BOOK II. IX. 4-8 



possible ; while the last named wants no middling 

 ground, being sown either in very rich or very poor 

 soil. Even though you sow the first mentioned in 

 groimd that is still muddy and wet after continuous 

 rains, if necessity so demands, it withstands the 

 injury ; if you commit the last named to miry ground, 

 it dies. However, if the field is moderately chalky or 5 

 marshy, you need for a sowing of the white winter 

 wheat or common wheat somewhat more than the 

 five modii that I mentioned above. But if the 

 ground is dry and loose, no matter whether it be rich 

 or poor, only four ; for, conversely, lean land requires 

 the same amount of seed, because if it is not sown 

 thinly it produces a small and empty head. But when 6 

 it forms a stool of several stalks from one seed it makes 

 a heavy stand even from a light sowing. Among 

 other things, too, we should not overlook the fact that 

 a field planted with trees for supporting vines requires 

 one fifth more seed than a treeless and open field. 



We have been speaking thus far of the autumn 

 sowing, for this we regard as the most important. 

 There is another sowing, however, when necessity 7 

 requires it — what farmers call the " half-month 

 sowing. ' ' * This is practised to advantage in very cold 

 and snowy regions where the summer is damp and 

 free from intense heat, but in other places it very 

 seldom yields a return. And even in this sowing it 

 will be better to finish it quickly, and certainly before 

 the spring equinox ; in fact, if conditions of ground 

 and of weather allow it, the sooner we sow the better 

 the result will be. For there is no seed that naturally 8 

 requires three months, as many have believed, and 



" Or, perhaps better, trimestrem (" three-months sowmg "). 

 Cf. Palladius, I. 6. 16; Pliny, N.U. XVIII. 69. 



147 



