Chap. 51.] DIFFEEENCES OF TREES IN EESPECT TO AGE. 389 
months of January, May, and September, being all three of 
different size. 
There are also certain peculiarities observed in the different 
modes in which the trees bear their fruit, the arbutus and the 
quercus being most fruitful in the upper part, the walnut and 
the marisca^ fig in the lower. All trees, the older they grow, 
the more early they bear, and this more particularly in sunny 
spots and where the soil is not over- rich. All the forest- trees 
are slower in bringing their fruit to maturity ; and indeed, in 
some of them the fruit never becomes fully ripe.^^ Those trees, 
too, about the roots of which the earth is ploughed or broken 
and loosened, bring their fruit to maturity more speedily than 
those in which this has been neglected ; by this process they 
are also rendered more fruitful. 
CHAP. 51. WHICH TEEES BECOME OLD WITH THE GKEATEST 
KAPIDITY, AND WHICH MOST SLOWLY. 
There are great differences also in trees in respect to age. 
The almond and the pear^^ are the most fruitful when old, which 
is the case also with the glandiferous trees and a certain spe- 
cies of fig. Others, again, are most prolific when young, 
though the fruit is later in coming to maturity, a thing parti- 
cularly to be observed in the vine ; for in those that are old 
the wine is of better quality, while the produce of the younger 
trees is given in greater abundance. The apple-tree becomes 
old very early, and the fruit which it produces when old is of 
inferior quality, being of smaller size and very liable to be 
attacked by maggots : indeed, these insects will breed in the 
tree itself. The fig is the only one of all the fruit-trees that is 
submitted to any process with the view of expediting the 
ripening of the fruit, a marvellous thing, indeed, that a greater 
value should be set upon produce that comes out of its proper 
season ! All trees which bear their fruit before the proper 
time become prematurely^^ old ; indeed, some of them wither 
36 B. XV. c. 19. 
This is not the fact : the fruits of all trees have their proper time for 
ripening. 
He speaks here in too general terms ; the pear, for instance, is not 
more fruitful when old than when young. 
39 He speaks of the process of caprification. See B. xv, c. 21. 
^0 So our proverb, " Soon ripe, soon rotten applicable to mankind as 
well as trees. See B. xxiii. c. 23. 
