BOOK XVIII. Lxv. 241-244 



touched during the first fortnight. You should only 



hoe barley in dry weather. You should have your 



pruning finished by the equinox. An acre of vine- 



yard takes four hands to prune, and tying up the 



vines on a tree takes one hand for each fifteen trees." 



This is the time moreover for kitchen-gardcns and 



rose-bcds to be attended to, a subject which will be 



dealt with separatelv in the following Books, and it xix. 49tf., 



is also the time for landscape gardening ; and then ^^ -^ 



is the best occasion for making ditches. The ground 



is now opened for future operations, as Virgil in par- Georg. 1. «. 



ticular ad^ises, to allow the sun thoroughly to dry 



the clods. The more useful opinion recommends 



ploughing only ground of medium quality in the 



middle of spring, because in a rich soil the furrows 



are at once seized on by weeds and in a thin soil the 



spells of heat that follow dry them up and take away 



all nioisture from the seeds that are to come ; there 



is no question that it is best to plough land of these 



sorts in the autumn. 



The following are the rules given by Cato * for Sprir^g 

 operations in spring : ' to make ditches for the seed- "''^" ""'''' 

 plots, layer vine-nurseries, plant elms, figs, fruit-trees 

 and oHves in thick and damp soils, under a dry 

 moon to manure meadows that are not going to be 

 irrigated, and to protect them from westerly winds, 

 and to clean them and root up noxious weeds ; to 

 prune fig-trees Hghtly, make new seed-beds and repair 

 old ones — these operations to be done before you 

 begin to dig over the vineyard.' Cato also says : 

 ' You should begin to plough thin and sandy soils 

 when the pear-tree blossoms, and afterwards plough 

 the successively heaviest and wettest lands last of 

 all.' Consequently there will be two signs for this 



343 



