Cliap. 67.] WORK FOR SPRING. 89 



stars, in the heavens ; but not content with these, she has 

 made others as well for the face of the earth, crying aloud, as 

 it were : 7 * " Why contemplate the heavens, husbandman ? 

 Why, rustic, look up at the stars? Do not the nights already 

 afford you a sleep too brief for your fatigues ? Behold now ! I 

 scatter stars amid the grass for your service, and I reveal them, 

 to you in the evening, as you return from your work ; and 

 that you may not disregard them, I call your attention to this 

 marvel. Do you not see how the wings of this insect cover 

 a body bright and shining like fire, and how that body gives 

 out light in the hours of the night even ? I have given you 

 plants to point out to you the hours, and, that you may not 

 have to turn your eyes from the earth, even to view the sun, 

 the heliotropium and the lupine have been made by me to move 

 with his movements. Why then still look upwards, and scan 

 the face of heaven ? Behold, here before your very feet are 

 your Vergiliae ; upon a certain day do they make th'jir appear- 

 ance, and for a certain time do they stay. Equally certain, 

 too, it is that of that constellation they are the offspring. 

 Whoever, then, shall put in his summer seeds before they have 

 made their appearance, will infallibly find himself in the 

 wrong." 



It is in this interval, too, that the little bee comes forth, and 

 announces that the bean is about to blossom ; for it is the bean 

 in flower that summons it forth. We will here give another 

 sign, which tells us when the cold is gone ; as soon as ever 

 you see the mulberry 8 in bud, you have no occasion to fear any 

 injury from the rigour of the weather. 



It is the time, now, to put in cuttings of the olive, to clear 

 away between the olive-trees, and, in the earlier days of the 

 equinox, to irrigate the meadows. As soon, however, as the 

 grass puts forth a stem, you must shut off the water from the 

 fields. 9 You must now lop the leafy branches of the vine, it 

 being the rule that this should be done as soon as the branches 

 have attained four fingers in length ; one labourer will be suf- 

 ficient for a jugerum. The crops of corn, too, should be hoed 

 over again, an operation which lasts twenty days. It is gene- 

 rally thought, however, that it is injurious to both vine and 

 corn to begin hoeing directly after the equinox. This is the 

 proper time, too, for washing sheep. 



7 * A quotation from some unknown p^et, Sillig thinks. 



8 See ti. xvi. c. 41. 9 bee Virgil, Eel. iii. 1. 111. 



