BOOK II. II. 7-9 



difficulty, but even when worked it makes no recom- 

 pense, and when left idle it is not altogether adequate 

 for meadows or for grazing land. Therefore this 

 type, whether in tillage or fallow, is a soiu*ce of grief 

 to the husbandman and should be shunned as if it were 

 plague-ridden ground ; for the one type brings death, 

 and this brings starvation, that most frightful attend- 

 ant of death, if we may trust the Grecian Muses, 

 who cry : 



To die of hunger is the bitterest of fates." 



But now we shall turn our attention rather to the i 

 more fertile soil, and our treatment of this is to be set 

 forth under two heads — land in tillage, and wood- 

 land. We shall first speak of reducing a wooded area 

 to an arable state, for the reason that the preparation 

 of a field comes before its cultivation. As to an uu- 

 tilled piece of ground, then, let us consider whether 

 it is dry or damp, shaded with trees or rough and 

 stony ; whether it is covered with rushes and grass 

 or encumbered with fern-brakes or other bushy 

 growth. If it is damp, the superfluous moisture must ! 

 first be drained oiF with ditches. Of these we are 

 familiar with two kinds — blind and open. In tracts 

 of hard-packed and chalky soil they are left open ; 

 but where the groiuid is of looser texture some are 

 made open and some of them, too, are covered over, 

 though in such a way as to connect with the 



<' Homer, Od. XII. 342. 



* in ora Sobel : in eas ora R, vett. edd., Lundstrom : in ea 

 hora (h expunct.) S : in ea ora A. in patentes ora kiantia 

 caecarum competant habent Aid., Oesn., Schn. 



"3 



