BOOK II 



I. You ask me, Publius Silviiius, and I have no 

 hesitation in informing you at once, why in the pre- 

 ceding book I immediately at the start" rejected the 

 long-standing opinion of almost all who have dis- 

 coursed on the subject of agriculture, and repudiated 

 as mistaken the views of those who hold that the soil, 

 wearied and exhausted by age-long wasting away 

 and by cultivation now extending over a long period 

 of time, has become barren. And I am not unaware 2 

 that you hold in reverence, not only the authority 

 of other renowned writers, but particularly that of 

 Tremelius, who, in handing down to posterity a very 

 great number of agricultural precepts set forth with 

 refinement as well as learning, being obviously misled 

 through too great deference to the ancients who 

 treat of a like subject, held the mistaken belief that 

 the earth, the mother of all things, like womankind 

 now worn out with old age, is incapable of bearing 

 offspring. This fact I too should admit if no fruits 

 whatever were being produced ; for the old age of 3 

 a human being also is pronounced barren, not when 

 a woman no longer gives birth to triplets and twins, 

 but only when she is able to conceive and bring 

 forth no offspring at all. Thus, after the period of 

 youth is past, even though a long hfe still remains, 

 still parturition is denied to years and is not re- 



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