Chap. 8.] THE PEOPER MODE OF TJSIKG MANUItE. 459 
oxen. If a vine should happen to be but poor and meagre, 
prune^ the shoots of it, and plough them in round about it." 
The same author says, also,^ When you are going to sow corn 
in a field, fold your sheep^^ there first." 
CHAP. 7. CEOPS WHICH TEND TO IMPEOYE THE LAND CEO PS 
WHICH EXHAUST IT. 
Cato" says, also, that there are some crops which tend to 
nourish the earth : thus, for instance, corn land is manured by 
the lupine, the bean, and the vetch ; while, on the other hand, 
the chick-pea exercises a contrary influence, both because it is 
pulled up by the roots and is of a salt nature ; the same is the 
case, too, with barley, fenugreek, and fitches, all of which have 
a tendency to bum up^^ corn land, as, in fact, do all those 
plants which are pulled up by the roots. Take care, too, not to 
plant stone-fruits on corn land. YirgiP^ is of opinion, also, that 
corn land is scorched by flax, oats, and poppies. 
CHAP. 8. THE PEOPEE MODE OP DSI^^G MANUEE. 
It is recommended,^* also, that the dung-heap should be 
kept in the open air, in a spot deep sunk and well adapted 
to receive the moisture : it should be covered, too, with straw, 
that it may not dry up with the sun, care being taken to drive 
a stake of robur into the ground, to prevent serpents from 
breeding^° there. It is of the greatest consequence that the 
reference to the " ebulum," dane-wort, wall- wort, or dwarf-elder, previously 
mentioned. 
^ "Concidito." Sillig adopts the reading " comhurito," *'burn the 
shoots, and dig in, &c." But in the original the word is " concidito.** 
9 De Ee Eust. 30. 
10 This is still extensively practised in England and France, and other 
countries. The azote, even, that exhales from the bodies of the animals, 
is supposed to have a fertilizing iafluence, to say nothing of the dung, 
grease of the body, and urine. De Ee Eust. 37. 
12 "Exsugunt," " suck up," or *'drain,'' is one reading in Cato ; and it 
is not improbable that it is the correct one. 
13 Georg. i. 77, 78 : 
" Urit enim lini campum seges, urit avenaj, 
Urunt Lethseo permsa papavera somno." 
1* Fee is of opinion, that, with reference to this branch of agriculture, 
the ancients displayed more skill and intelligence than the moderns. 
15 This absurdity is copied from Varro and Columella. 
