BOOK 11. II. 12-15 



ground by gathering up the stones ; and if there is a 

 great quantity of them, parts of the field must be used 

 for building them into piles of some sort, so that the 

 other parts may be cleared off, or the stones will have 

 to be buried in a deep-dug trench. This should be 

 done, however, only if the cheapness of labour 

 makes it advisable. The bane of rushes and grass 13 

 is repeated grubbing, of the fern it is constant up- 

 rooting, which may be done also with the plough; 

 for it dies out within two years' time if torn up re- 

 peatedly, and even sooner if at the same time you apply 

 manure and sow with lupines or beans so as to have 

 some return while remedying the defects of the field. 

 For it is agreed that the fern is more easily de- 

 stroyed by sowing and manuring; but even if you 

 cut it down with the sickle (which is work even a child 

 could do) as it sprouts out from time to time, within 

 the aforesaid period its vigour is spent. But now, 14 

 after a consideration of the clearing of unbroken 

 ground, comes the management of land newly brought 

 under cultivation ; and I shall set forth presently my 

 own views on this, after I have given to those who are 

 concerned with land in tillage some precepts on 

 matters which must be learned first. 



I recall that very many of the ancients who have 

 written on agricultural topics have laid down as 

 acknowledged and unquestioned evidence of fat and 

 fertile grain-land the natural sweetness of the soil, 

 its growth of herbage and trees, and its black or 

 ashy colour. As to the other points I have no doubt ; 15 

 but in the matter of colour I cannot marvel enough, 

 not only that other writers but especially that 

 Cornelius Celsus, a man of discernment not merely in 



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