BOOK II. X. 2-6 



a strong hold before winter it is greatly injured by 

 the cold. It will be best to put away your left-over 3 

 seed in a loft where smoke can reach it, for if 

 dampness gets into it, it breeds worms ; and when 

 they have once eaten away the embryo of the lupine 

 seed, the other part cannot germinate. The lupine 

 likes lean ground, as I have said, and especially 

 reddish soil; it has an intense dislike of chalky 4 

 ground and does not come up at all in a miry field. 

 One iugerum takes ten modii. Next after this it will 

 be proper to commit to the earth the kidney bean, 

 either in old fallow ground, or better in rich ground 

 that is tilled every year ; the sowing of one iugerum 

 will require not more than four modii. The same may 

 be said of the pea, which desires, however, an easy 

 and loose soil, a warm situation, and a climate 

 where it often rains. The same quantity may be 

 sown to the iugerum as in the case of the kidney 

 bean, or one modius less, at the beginning of seed- 

 time after the autumnal equinox. 



A spot that is naturally very fertile or well manured 5 

 should be set aside for the common bean, and old 

 fallow lying in a valley and receiving moisture from 

 the higher ground. First, however, we shall cast the 

 seed, then furrow the ground, and after furrowing 

 reduce it to ridges and harrow it, to provide a deeper 

 and more abundant covering of loose earth ; for it is 

 of the greatest importance that the roots of the 

 sprouting seed be sunk deep. But if we must use 6 

 restored land that has just borne a crop, after cutting 

 the straw we shall distribute twenty-four loads of 



* destinatur j4i?, edd. ante Lundstrom, 



• iactemua R plerique : alemus SA. 



159 



VOL. I. G 



