equinox, the prevalence of the west winds on the forty- 

 fifth day, denotes the commencement of spring ; and between 

 the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, the morning rising 

 of the Vergilise, on the forty-eighth day, announces the com- 

 mencement of summer. We shall here make seed-time, or in 

 other words, the morning setting of the Yergilise, our starting- 

 point ; 32 and shall not interrupt the thread of our explanation 

 by making any mention of the minor constellations, as such a 

 course would only augment the difficulties that already exist. 

 It is much about this period that the stormy constellation of 

 Orion departs, after traversing a large portion of the heavens. 35 



CHAP. 60. THE PROPER TIME FOR WINTER SOWING. 



Most persons anticipate the proper time for sowing, and be- 

 gin to put in the corn immediately after the eleventh day of 

 the autumnal equinox, at the rising of the Crown, when we 

 may reckon, almost to a certainty, upon several days of rainy 

 weather in succession. Xenophon 34 is of opinion, that sowing 

 should not be commenced until the Deity has given us the 

 signal for it, a term by which Cicero understands the rains that 

 prevail in November. The true method to be adopted, how- 

 ever, is not to sow until the leaves begin to fall. Some per- 

 sons are of opinion that this takes place at the setting of the 



31 In this Translation, the names of the Constellations are given in 

 English, except in the case of the signs of the Zodiac, which are univer- 

 sally known by their Latin appellations. 



33 He begins in c. 64, at the winter solstice, and omits the period be- 

 tween the eleventh of November and the winter solstice altogether, so far 

 as the mention of individual days. 



33 " Cumsidusvehemens Orionis iisdem diebus longo decedat spatio." 

 This passage is apparently unintelligible, if considered, as Sillig reads 

 it, as dependent on the preceding one. 



34 In his (Economica. 



