walker] A GARDEN HEALTH DRIVE 103 



As there are comparatively few characters and the costuming 

 and staging are so simple, the play can be presented with but little 

 trouble; while a reading of it is certainly all that is necessary to 

 show the opportunity it offers the actors for oral expression, and 

 the wealth of information it gives the audience under the guise of 

 fun. 



The fewer rehearsals, especially by the "pests", the better the 

 play will be. Outside of the doggerel "Ho! Ha! He! Chewers 

 are we, etc." there is little to commit to memory. Pests in the 

 garden rarely do the same thing twice so let their representatives 

 do likewise. 



Extracts from The Georgics of Virgil 



Translated by T. F. Royds, M.A. 



When spring awakes, and from the snow-clad peak 



Cold streamlets trickle, and at Zephyr's breath 



Crumbles and cracks the clod, straight on the plough 



Lean until ox complain and share reflect 



The deep-ploughed soil. That harvest best of all 



Repays the greedy farmer for his prayers 



Which twice has felt the summer, twice the frost; 



Lo! burst his barns with surfeiting of grain. 



But ere the untried surface we explore, 



First we must learn the changeful moods of heaven, 



And all the winds, and of each several field 



The natural character, what this consents — 



What that declines to bear. Here cereals thrive, 



There grapes more gladly ripen, here again 



Green saplings flourish and unbidden grass. 



Come then be strong to toil; 



vSoon as the year begins your stoutest bulls 

 Must turn the rich land, that the inverted clods 

 Be baked by dusty summer's riper suns. 

 But if the land is poor, 'twill be enough 

 To drive a shallow blade beneath the Bear; 

 There lest rank weeds annoy the abundant crop, 

 Here, lest its hard- won moisture leave the sand. 



Each second season let the stubbles lie 



And arm themselves with solid idleness; 



Or 'neath another star sow golden corn, 



Where last you harvested the wealthy pods 



Of quivering pulse, or else the slender vetch 



And bitter lupine with its brittle stalks, 



A rustling forest. For repeated crops 



Of poppies, sleepy things, or flax or oats 



vScorch up the plain, which yet will bear them well 



If regular rotation be observed. 



