104 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVIII. 



others with flails. The later wheat is cut, the more prolific 96 

 it is ; but if it is got in early, the grain is finer and stronger. 

 The hest rule is to cut it before the grain hardens, and just 

 as it is changing colour : 97 though the oracles on husbandry 

 say that it is better to begin the harvest two days too soon 

 than two days too late. Winter and other wheat must be 

 treated exactly the same way both on the threshing-floor and 

 in the granary. Spelt, as it is difficult to be threshed, should 

 be stored with the chaff on, being only disengaged of the straw 

 and the beard. 



Many countries make use of chaff" for hay; the smoother 

 arid thinner it is, and the more nearly resembling dust, the 

 better ; hence it is that the chaff" of millet is considered the 

 best, that of barlej' being the next best, and that of wheat the 

 worst of all, except for beasts that are hard worked. In stony 

 places they break the haulms, when dry, with staves, for the 

 cattle to lie upon : if there is a deficiency of chaff, the straw 

 as well is ground for food. The following is the method em- 

 ployed in preparing it : it is cut early and sprinkled with bay 

 salt, 1 after which it is dried and rolled up in trusses, and given 

 to the oxen as wanted, instead of hay. Some persons set fire 

 to the stubble in the fields, a plan that has been greatly ex- 

 tolled by Virgil : 2 the chief merit of it is that the seed of the 

 weeds is effectually destroyed. The diversity of the methods 

 employed in harvesting mainly depends upon the extent of the 

 crops and the price of labour. 



CHAP. 73 THE METHODS OF STORING CORN. 



Connected with this branch of our subject is the method of 

 storing corn. Some persons recommend that granaries should 

 be built for the purpose at considerable expense, the walls 



96 On the contrary, Fee says, the risk is greater from the depredations 

 of birds, and the chance of the grain falling out in cutting, and gathering 

 in. Spelt and rye may be left much longer than wheat or oats. 



97 Columella, IS. ii. c. i., gives the same advice. 



98 " Palea" seems here to mean "chaff;" though Fee understands it 

 as meaning straw. 



99 The chaif of millet, and not the straw, must evidently be intended here, 

 for he says above that the straw " culmus " of millet is generally burnt. 



1 Muria dura. 



2 Georg. i. 84, et seq. Fee says that Virgil has good reason for his 

 commendations, as it is a most excellent plan. 



