BOOK II. IV. 6-9 



For either the point of the plough is rejected by the 

 hardness of the ground or, if it does enter at some 

 spot, it does not break the soil into fine particles, 

 but teai's up huge clods ; and when these lie in the 

 way, the plough-land is under a handicap and cannot 

 be properly worked at the second ploughing, because 

 the ploughshare is thrown out of the furrow by the 

 weight of the clods as though by some deep-seated 

 obstructions, with the result that hard skips are left 

 even in the re-ploughing and that the oxen are 

 severely injured by the unevenness of the strain. 

 Added to this is that all ground, though it be never 7 

 so rich, still has poorer soil underneath, and when 

 the larger clods are turned up they bring this with 

 them ; the result being that the less productive soil, 

 mixed with the richer, grows a less bountiful crop, 

 and in addition the accounting of the farmer is made 

 more difficult by the poor progress of his work ; for 

 the proper tasks cannot be completed when the 

 ground is hard. For this reason my advice is, in drv 8 

 weather, to replough ground already broken, and to 

 wait for rain which, by its soaking of the earth, makes 

 cultivation easy for us. But a iugerum " of such land 

 is prepared with four days' labour ; for it is broken 

 easily in two days, gone over a second time in one, 

 a third time in three-fourths of a day, and is formed 

 into ridges and sown in one-fourth of a day. These 

 ridges, moreover, country folk call porcae * when 

 the ground is ploughed in such a way that the earth 

 heaped up between two widely separated furrows 

 affords a dry bed for the grain. Hillsides where 9 

 the soil is rich should be broken after the sowing of 

 the three-months crops is completed, in the month 

 of March ; or, if the warmth of the climate and the 



