BOOK II. I. 6-II. 3 



trees in the autumn season and which were spread 

 over her are presently turned under by the plough- 

 share and mixed >\'ith the subsoil, which is usually 

 thinner, and are used up, the result is that the soil, 

 being deprived of its old-time nourishment, grows 

 lean. It is not, therefore, because of weariness, as 7 

 very many have believed, nor because of old age, 

 but manifestly because of our own lack of energy 

 that our cultivated lands yield us a less generous 

 return. For we may reap greater harvests if the 

 earth is qmckened again by frequent, timely, and 

 moderate manuring. As I promised in the preceding 

 book to speak of its cultivation, I shall now begin 

 the discussion. 



II. Those who are most experienced in agricultural 

 affairs have said, Sihinus, that there are three kinds 

 of terrain — champaign, hilly, and mountainous." 

 Of champaign land they favoured especially that lying, 

 not in a perfectly even and level plain, but in a some- 

 what sloping one ; of hilly land, that with a gentle 

 and gradual rise ; of mountainous land, the high and 

 rugged, but wooded and grassy.^ Furthermore, 2 

 under each of these classes there fall six species of 

 soil — fat or lean, loose or compact, moist or dry ; 

 and these qualities, in combination and in alternation 

 with one another, produce a very great variety of 

 soils. To enumerate them is not the mark of a skilled 

 farmer ; for it is not the business of any art to roam 

 about over the species, which are countless, but to 

 proceed through the classes, for these can readily 

 be connected in the imagination and brought within 

 the compass of words. We must have recourse, then, 3 

 to certain unions, as we may call them, between 

 qualities which are at variance with each other — 



109 



