ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VIII. vn. 4-5 



for instance in Thessaly. And the result is that, 

 however often they graze it, the crop is not im- 

 paired ; while if they cut it down not more than 

 once, the wheat changes in character and becomes 

 tall and weak what they call f long-shafted ' oorn, 

 and, if seed of this is sown, it does not recover 

 its character. This the Thessalians tell of as having 

 occurred in a few cases. At Babylon however 

 they cut it down twice always and as it were 

 systematically, and after that they let the sheep 

 on to it; for in that case it makes its straw, but 

 otherwise it runs wildly to leaf ; and, if the ground 

 is ill cultivated, it produces fifty fold, if it is care- 

 fully cultivated, a hundred fold. And the c culti- 

 vation' consists in letting the water lie on it as 

 long as possible, so that it may make much silt l ; 

 for the soil being fat and close must be made open. 

 And at Babylon 2 the ground does not produce weeds 

 and grasses, as it does in Egypt. Such are the 

 things which depend on the quality of the soil. 



Of cereals which grow a second time from the same stock. 



3 Wheat and barley also in many places grow from 

 the root in the next year, or in the same year from 

 crops cut down for fodder, since a second haulm 

 shoots up. The like happens also if the plant has 

 been nipped by winter ; for it shoots again when rain 

 comes ; but such plants produce an ear which is 

 imperfect and under-sized. There is also new growth 

 the next year from plants which are roughly treated 

 or trodden down 4 so that hardly anything remains 

 visible, as happens when an army has marched over 



3 c/. G.P. 4. 8. 5. 4 cj. C. P. I.e. 



187 



