BOOK XVIII. XLV. 160-162 



at the four corncrs of the field, with the rciuai-kable 

 result that no bird whatever will enter it. Mice are 

 driven away by sprinkhng the seed with thc ashes 

 of a weasel or a cat dissolved in water or with water 

 in which those animals have been boiled ; but their 

 poison makes an odour even in bread, and conse- 

 quently it is thought more satisfactory to steep the 

 seed in ox-gall. As for the gi-eatest curse of corn, 

 mildew, fixing branches of laurel in the ground niakes 

 it pass out of tlie fields into their fohage.<» Excessive 

 luxuriance in corn-crops is corrected by grazing cattle 

 on them, provided the corn is still in the bUide, and 

 although it is eaten down even several times it 

 sutfers no injurv in the ear. It is absohitely certain 

 that if the ears are lopped off even once the grain 

 becomes longer in shape and hoUow inside and worth- 

 less, and if sown does not grow. Nevertheless at 

 Babvlon they cut the corn twice and the third time 

 pasture it off with cattle, as otherwise it would make 

 only leaves. Even so the exceptional fertility of the 

 soil returns crops with a fifty-fold increase, and to 

 more industrions farmers even with a hundredfold. 

 Nor is there any difficulty in the method of letting 

 the ground be under watcr as long as possible, in 

 order that its extremely rich and substantial fertifity 

 may be diluted. But the Euphrates and the Tigris 

 do not carry mud on to the land in the same way as 

 the Nile does in Egypt, nor does the soil itsclf produce 

 vegetation ; but nevertheless its fertiHty is so great 

 that a sccond crop grows of its own accord in the 

 foUowing year from the seeds trodden in by the 

 reapers. This extreme difference of soil proinpts me 

 to distribute my description of the various kiiids of 

 land among the different crops. 



291 



