BOOK XVII. viii. 57-x. 59 



VIII. Thev rccommend makinjj dung-heaps in the season/or 

 opcn air in a hole in the ground made so as to coUect """'"""^- 

 moisture, and covering the heaps with straw to prevent 



their drying up in the sun, after driving a hard-oak 

 stake into the ground, which will keep snakes from 

 brecding in the dung. It pays extremely well to 

 throw the manure on the ground whcn a west wind is 

 blowing and during a dry moon ; niost people mis- 

 understand this and think that it should be done when 

 the west wind is just setting in, and only in February, 

 whereas most crops require manuring in other months 

 also. Whatever time is chosen for the operation, care 

 must be taken to do it when the wind is due west and 

 the moon on the wane and accompanied by dry 

 weather. Such precautions increase the fertilizing 

 efFect of manure to a surprising degree. 



IX. Havingbegunbvstatingatconsiderablelength propaqniio 

 the principles of climate and soil, we will now describc |!{riX?' 

 the trees that are produced by the care and skill ot methods. 

 mankind. There are almost as many varieties of 



these as there are of those that grow wild, so bounti- 

 fuUy have we repaid our debt of gratitude to Nature ; 

 for they are produced either from seed or from root- 

 cuttings or by lavcring or tearing oflT a slip or from 

 a cutting or by grafting in an incision in the trunk of 

 a tree. As for the story that at Babylon they plant 

 palm-leaves and produce a tree in that way, I am sur- 

 priscd that Trogus beUevcd it." Some trees however 

 can be grown by several of the above methods, and 

 some by all of them. 



X. And the majority of these methods wcre taught orowmg 

 us by Nature herself, in particular that of sowing a [''g^^^'''"" 

 seed, because when a seed fell from a tree and was 

 received into the earth it came to life again. Indeed 



41 



