36 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



rich rather than poor, the better it is for all crops, 

 better, I mean, than it would be if it erred in the 

 wrong direction. 



Here Stolo remarked, Diophanes of Bithynia is 

 not far wrong when he writes, with regard to the 

 kind of land which will repay cultivation or not, 

 that [favourable] indications may be had either 

 from the land itself or from the things that spring 

 from it: from the soil itself, if it be white or black, 

 such as easily crumbles when dug, and if it neither 

 resembles ashes in texture, nor is very heavy: from 

 the spontaneous products of the soil if they are of 

 good growth and bear plentifully fruit of their kind. 

 But now for that third topic which follows — please 

 tell us about the measures of land. 



CHAPTER X 



MEASURES OF LAND 



1 Said he: Different nations have adopted differ- 

 ent measures for measuring their fields. Thus 

 in Further Spain the iugum^ in Campania the ver- 

 sus^ whilst with us on Roman and Latin ground, 

 the iugerum is used. The iugum is what a yoke of 

 oxen can plough up in one day; the versus means 



2 a square loo feet by loo; the iugeruvi equals two 

 square actus ; the square actus is 1 20 feet long and 

 the same in breadth. This measure is called in 



