Columella: DE RE RUSTICA LIBRI XII

I. Quaeris ex me, Publi Silvine, quod ego sine cunctatione non recuso docere, cur priore libro veterem opinionem fere omnium, qui de cultu agrorum locuti sunt, a principio confestim reppulerim, falsamque sententiam repudiaverim censentium longo aevi situ longique iam temporis exercitatione fatigatam et effetam humum consenuisse. Nec te ignoro cum et aliorum illustrium scriptorum tum praecipue Tremelii auctoritatem revereri, qui cum plurima rusticarum rerum praecepta simul eleganter et scite memoriae prodiderit, videlicet illectus nimio favore priscorum de simili materia disserentium falso credidit parentem omnium terram, sicut muliebrem sexum aetate anili iam confectam, progenerandis esse fetibus inhabilem. Quod ipse quoque confiterer, si in totum nullae fruges provenirent.

I. You ask of me, Publius Silvinus, a thing which I without hesitation do not refuse to teach: why in the former book I at once from the beginning drove back the old opinion of almost all who have spoken about the cultivation of fields, and rejected the false view of those who judge that the soil, worn by the long duration of age and by the exercise of long time, has grown old, fatigued, and effete. Nor am I unaware that you revere the authority both of other illustrious writers and especially of Tremelius, who, although he has consigned to memory very many precepts of rural matters both elegantly and skillfully, evidently enticed by an excessive favor for the ancients discoursing on similar material, falsely believed that the earth, the parent of all, like the female sex already worn out with an old-woman’s age, is unfit for generating progeny. Which I too would confess, if no crops at all were to come up.

Nam et hominis tum demum declaratur sterile senium, non cum desinit mulier trigeminos aut geminos parere, sed cum omnino nullum conceptum edere valet. Itaque transactis iuventae temporibus, etiamsi longa vita superest, partus tamen annis denegatus non restituitur. At e contrario seu sponte seu quolibet casu destituta humus, cum est repetita cultu, magno fenore cessationis colono respondet.

For even in the case of a human, sterile senility is then at last declared, not when a woman ceases to bear triplets or twins, but when she is in no way able to bring forth any conception. And so, when the times of youth have passed, even if a long life remains, yet childbirth, denied by the years, is not restored. But on the contrary, the soil, left destitute either of its own accord or by any chance, when it is resumed by cultivation, answers the farmer with great interest for its cessation.

Non ergo est exiguarum frugum causa terrae vetustas, si modo cum semel invasit senectus, regressum non habet, nec reviviscere aut repubescere potest; sed ne lassitudo quidem soli minuit agricolae fructum. Neque enim prudentis est adduci tamquam in hominibus nimiae corporis exercitationi, aut oneris alicuius ponderi, sic cultibus et agitationibus agrorum fatigationem succedere. Quid ergo est, inquis, quod asseverat Tremellius, intacta et silvestria loca, cum primum coeperint exuberare, mox deinde non ita respondere labori colonorum?

Therefore the antiquity of the soil is not the cause of scanty crops, if indeed, when once senescence has invaded, it has no regress, nor can it revive or grow-young-again; but not even the lassitude of the soil diminishes the farmer’s fruit. For it is not the part of a prudent man to be led to suppose that, just as in men excessive corporeal exercise, or the weight of some burden, so from the cultivations and agitations of the fields fatigue should ensue. What then, you ask, of what Tremellius asserts—that untouched and woodland places, when first they have begun to be exuberant, soon thereafter do not so respond to the labor of the farmers?

Videt sine dubio quid eveniat, sed cur id accidat, non pervidet. Neque enim idcirco rudis et modo ex silvestri habitu in arvum transducta fecundior haberi terra debet, quod sit requietior et iunior, sed quod multorum annorum frondibus et herbis, quas suapte natura progenerabat, velut saginata largioribus pabulis, facilius edendis educandisque frugibus sufficit. At cum perruptae rastris et aratris radices herbarum, ferroque succisa nemora frondibus suis desierunt alere matrem, quaeque temporibus autumni frutetis et arboribus delapsa folia superiaciebantur, mox conversa vomeribus et inferiori solo, quod plerumque est exilius, permixta atque absumpta sunt, sequitur ut destituta pristinis alimentis macrescat humus.

