BOOK V. IX. 8-10 



osiers that the soil, being pressed together, may be 

 held as it were enclosed. Then having dug up the 9 

 lowest part, you must gently move the lump of earth 

 and bind it to the rods put under it and transfer the 

 plant. Before it is placed in the ground, you will 

 have to dig up the soil in the plant-hole with hoes ; 

 then you should put in soil which has been broken up 

 with the plough, provided that the top-soil shall be 

 rather rich, and strew it with seeds underneath ; <* 

 and, if there is any water standing in the plant-holes, 

 it should all be drained away before the trees are put 

 in. Next minute stones or gravel mixed with rich 

 soil must be thrown in and, after seeds have been put 

 in, the sides of the plant-hole must be pared away 

 all round and some manure put in among them. 

 If, however, it is not convenient to remove the plant 10 

 with its own earth, it is best to strip the stem of all 

 its leaves and, after smoothing its wounds and daubing 

 them with mud and ashes, place it in the plant-hole 

 or furrow. A stem is quite ready for moving '' which 

 is as thick as a man's arm ; one of much greater 

 and stronger growth can also be transplanted, but it 

 must be so placed if it is not in any danger from 

 cattle, that only a little of it projects above the 

 plant-hole ; it then produces more luxuriant foliage. 

 If, however, the attacks of cattle cannot be avoided 

 in any other way, the stem will be planted so as to 

 project further from the ground, so that it may 



" Schneider, by a quotation from Palladius III. 18, who is 

 there copying Columella, shows that it was customary to strew 

 barley-seeds in the bottom of the hole in which a tree was about 

 to be planted in order to cause fermentation; compare also 

 (Aristotle) Problems, XX. 8, where it is said that barley-husks 

 were sprinkled in the holes in which celery was to be planted. 



'' The reading here is uncertain. 



8i 



