BOOK V. IX. 6-8 



where there is very little moisture the plants are best 

 put out in the olive-grove during the autumn, but, 

 where the soil is I'ich and damp, in the spring just 

 before they come into bud. Four-foot plant-holes 

 are prepared for them a year earlier, or, if there is 

 not an abundance of time before the trees are 

 planted, let straw and twigs be thrown in and the 

 plant-holes burnt, so that the fire may make them 

 friable, as the sun and frost ought to have done. On 

 ground which is rich and fit for growing corn the space 

 between the rows ought to be sixty feet in one 

 direction and forty in the other : if the soil is poor 

 and not suitable for crops, twenty-five feet. But it 

 is proper that the rows should be aligned towards the 

 west, that they may be cooled by the summer-breeze 

 blowing through them. 



The small trees themselves may be transplanted 

 in the following manner. Before you pull up a little 

 tree from the soil," mark on it with ruddle the side 

 of it which faces south, so that it may be planted in 

 the same manner as in the nursery. Next let a 

 space of one foot be left round the little tree in a circle 

 and then let the plant be pulled up with its own turf, 

 and that this turf may not be broken up in the process 

 of removal, you must weave together moderate-sized 

 twigs taken from rods and apply them to the lump of 

 earth which is being removed and so bind it with 



" The text here is quite uncertain, but the sense is obvious. 



^° post deinde add. ut SAa : aut c. 



^1 solvatur SAac. 



1^ modico surculos SAac. 



1^ pilae quae scripsi : pila qua S : pila quae Aac. 



^* eximitur c : eximuntur SAa. 



79 