He sees without doubt what comes to pass, but why that happens, he does not see through. For the land, unworked and only just led across from a sylvan habit into arable, ought not therefore to be held more fecund because it is more at rest and younger, but because, fattened as it were by the leaves and grasses of many years, which by its own nature it was begetting, with more lavish fodders, it more easily suffices for the producing and rearing of crops. But when the roots of the grasses have been broken through by rakes and ploughs, and the groves cut down by iron have ceased to nourish their mother with their leaves, and the leaves which in the seasons of autumn were slipping down from shrubs and trees and were being cast on top were soon turned by the ploughshares and, mixed with the lower soil, which for the most part is more meager, have been consumed, it follows that the ground, deprived of its former nourishments, grows lean.

Non igitur fatigatione, quemadmodum plurimi crediderunt, nec senio, sed nostra scilicet inertia minus benigne nobis arva respondent. Licet enim maiorem fructum percipere, si frequenti et tempestiva et modica stercoratione terra refoveatur. De cuius cultu dicturos nos priore volumine polliciti iam nunc disseremus.

Therefore it is not by fatigue, as very many have believed, nor by senescence, but plainly by our own inertia that the fields respond less kindly to us. For it is possible to receive a greater fruit if the land be revived by frequent, seasonable, and moderate manuring. About the cultivation of which, having promised in the prior volume that we would speak, we will now discourse.

II. Callidissimi rusticarum rerum, Silvine, genera terreni tria esse dixerunt, campestre, collinum, montanum. Campum non aequissima situm planitie nec perlibrata, sed exigue prona; collem clementer et molliter assurgentem; montem non sublimem et asperum, sed nemorosum et herbidum maxime probaverunt. His autem generibus singulis senae species contribuuntur, soli pinguis vel macri, soluti vel spissi, humidi vel sicci; quae qualitates inter se mixtae vicibus et alternatae plurimas efficiunt agrorum varietates: eas enumerare non est artificis agricolae.

2. The most shrewd in rustic matters, Silvinus, said that there are three kinds of terrain: campestral, collinal, montane. They most approved a plain not set on the very most level flat nor perfectly even, but slightly sloping; a hill gently and softly rising; a mountain not lofty and rough, but most of all wooded and grassy. To each of these kinds six species are contributed—of soil rich or lean, loose or compact, moist or dry—which qualities, mixed among themselves by turns and alternated, produce very many varieties of fields: to enumerate them does not belong to the expert agriculturist.

Neque enim artis officium est, per species, quae sunt innumerabiles, evagari, sed ingredi per genera, quae possunt cogitatione mentis et ambitu verborum facile copulari. Recurrendum est igitur ad qualitatum inter se dissidentium quasi quasdam coniunctiones, quas Graeci syzygias enentioteton, nos discordantium comparationes tolerabiliter dixerimus. Atque etiam significandum est ex omnibus, quae terra progeneret, plura campo magis quam colle, plura pingui solo quam macro laetari.

For it is not the office of the art to wander through the species, which are innumerable, but to enter by the genera, which can be easily coupled by the cogitation of the mind and the ambit of words. One must therefore recur to, as it were, certain conjunctions of qualities dissenting among themselves, which the Greeks call syzygias enentioteton, and which we might tolerably call comparisons of discordant things. And it must also be signified that, of all the things which the earth brings forth, more rejoice in the plain rather than the hill, and more in a fat soil than in a lean.

De siccaneis et riguis non comperimus, utra numero vincant, quoniam utrimque paene infinita sunt, quae siccis quaeque humidis locis gaudent; sed ex his nihil non melius resoluta humo quam densa provenit. Quod noster quoque Virgilius, cum et alias fecundi arvi laudes rettulisset, et cui putre solum; namque hoc imitamur arando. Neque enim aliud est colere, quam resolvere et fermentare terram.

