BOOK II. VII. 2-VIII. 2 



we are warned to reap '^ in cold places last, in warm 

 places sooner, and in hot places earliest of all. For 

 the present, however, we shall give rules applicable 

 to a temperate region. 



VIII. Our poet holds that emmer and even wheat 

 should not be sown before the setting of the Ver- 

 giliae,* a rule which he puts in verse as follows : 



But if for Avhcat or emmer you plough, intent on 



grain alone, 

 Let Atlas' daughters at dawn be hid before the 



planting's done.<^ 



Now they are " hidden " on the thirty-second day 2 

 after the autumnal equinox, which usually falls on 

 the ninth day before the Calends of October ; <* by 

 which it should be understood that the seed-time of 

 wheat lasts for forty-six days — from the setting of 

 the Vergiliae, which occurs on the ninth day before 

 the November Calends,'^ up to the time of the 

 winter solstice.^ For wise husbandmen observe 

 this rule to such an extent that, for fifteen days 

 before the occurrence of the solstice and a like 

 number afterwards, they do no ploughing and no 

 pruning of vine or tree. We, too, do not deny that 



' Oct. 24th ; but Nov. 1 1 th according to Plinj', N.H. XVIII. 

 225. Varro {R.R. I. 28. 2) reckons fifty-seven days between 

 the setting of the Pleiades and the winter solstice. 



f Columella puts the shortest day {bruma) of the year circn 

 VIII Kal. Ian. (= Dec. 25; cf. IX. 14. 12), and, citmg 

 Hipparchus, XVI Kal. Ian. (= Dec. 17; cf. XI. 2. 94). But 

 Columella's calendar is often confused. Some explanation 

 may be found in his statement in IX. 14. 12, when treating of 

 bees, that he follows the calendars of Eudoxus and Meton and 

 the ancient astronomers as adapted to the public sacrifices and 

 better known to husbandmen than the more exact reckonings 

 of Hipparchus. 



141 



