I] OF THE FIRST DIVISION 71 



to the setting of the Pleiads, 32; (7) from this 

 date to the winter solstice, 57 ; and (8) thence to the 

 blowing of Favonius again, 45. 



CHAPTER XXIX 



OF THE FIRST DIVISION 



1 In the first interval — between the time when 

 Favonius begins to blow and the vernal equinox — 

 the following things should be done: Seed beds of 

 every kind should be sown, the small trees which 

 support the vines pruned, the meadows manured, 

 the roots of the vines cleared, the outcropping roots 

 cut off, the meadows weeded, willow beds planted, 

 corn-lands hoed. Seges (corn-land) means land 

 which has been ploughed and sown, arvum 

 (plough-land) that which has been ploughed but 

 not yet sown; fallow-land,* land which has been 

 sown before it is ploughed and sown again (in the 



2 third year). The term proscindere (to cleave) is 

 used of the first ploughing, offringere (to break 

 up) of the second — for big clods are thrown up, as 

 arule, by the first ploughing ; when land is ploughed 

 the second time they call it ''breaking it up." At 

 the third ploughing, when the seed has been cast, 



' Novalis ager. The word indicates two kinds of land: 

 (i) unbroken grass-land (Columella, vi, Praef.); (2) land that 

 was tilled and allowed to rest alternately. Cf. Varro, L. L., 

 V, cap. 4 : Contra qui intermiltitur {ager) a novando novalis. 