Concerning dry-farmed and irrigated lands we have not ascertained which surpass in number, since on either side there are almost infinite things that rejoice in dry places and in humid; but of these there is nothing that does not come forth better from loosened soil than from dense. Which our own Virgil also attests, when, after he had elsewhere recounted the praises of a fecund field, he added, “and one for which the soil is friable”; for this we aim at by plowing. For to cultivate is nothing else than to loosen and to ferment the earth.

Ideoque maximos quaestus ager praebet idem pinguis ac putris, quia cum plurimum reddat, minimum poscit; et quod postulat, exiguo labore atque impensa conficitur. Praestantissimum igitur tale solum iure dicatur. Proximum deinde huic pinguiter densum, quod impensum coloni laboremque magno fetu remuneratur.

And therefore the same rich and friable field affords the greatest profits, because, while it yields very much, it demands very little; and what it demands is accomplished with slight labor and expense. Such soil, then, may rightly be called most excellent. Next after this is the richly dense soil, which remunerates the farmer’s outlay and toil with a great yield.

Tertia est ratio loci rigui, quia sine impensa fructum reddere potest. Hanc primam Cato esse dicebat, qui maxime reditum pratorum ceteris anteponebat; sed nos de agitatione terrae nunc loquimur, non de situ. Nullum deterius habetur genus, quam quod est siccum pariter et densum et macrum; quia cum difficulter tractetur, tum ne tractatum quidem gratiam refert; nec relictum pratis vel pascuis abunde sufficit.

The third category is of irrigated ground, because it can render produce without outlay. Cato used to say this was first, since he most of all preferred the return of meadows to the others; but we are now speaking about the agitation of the soil, not about the site. No kind is held worse than that which is at once dry and dense and lean; for while it is handled with difficulty, then not even when handled does it return any thanks; nor, when left to meadows or pastures, does it suffice abundantly.

Itaque hic ager sive exercetur seu cessat, colono est penitendus, ac tamquam pestilens refugiendus. Nam ille mortem facit, hic teterrimam comitem mortis famem; si tamen Graecis Camenis habemus fidem clamitantibus "limoi oiktiston thaneein". Sed nunc potius uberioris soli meminerimus, cuius demonstranda est duplex tractatio, culti et silvestris. De silvestri regione in arvorum formam redigenda prius dicemus, quoniam est antiquius facere agrum quam colere.

Therefore this field, whether it is worked or whether it lies idle, is to be repented of by the tenant, and to be shunned as pestilential. For that makes death; this makes hunger, the most foul companion of death—if, however, we put trust in the Greek Muses crying out that “to die of famine is most pitiable.” But now let us rather keep in mind the more fertile soil, of which a twofold handling must be set forth, of cultivated and of woodland. About the woodland region to be reduced into the form of arable fields we shall speak first, since it is more ancient to make a field than to cultivate it.

Incultum igitur locum consideremus, siccus an humidus; nemorosus arboribus an lapidibus confragosus; iuncone sit an gramine vestitus ac filictis aliisve fruteis impeditus. Si humidus erit, abundantia uliginis ante siccetur fossis. Earum duo genera cognovimus, caecarum et patentium.

Let us therefore consider the uncultivated place, whether dry or humid; whether woody with trees or rugged with stones; whether it is clothed with rush (juncus) or with grass and impeded by bracken and other shrubby growths. If it is humid, let it first be dried by ditches, because of the abundance of marshiness. Of these we have known two kinds, the blind and the open.

Spissis atque cretosis regionibus apertae relinquuntur; at ubi solutior humus est, aliquae fiunt patentes, quaedam etiam obcaecantur, ita ut in patentes ora hiantia caecarum competant; sed patentes latius apertas summa parte declivesque et ad solum coarctatas, imbricibus supinis similes facere conveniet. Nam quarum recta sunt latera, celeriter aquis vitiantur et superioris soli lapsibus replentur. Opertae rursus obcaecari debebunt, solcis in altitudinem tripedaneam depressis: qui cum parte dimidia lapides minutos vel nudam glaream receperint, aequentur superiecta terra, quae fuerat effossa.

