BOOK II. XIV. 2-6 



it improves the flavour and the bouquet of the wine 

 and the fruit. Also old oil lees, unsalted and mixed 3 

 with this, can be used to advantage in watering 

 fruit-bearing trees, and especially olives ; for even 

 when applied alone the lees are very beneficial. But 

 both of them are used chiefly during the winter and 

 even in spring, before the heat of summer, while the 

 ground is kept open around the vines and the trees." 

 The dung of cattle holds third place, and in this too 4 

 there is a difference ; for what the ass produces is con- 

 sidered best, because that animal chews very slowly 

 and for that reason digests his food more easily, and he 

 gives in return a manure that is well prepared and 

 ready for the field immediately. After those that 

 we have mentioned comes sheep dung, next is goat 

 dung, and then that of other cattle and draught- 

 animals. The dung of swine is considered the poorest 

 of all. Moreover, the use of ashes and cinders is 5 

 reasonably beneficial, while cut lupine plants pro- 

 vide the strength of the best manure. And I am 

 not unaware that there is a certain kind of countryside 

 in which neither cattle nor fowl can be kept ; but even 

 in such a place it is the mark of a slothful husbandman 

 to be destitute of fertilizer. For he may store up any 6 

 sort of leaves ; he may gather any accumulated 

 matter from bramble patches and from highways and 

 byways ; he may cut down his neighbour's fernbrakes 

 without doing him harm, or even as a favour, and mix 



" An operation formerly described by the convenient word 

 " ablaqueation." Cf. Palladius, II. 1, lanuario mense locis 

 temperatis ablaqueandae sunt viies, qtiod Itali excodicare apellant, 

 id est circa vitis codicem dolabra terram diligenter aperire, et 

 purgatis omnibxis velut lacus effwere, ut solis teporibus et imbribus 

 provocentur ; Isidore, Orig. XVII. 5. 31. 



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