BOOK II. 11. 24-26 



fulness of crops outweighs the expense of buying 

 heavier draught animals, and especially in Italy, 

 where the land, being planted with vineyards " and 

 olives, wants to be broken and worked rather deep, 

 so that the uppermost roots of vines and olives, which 

 are detrimental to the yield if they are left, may be 

 cut off by the ploughshares, and that the deeper roots 

 may receive the nourishment of moisture more 

 readily when the ground is deeply worked. Still 25 

 Celsus' method may be suited to Numidia and 

 Egypt, where, as a rule, the land is destitute of trees 

 and is sown with grain ; and soil of that sort, crumbling 

 with fat sands, and like loose ashes, is stirred sufficiently 

 \nth the lightest plough-point (dens).^ The plough- 

 man, moreover, must walk upon the broken ground 

 and in every other furrow must hold his plough slant- 

 \vise, running alternate fun-ows with the plough up- 

 right and at its full depth, but in such a way as not 

 to leave anywhere any solid and unbroken ground, 

 which farmers call scamnum.*^ When the oxen come 26 

 to a tree, he must keep them firmly in hand and check 

 their pace, for fear that the driving of the ploughshare 

 with too great force against a root may jolt their 

 necks, and so that an ox may not strike a horn 

 violently against the bole of the tree, or graze the 

 trunk or break off a branch with the end of the yoke. 

 He should keep them in dread of his voice rather than 

 of his lash, blows being his last resort when they 

 balk at a task. He should never urge a bullock with 

 a goad, for this makes him irritable and incUned 

 to kick ; yet he may urge him on now and then with a 



and ploughing, particular!}- with reference to this chapter 

 and the three following, see Fairfax Harrison, " The Crooked 

 Plow," Classical Journal XI. 323-332. 



"5 



