i] THE FOURTH PERIOD 75 



from the fact that they were cut green for fodder 

 from the field with a knife {ferro), or farrago be- 

 cause it was first made from a crop of spelt {far). 

 With it horses and other beasts of burden are 

 purged and fattened in spring time. Vetch {vicia) 

 is derived from vincire (to bind), which also, like 

 the vine, has tendrils, by means of which, as it 

 creeps upwards to attach itself to a lupin's stalk 

 or that of some other plant, it binds the latter. 



If you have meadows to be irrigated you should 



do it as soon as you have got in the hay. In the 



dry season water must be given in the evening to 



♦he grafted fruit. These may have been called fruit 



poma) from the fact that they need drink {potus). 



CHAPTER XXXII 



THE FOURTH PERIOD 



N* the fourth period, between the summer solstice 

 .nd the rising of the Dog Star, most people get in 

 the harvest, for they say that corn is fifteen days 

 in its sheath, flowers in fifteen, and in fifteen be- 

 comes dry, being then ripe. You must now finish 

 off your ploughing, which is the more effective the 

 hotter the ground when it is done. After the open- 

 ing up of the earth by the first ploughing, it must 

 be broken up by the second, that the clods may be 

 destroyed, for at the first only big clods are cloven 

 '^ut of the earth. 



