BOOK III. XX. 6-xxi. 3 



dresser, since — what would be easier by far — it has 

 been the lot of very few farmers as yet to be free from 

 stock that produces black \nne, though the colour 

 of the grape may be detected even by the most 

 inexperienced person. 



XXI. Nevertheless, one method suggests itself to 

 me of accomplishing very quickly what we have pro- 

 posed : that, if we have old vineyards, we should in- 

 graft individual plots with slips of every sort, each 

 kind by itself. Thus I have no doubt that within 

 a few years we shall obtain many thousands of cut- 

 tings from the grafted vines, and that we shall set in 

 separate blocks the plants so distinguished from one 

 another. Moreover, the advantage of doing this 2 

 may urge us on for many reasons : in the first place, 

 to begin with the less impoi'tant, because in respect 

 to every concern of life, not only in farming but in 

 every branch of study, the wise man delights more 

 in those things which are separated into their proper 

 kinds than in those which are thrown helter-skelter, 

 so to speak, and jumbled together into a common 

 heap : and in the second place, because even the 3 

 man who is quite unversed in country life, if he 

 should enter a field at the proper time, would marvel 

 most pleasurably at the benevolence of nature, when 

 on the one side the Bituric vines with their rich fruits 

 correspond to the Helvolans, with like fruit, on the 

 other side ; when the Arcelacans turn his course to 



^ tempestive SAac, vett. edd. : tempestive consitum M, et 

 vulgo. 



' opimis (opinis SA) hie paribus heluo respondent SAacM : 

 opimae hinc pares lis helvolae respondeant vulgo. 



* arcelaca cursus Sobel : arcela ciirsus SAac : arcelane 

 cursus M : arcellae, rursus Aid., Gesn. : arcelacae, rursus 

 Schn. 



341 



