BOOK II. II. 15-19 



husbandry but also in nature as a whole, went so far 

 astray, both in his thinking and in his observation, 

 that the many marshes and the many stretches of 

 salt meadows, in which the above-mentioned 

 colours are usually present, did not attract his 

 notice. For our casual observations reveal no 16 

 place, provided it contains stagnant water, which 

 is not of a black or ashy colour ; unless perhaps I am 

 myself mistaken in thinking that luxuriant grain 

 crops cannot be produced in the soil of slimy swamp 

 and brackish marshland or in a region of salt de- 

 posits along the seacoast. But this mistake of the 

 ancients is too apparent to require refutation by 

 further argument. It is not the colour, then, that is, 

 so to speak, the infalUble voucher and witness of 

 goodness of ploughland ; and for that reason grain- 17 

 land, that is rich land, is to be judged rather by 

 other qualities. For, as the sturdiest of farm animals 

 have been allotted different and almost countless 

 colours, just so the strongest soils have them in veiy 

 great number and vaiiety. Accordingly, we must 

 take care that the soil which we intend to cultivate 

 is rich. Still this of itself is not sufficient if it lacks 18 

 sweetness ; and we may come to know both qualities 

 by a very easy method. For a clod is sprinkled with a 

 little water and kneaded in the hand, and if it is 

 viscous and cohesive when firmed with the slightest 

 touch and, 



in the manner of pitch is shaped to the fingers in 

 handling, 



as Vergil says," and does not crumble when dashed 

 to the ground, this test informs us that there is in 

 such earth a natural moistness and fatness. But when 19 



119 



