BOOK II. .\v. 6-xvi. 4 



so that it may rot quickly and be mixed with the thin 

 soil ; in the latter ease when it has grown stronger, 

 so that it may hold up the more solid clods longer and 

 keep them suspended, to be broken down Avhen heated 

 by the suinmer sun. 



XVI. These things the ploughman will be able to 

 accomplish if he makes provision not only for the 

 varieties of forage crops which I have mentioned, 

 but also for a supply of hay for the better maintenance 

 of his cattle, without which it is difficult to work the 

 land to advantage ; and on that account the tending 

 of a meadow is also required of him. To the meadow 

 the ancient Romans assigned the leading role in 

 agriculture, and to it also they gave its name {pratum) 2 

 from the fact that it was immediately " ready 

 [parattim) " and did not require a great amount of toil. 

 Marcus Porcius,* indeed, called to mind also the 

 following considerations : that it is not damaged by 

 storms like the other divisions of the farm, and that, 

 though needing very little outlay, it yields a return 

 year after year — and that not a single return, because 

 it pays no less in pasturage than in hay. We take 3 

 notice, then, of two kinds of meadows, the diy and the 

 watered.*^ In level ground that is rich and fat there is 

 no need of an inflowing stream, and hay which grows 

 naturally on a moist soil is considered superior to that 

 enticed by irrigation ; though such watering is 

 necessary if the leanness of the soil demands it. For 

 a meadow can be laid down both in stiff and in loose 

 soil, however poor, if the opportunity for irrigation 

 is offered. And it should not be a plain that slopes 4 

 inward, nor a hill with a steep pitch — the former that 

 it may not hold too long the water which settles 



" Cato, 8. 1. 



205 



