BOOK III. I. 9-II. I 



and check the growth of the vines' greenery with a 

 kind of scaly rust, if only we believe Vergil when 

 he says, 



Unkind to crops is salty ground, and what is 



bitter called ; 

 It is not tamed by ploughman's toil, nor does 



it keep unstained 

 The good repute of Bacchus' child and other 



fruits' fair name.*^ 



Furthermore, as I have said before, a vineyard does 10 

 not want an icy climate nor, on the other hand, one 

 that is burning hot, though it thrives better in 

 warm weather than in cold. It is harmed more 

 by rain than by clear weather, and is more kindly 

 disposed to a dry soil than to one that is subject 

 to too much rain. It delights in moderate and 

 gentle breezes, but is liable to injury from squalls. 

 And this is the character of climate and soil that is 

 most commendable. 



II. Fm-ther, the grape is planted either for eating 

 or for the pouring forth of its juice. It is not 

 profitable to establish vineyards for food unless 

 the plot is so close to a city that conditions warrant 

 the selling of the raw grapes to marketers, as we 

 do other fruit. When this is the case, the early 

 ripe and hard-berried * varieties are especially 

 to be planted, and then the Purple and the 

 Bumast (full-breasted),'^ the Dactyl (date-shaped) <* 

 and the Rhodian, and the Libyan and the Cerau- 



modo Bumnsti; and ibid. 40, Purpureae, cognomine Buina.ni- 

 mine. 



^ Cf. Pliny, N.H, XIV. 15, praelongis Dactyli porriguntur 

 acinis. 



233 



