I I] OF GRAIN 97 



fixed ^ in the ground to the right and left of it, and 

 the weeds must be pulled up. This must be done 

 while they are green, for if they become dry they 

 resist fiercely, and, instead of following the hand, 

 quickly snap off. On the other hand, grass that is 

 grown with a view to the hay harvest must not be 

 pulled up while growing, nor even trodden on. So 

 cattle and every kind of beast of burden, and even 

 men, should be kept off a meadow. For the foot of 

 man is perdition to grass, and makes the beginnings 

 of a foot-path. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 



OF GRAIN 



I Now in the case of crops, that by which the stalk 

 puts forth the grain is the ear. The latter, when 

 entire,^ has in barley and wheat three parts closely 

 connected — the grain, the husk, and the beard, and 

 also the sheath, present when the ear first emerges. 

 The solid body, the innermost part of the ear, is 



' Deligata. This, the best supported reading, seems to me 

 to give no satisfactory sense. I have translated deligatis, 

 though alligatis ad verticem is what one would expect. Ursinus 

 considered deligata to be a gloss. Crescentius, however, ac- 

 cording to Schneider, has integenda sunt binis tabelliSy dextra 

 •it sinistra ligalis. 



^ Quae mutilala non est. Oats and spelt have no beard. 

 Cicero in the De Amicitia (cap. xv) makes Cato say that the 

 beard protects the grain from the bites of small birds. . 



H 



