BOOK XVII. VI. 54-vii. 56 



adds the empli)yment of the lightest kind of horse- 

 dung for manuring cornfields, but for meadowland the 

 heavier manure produced by fceding barley to horses, 

 which produces an abundant growth of grass. Some 

 people cven prefer stable-manure to cowdung and 

 sheeps' droppings to goats', but they rate asses' dung 

 above all othcr manures, because asses chew their 

 fodder ver}- slowly ; but experience on the contrary 

 pronounces against each of these. It is however 

 universally agreed that no manure is more beneficial 

 than a crop of lupine turned in by the plough or with 

 forks before the plants form pods, or else bundles of 

 lupine after it has been cut, dug in round the roots of 

 trees and vines ; and in places where there are no 

 cattle they believe in using the stubble itself or even 

 bracken for manure. 



Cato says " : ' You can make manure of stable-Htter, 

 lupines, chaff, bean-stalks and holm-oakor oak leaves. 

 Pull up the dane-wort and hemlock out of the crop, 

 and the high grass and sedge growing round osier 

 beds ; use this as Htter for sheep, and rotten leaves 

 for oxen.' — ' If a vine is making poor growth, make a 

 bonfire of its shoots and plough in the ashes there- 

 from.' He also says : ' Where you are going to sow 

 corn, give your sheep a free run on the land.' 



\'II. Moreover Catoalsosays* thattherearecertain cropsthai 

 crops which themselves nourish the land : ' Cornland f^'^'^"- 

 is manured by grain, hipine, beans and vetches ' ; just 

 as on the contrary : ' Chick-pea, because it is pulled up 

 bv the roots and because it is salt, barley,fenugreek, 

 bitter vetch, — these all scorch up "^ a cornland, as do all 

 plants that are pulled up by the roots. Do not plant 

 stone-fruit "^ in corn-land.' — Virgil holds the opinion Oeorg.i.n. 

 that cornland is also scorchcd by flax, oats and poppies. 



39 