In dense and chalky regions the open ones are left; but where the soil is looser, some are made open, some even are blinded, so that the gaping mouths of the blind drains meet into the open; but it will be proper to make the open ones widened more broadly at the top and sloping, and narrowed toward the bottom, like roof-tiles lying supine. For those whose sides are straight are quickly vitiated by waters and are filled by the slidings of the upper soil. The covered ones in turn ought to be blinded, with furrows sunk to a depth of three feet: which, when to the halfway point they have received small stones or bare gravel, let them be leveled with the earth cast back over them, which had been dug out.

Vel si nec lapis erit nec glarea, sarmentis connexus velut funis informabitur in eam crassitudinem, quam solum fossae possit anguste quasi accommodatam coarctatamque capere. Tum per imum contendetur, ut super calcatis cupressinis vel pineis, aut, si eae non erunt, aliis frondibus terra contegantur; in principio atque exitu fossae more ponticulorum binis saxis tantummodo pilarum vice constitutis, et singulis superpositis, ut eiusmodi constructio ripam sustineat, ne praecludatur humoris illapsus atque exitus. Nemorosi frutetosique tractus duplex cura est, vel exstirpandis radicitus arboribus et removendis; vel, si rarae sint, tantum succidendis incendendisque et inarandis.

Or if there will be neither stone nor gravel, a binding of brushwood will be fashioned like a rope, into such a thickness as the bed of the ditch can receive, narrowly as if fitted and constricted. Then it will be stretched along the very bottom, so that, upon trodden-down cypress or pine (or, if these are not present, other foliage), they may be covered with earth; at the beginning and at the outlet of the ditch, in the manner of little bridges, with pairs of stones only set up in the office of piles, and with single ones laid atop, so that a construction of this kind may sustain the bank, lest the inflow and outflow of moisture be blocked. For wooded and shrubby tracts the care is twofold: either by uprooting trees from the roots and removing them; or, if they are few, only by cutting them down and burning them and ploughing in.

At saxosum facile est expedire lectione lapidum, quorum si magna est abundantia, velut quibusdam substructionibus partes agri sunt occupandae, ut reliquae emundentur; vel in altitudinem sulco depresso lapides obruendi. Quod tamen ita faciendum erit, si suadebit operarum vilitas. Iunci et graminis pernicies repastinatio est; filicis, frequens exstirpatio.

But a stony tract is easy to clear by the picking of stones; of which, if there is great abundance, parts of the field are to be occupied with, as it were, certain substructions, so that the rest may be cleansed; or the stones should be buried, with the furrow sunk to a depth. This, however, should be done thus, if the cheapness of labor recommends it. The destruction of rushes and grass is repastination; of fern, frequent extirpation.

Quae vel aratro fieri potest, quoniam intra biennium saepius convulsa moritur; celerius etiam, si eodem tempore stercores, et lupino vel faba conseras, ut cum aliquo reditu medearis agri vitio. Namque constat filicem sationibus et stercoratione facilius interimi. Verum et si subinde nascentem falce decidas, quod vel puerile opus est, intra praedictum tempus vivacitas eius absumitur.

That which can also be done by the plow, since, torn up more often, it dies within two years; more quickly even, if at the same time you apply manures, and you sow lupine or bean, so that you may remedy the land’s defect with some return. For it is agreed that fern is more easily destroyed by sowings and by manuring. Indeed even if you repeatedly cut it with the sickle, which is a task fit even for a boy, within the aforesaid time its vivacity is spent.

Sed iam expediendi rudis agri rationem sequitur cultorum novalium cura, de qua mox quid censeam profitebor, si quae ante discenda sunt, arvorum studiosis praecepero. Plurimos antiquorum, qui de rusticis rebus scripserunt, memoria repeto quasi confessa nec dubia signa pinguis ac frumentorum fertilis agri prodidisse, dulcedinem soli propriam herbarum et arborum proventum, nigrum colorem vel cinereum. Nihil de ceteris ambigo; de colore satis admirari non possum, cum alios tum etiam Cornelium Celsum, non solum agricolationis, sed universae naturae prudentem virum, sic et sententia et visu deerrasse, ut oculis eius tot paludes, tot etiam campi salinarum non occurrerent, quibus fere contribuuntur praedicti colores.

