70 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. ;| 



woods— the trees to be cut close to the ground, butj 

 the roots must be dug as soon as the first rain* 

 have fallen, that no new shoots may spring froi 

 them. In winter the trees are to be pruned only at 

 times whenas their bark is free from rime and ice 

 after rain. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



OF DIVISIONS OF THE YEAR 



1 The first day of spring occurs when the sun is 

 Aquarius, of summer in Taurus, of autumn ii 

 Leo, and of winter in Scorpio. Now, as the fin 

 day of the four seasons is the twenty-third aftei 

 the successive entry of the sun into each of these 

 signs, it results that spring has 91 days, summer 94, 

 autumn 91, and winter 89. These periods reduced 

 to our modern civil calendar make the first days of 

 spring date from the 7th of February, of summer 

 from the 9th of May, of autumn from the nth of 



2 August, and of winter from the loth of November. 

 With the more minute division certain dates must 

 be taken into account, and these seasons are 

 divided into eight parts: (i) from the time when 

 Favonius begins to blow to the vernal equinox, 

 45 days; (2) from then to the risingof the Vergiliae 

 (Pleiads), 44; (3) from this to the solstice, 48; 



(4) thence to the rising of the Dog Star, 27; 



(5) next to the autumnal equinox, 67 ; (6) thence 



