BOOK III. XII. 4-6 



should incline more in one direction or the other, 

 so that the land may be i-ather warm than cold, rather 

 dry than wet, rather loose than compact, and so on in 

 any like matters to which one who plants vineyards 

 should direct a careful gaze. All of this, in mv 5 

 opinion, is of greater advantage when climatic con- 

 ditions also are favourable : and in this matter there 

 is long-standing disagreement as to what quarter 

 of the heavens the vineyards should face, Saserna 

 favouring the east especially, and next to that the 

 south, and then the west ; Tremelius Scrofa thinking 

 a southern exposure superior to all others, Vergil 

 explicitly rejecting the west in the words. 



Nor slope your vineyards toward the setting 

 sun;" 



and Democritus and Mago commending the northern 

 quarter of the heavens, because they think that 

 vineyards exposed to it become the most productive, 

 even though they may be surpassed in the quality 

 of their wine. To us it has seemed best to direct in 6 

 general that vineyards have, in cold regions, a 

 southern exposure, and that in warm ones they face 

 the east ; on condition, however, that they are not 

 harassed by the south and south-east winds, as are the 

 maritime coasts of Baetica. If, however, your tracts 

 are subject to the aforementioned winds, it will be 

 better to entrust them to the north or the west wind ; 

 but in hot provinces, such as Egypt and Numidia, they 

 will be exposed more properly to the north alone. 

 And now that all these matters have been carefully 

 examined, we shall take up at last the trenching of 

 the ground.* 



" See III. 11. l,note. 



3°9 



