86 FLINT'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVIII. 



other hand, it is a thin, meagre land, as soon as the heat comes 

 on, it will be dried up, and so lose all the moisture which 

 should he reserved to nourish the seed when sown. It is a much 

 better plan, beyond a doubt, to plough such soils as these in 

 autumn. 



Cato 77 lays down the following rules for the operations of 

 spring. " Ditches," he says, "should be dug in the seed- 

 plots, vines should be grafted, and the elm, the fig, the olive, 

 and other fruit-trees planted in dense and humid soils. Such 

 meadows 7S as are not irrigated, must be manured in a dry 

 moon, protected from the western blasts, and carefully cleaned ; 

 noxious weeds must be rooted up, fig-trees cleared, new seed- 

 plots made, and the old ones dressed : all this should be done 

 before you begin to hoe the vineyard. When the pear is in. 

 blossom, too, you should begin to plough, where it is a meagre, 

 gravelly soil. When you have done all this, you may plough 

 the more heavy, watery soils, doing this the last of all." 



The proper time for ploughing, then, 79 is denoted by these 

 two signs, the earliest fruit of the lentisk 80 making its appear- 

 ance, and the blossoming of the pear. There is a third sign, 

 however, as well, the flowering of the squill among the bul- 

 bous, 81 and of the narcissus among the garland, plants. For 

 both the squill and the narcissus, as well as the lentisk, flower 

 three times, denoting by their first flowering the first period 

 for ploughing, by the second flowering the second, and by the 

 third flowering the last ; in this way it is that one thing affords 

 hints for another. There is one precaution, too, that is by no 

 means the least important among them all, not to let ivy touch 

 the bean while in blossom; for at this period the ivy is noxious 82 

 to it, and most baneful in its effects. Some plants, again, 

 afford certain signs which bear reference more particularly to 

 themselves, the fig for instance ; when a few leaves only are 

 found shooting from the summit, like a cup in shape, then it is 

 more particularly that the fig-tree should be planted. 



CFIAP. 66. WORK TO BE DONE AFTER THE VERNAL EQUINOX. 



The vernal equinox appears to end on the eighth & day be- 



77 De Re Rust. 40. 7S See B. xvii. c. 8. 



79 Alluding to his quotation from Cicero in c, 61. 

 feo Or mastich. si g ee c< 7 O f this Book. 



S2 It is not known whence he derived this unfounded notion. 

 83 Twenty -fifth of March. 



