BOOK 11. XV. 2-6 



greater advantage to the farmer to do this fre- 

 quently rather than lavishly. And there is no doubt 3 

 that wet land requires a greater quantity of it, and 

 dry land less— the one because, being chilled by con- 

 stant moisture, it is warmed when manure is applied, 

 and the other because, being naturally warm, it is 

 parched by the increased aridity when this is added ; 

 for which reason such dressing should be neither 

 deficient nor over-sufficient. If, however, no kind of 4 

 manure is available, it \n\\ be very helpful to follow 

 the practice which I remember my uncle, Marcus 

 Columella, a very learned and painstaking farmer, 

 frequently employed : that is, to heap clay on 

 gravelly ground, and gravel on ground that was 

 clayey and too stiff, and in this way to grow not only 

 luxuriant crops of grain but also very fine vineyards. 

 For this same authority used to say that dung 5 

 should not be applied to vines, because it spoiled the 

 flavour of the wine ; and he thought that a better 

 dressing for making a heavy vintage was humus, 

 either that which accumulates around bramble- 

 thickets, or in fact any earth obtained elsewhere and 

 brought in. But my opinion nowadays is that if the 

 farmer is destitute of everything, at any rate there is 

 no lack of lupine, that very ready aid ; and if he will 

 scatter this on lean ground about the middle of 

 September, plough it in, and at the proper time cut it 

 up with the ploughshare or the mattock, it will have 

 the effect of the best manure. The lupine should be 6 

 cut, moreover, in gravelly ground when it is in the 

 second flower, and in sticky soils when it is in its third." 

 In the former case it is turned under while it is tender, 



" Pliny, in describing the lupine, says {N.H. XVIII. 133) 

 that it blooms three times. 



203 



