78 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



cover them with earth and transplant them when 

 they too have made a living root. It is not good to 

 make violet beds on a farm, because the earth must 

 be raised for them, and small mounds are thus 

 necessarily produced which are washed away by 

 artificial watering and by rain storms, and so im- 

 poverish the soil. 

 2 From the time when Favonius begins to blow 

 until the rising of Arcturus, you may properly 

 transplant serpillum (wild thyme), so called from 

 its creeping (serpere). 



New ditches must be dug, the old ones cleared 

 out, the vines and their supporting trees pruned — 

 provided that, like most operations of this kind, 

 they be not done within fifteen days after or before 

 the winter solstice — though some plants, such as 

 elms, may properly be planted at that time. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 



THE EIGHTH PERIOD 



In the eighth period, that is, between the winter 

 solstice and the time when Favonius begins to 

 blow, the following things must be done. 



Any water standing on the cornfields must be 

 drained off. If, however, it is a time of drought, 

 and the land crumbles easily, it should be hoed. 



Prune the vines and their trees. 



