BOOK III. XX. 3-6 



await the luck of the vintage with four varieties, or 

 five at the most." 



As for the other point, which I had next proposed, 4 

 I have no doubt that vines should be separated accord- 

 ing to their species and set in their proper plots, and 

 marked off by foot-paths and boundary lines ;** not that 

 I myself have been able to obtain this of my house- 

 hold, or that any one of those before me accomplished 

 it, however much he may have approved. For this 

 is the inost difficult of the farmer's tasks, because it 

 requires the utmost care in the selection of plants, 

 and in separating them there is need, for the most 

 part, of the greatest good fortune combined with 

 wisdom. But sometimes, as the divine author Plato 

 says, the beauty of a thing attracts us to the pursuit 

 even of those ends to which, because of the frailty 

 of human nature, we cannot attain. And yet if our 5 

 years suffice, and if our knowledge and means are 

 in accord with our desires, we shall accomplish the 

 task without great difficulty ; though we must persist 

 for more than a brief portion of our lives, so that a 

 large number may be classified over a period of several 

 years. For not every period of time permits a decision 

 in this matter, seeing that vines which cannot be 

 distinguished because of their likeness in colour or 

 stock or shoots or berry make themselves known 

 by the ripening of their fruit and by their foliage. 

 Nevertheless, I would not say that this care can be 

 employed by anyone except the head of the family ; 

 for it is folly to intrust it to an overseer or vine- (3 



^ Palladius (Zoc. ci<.) speaks to the same effect. Fliny{N.H. 

 XVII. 169) gives directions as to the size of the various plots 

 and the widths of intervening roads or paths. Cf. also 

 Columella, IV. 18. 



339 



