BOOK II. VIII. 2-5 



the soAving should be governed by this rule in land 

 that is temperate and not at all moist ; but in sections 3 

 that are wet and lean, or cold, or even shaded, it is 

 usually proper to sow before the Calends of October, 



while the dry earth permits, while clouds are in 

 suspense,* 



so that the roots of the grain may gain strength before 

 they are attacked by winter rains or cold or frost. 

 But even though the sowing be finished in good season, 

 still we must be careful to make wide ridges and fre- 

 quent water-furrows, which some call dices, and to 

 turn off all water into drains '' and hence outside the 

 grain-fields. And I am not unaware that some 4 

 ancient authorities have left directions that fields 

 should not be sown except after the ground is well 

 soaked with rain ; and that this is to the greater ad- 

 vantage of the farmer, if it comes in due season, I have 

 no doubt. But if the rains are late, as sometimes 

 happens, the seed is safely intrusted to ground how- 

 ever thirsty ; and that is actually the practice in 

 certain provinces where such weather conditions 

 exist. For seed that is put into dry ground and 

 harrowed in, is no more injured than if it were 

 stored away in a granary ; and when the rain does 

 come, the sowing of many days' standing sprouts up 

 in one." Tremelius, in fact, makes the statement 5 

 that seed sown before the rains begin is not injured 

 by birds or ants when the soil is parched during the fair 

 weather of simimer, and I have even tried it rather 

 frequently and have thus far found it to be true. 

 However, in land of this sort it is more suitable to sow 



Vergil, Georg. I. 214. » Cf. Pliny, N.H. XVIII. 179. 

 " Cf. Pliny, N.H. XVIII. 203. 



143 



