BOOK XVIII. Lii. 191-U11. 194 



left fallow till the year aftcr next. Some people 

 forbid sowing wheat except in land that has lain 

 fallow the year before. 



LIII. A very important part of this topic is occu- Huiesfor 

 pied by the propcr way of using dung, about which ^?^^ rf""^. 

 we have also spoken in the preceding volumc. The xvii. 6u. 

 one thing known to evcrybody is that the land must 

 not be sown unlcss it has been manured, although 

 even this matter has special rules applying to it. You 

 must not sow millet, panic, turnip or navew except 

 in ground that has been manured, but if thc ground 

 has not been manured, you shoukl sow wheat in it 

 rather than barley. Similarly also in the case of 

 fallows, although it is held that in these beans shoukl 

 be sowed, in evcry case you must sow that crop after 

 the soil has been manured as recently as possiblc. 

 A person intending to sow something in the autumn 

 should pile dung on the kvnd in September, at all 

 events after rain has fallcn ; but if intending to sow 

 in the spring-time, he should spread dung during 

 the winter — eightcen loads of dung is the proper 

 amount to be given to an acre ; but be careful not to 

 spread it before ploughing. But after the seed has 

 been sown, if this manuring has been neglected, the 

 foUowing stage is, before you weed, first to seatter 

 like seed some dust of droppings obtained from 

 licn-coops. But to fix a precise Hmit for this 

 treatment also, the right amount is to get one load 

 of manure per head of smaller animals and ten loads 

 per head of oxen. If that be not forthcoming, it 

 would look as if the farmcr had been skack in providing 

 Htter for his stock. Some people think that manur- 

 ing is best done by kceping the Hocks and herds 

 permanently out of doors pcnned up with netting. 



311 



