BOOK III 



I. " Thus far of the tillage of the land," as says 

 that most excellent poet." For, Publius Silvinus, 

 as we are about to speak on the same topics, there 

 is nothing to keep us from beginning under good 

 omens with the opening words of that most re- 

 nowned poem. There follows the management of 

 trees, which is a most important part of rural 

 husbandry. They are diverse in kind, and of many 

 shapes ; for trees of various sorts, as the same author 

 relates, 



of their OMn will come forth, 

 By mortals not constrained ; * 



and many, too, grow from seed planted by our own 

 hand.<^ But those that are propagated without 

 human aid, the wild and untamed, bear fruits or 

 seeds according to their several natures ; while those 

 on which labour is spent are fitted for a greater yield. 

 I must speak first, then, of that kind which sup- 

 plies us with food. And of this there is a threefold 

 division : for from a small shoot there comes forth 

 either a tree, as the olive ; or a shrub, as the palm 

 of the plains ; or a third something which we can 

 properly call neither tree nor shrub, as is the vine. 



" Vergil, Ge<yrg. II. 1. » Georg. II. 10-11. 



• Cf. Qeorg, II. 14, Pars autem posito surgunt de seviine. 



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