BOOK XVIII. xLix. 176-179 



working is equally necessary in the case of fallow 

 land — fallow is land sown every other year. Oxen 

 when going to plough should be harnessed to the 

 yoke as tightlv as possible, to make them hold their 

 heads up when ploughing — that makes them least 

 hable to gall their necks ; if the ploughing is in be- 

 tween trees and vines, they must wear basket-work 

 muzzles to prevent their nibbling off the tenderest 

 of the buds; a small billhook should be hung on 

 the plough-tail to cut through roots with — this is 

 better than letting the plough tear them up, which 

 is a strain on the oxen ; when ploughing finish the 

 row and do not halt in the middle while taking 

 breath. It is a fiiir day's work to break an acre with 

 a nine-inch furrow and to plough over again an acre 

 and a half, given an easy soil, but otherwise, to break 

 half an acre and plough over one acre, since Nature 

 has appointed laws even for the labour of animaLs. 

 Every field must be worked with straight fun-ows 

 and then with slanting furrows as well. Hilly ground 

 is ploughed only across the slope of the hill, but with 

 the share pointing now up hill and now down ; " and 

 man has such capacity for labour that he can actually 

 perform the function of oxen — at all events mountain 

 races dispense with this aninial and do their pk)ughing 

 with hoes. Unless a ploughman bends his back to 

 his work he goes crooked — the charge of ' prevari- 

 cation ' is a metaphorical term transferred to pubhc 

 hfe from ploughing : anyhow it must be avoided in 

 the department of its origin. The share should be 

 cleaned now and then with a stick tipped with a 

 scraper. The ridges betwcen two furrows should not 

 be left untidy, so that clods of earth may not fall 

 off them. A field that needs harrowing after the 



301 



