I] OF CROPS 93 



Byzacium ' from one peck the return is likewise a 

 hundred pecks. It is, besides, of much moment 

 whether you sow in virgin soil, or in such as has 

 been sown every year (which is called restibilis), or 

 in that which has occasionally lain fallow.^ 



3 Agrius remarked to him that in Olynthia the 

 fields were said to be sown yearly, but in such a 

 way as to produce richer crops every third year. 

 Licinius said: Land ought to be left fallow every 

 other year, or else be sown a little more lightly, 

 that is, in a manner less exhausting to the soil. 



We will now discuss the third phase, said Agrius, 



4 that is the rearing and nurture of plants. Stolo 

 answered. All plants that are born on a farm 

 grow in the ground, conceive on attaining puberty, 

 and, becoming pregnant, when they have reached 



^ Ad Byzacium. Byzacium was the name of a tract of 

 country, 250 miles in circumference, on the north coast of 

 \frica, which was inhabited by Liby-Phoenicians. Its chief 

 owns were Leptis, Adrumetum, Ruspina, and Thapsus. 

 Pliny (N. H., v, 4) mentions this extraordinary fertility. 

 Solinus Polyhistor (cap. xxx) alludes to it : In agro Byzaceno^ 



ui patet passuum ducentis vel amplius milihus^ glehis ita 

 praepinguibus ut iacta ibi semina cum incremento centesimae 

 frugis renascantur. He quotes Varro a little before this pass- 

 age, so he may have read him. Usually he annexes Pliny's 

 :;icts without acknowledgement ! 



' Invetvacto. Vervactum = land which has been ploughed 

 ;ind allowed to lie fallow. Sometimes it means land ploughed 

 for the first time. Cf. Servius on Georg., i, 50 {At prius igno- 

 turn Jerro quam scindimus aequor), i.e., antequam faciamus 



•ttvactum. Cf. Gottlob Schneider's excellent note on this 

 word vetvactum in his index to the agronomes. 