But now, after the method of clearing the raw field, there follows the care of cultivated fallow-lands, about which I will soon profess what I judge, if first I shall have enjoined upon devotees of fields the things that must be learned beforehand. I recall from memory that very many of the ancients who wrote on rustic matters handed down as if confessed and undoubted signs of a rich soil and one fertile in grains: the native sweetness of the soil, the yield of herbs and trees, a black or ashen color. I do not hesitate about the rest; about the color I cannot sufficiently marvel, that both others and even Cornelius Celsus—a prudent man not only of agriculture but of universal nature—have thus strayed both in opinion and in sight, so that to his eyes so many marshes, and so many fields of salt-works as well, did not occur, to which the aforesaid colors are for the most part contributed.

Nullum enim temere videmus locum, qui modo pigrum contineat humorem, non eundem vel nigri vel cinerei coloris, nisi forte in eo fallor ipse, quod non putem aut in solo limosae paludis et uliginis amarae, aut in maritimis areis salinarum gigni posse laeta frumenta. Sed manifestior hic antiquorum error, quam ut pluribus argumentis convincendus sit. Non ergo color, tamquam certus auctor, testis est bonitatis arvorum.

For we do not readily see any place which, so long as it contains sluggish moisture, is not of that same black or ashen color—unless perhaps I am myself mistaken in this, that I do not think luxuriant grains can be produced either in the soil of a muddy marsh and bitter uliginousness, or in the maritime flats of salterns. But this error of the ancients is too manifest to need to be refuted by many arguments. Therefore color, as though a sure authority, is not a witness to the goodness of the fields.

Et ideo frumentarius ager, id est pinguis, magis aliis qualitatibus aestimandus est. Nam ut fortissimae pecudes diversos ac paene innumerabiles, sic etiam robustissimae terrae plurimos et varios colores sortitae sunt. Itaque considerandum erit, ut solum quod excolere destinamus, pingue sit.

And therefore the grain-bearing field—that is, the rich one—is to be evaluated more by other qualities. For just as the stoutest herd-animals have diverse and almost innumerable colors, so too the most robust soils have been allotted very many and various colors. Accordingly, it must be considered that the soil which we intend to cultivate be rich.

Per se tamen id parum est, si dulcedine caret; quod utrumque satis expedita nobis ratione contingit discere. Nam perexigua conspergitur aqua glaeba, manuque subigitur ac si glutinosa est, quamvis levissimo tactu pressa inhaerescit, et picis in morem ad digitos lentescit habendo, ut ait Virgilius, eademque illisa humor dissipatur; quae res admonet nos inesse tali materiae naturalem succum et pinguitudinem. Sed si velis scrobibus egestam humum recondere et recalcare, cum aliquo quasi fermento abundaverit, certum erit esse eam pinguem; cum defuerit, exilem; cum aequaverit, mediocrem.

By itself, however, that is too little, if it lacks sweetness; both of which we can learn by a fairly simple method. For a clod is sprinkled with a very small amount of water, and is worked by hand; and if it is glutinous, it adheres even when pressed by the lightest touch, and, in the manner of pitch, by handling it becomes sticky to the fingers, as Vergil says, and when the same is struck, its moisture is driven out; a thing which warns us that such material contains a natural sap and fatness. But if you wish to put back into pits the soil that has been taken out and ram it down again, when it has swelled with a kind of, as it were, ferment, it will be certain that it is rich; when this has been lacking, thin; when it has merely leveled out, middling.

Quamquam ista quae nunc rettuli, non tam vera possunt videri, quam si sit pullula terra, quae melius proventu frugum approbatur. Sapore quoque dignoscemus, si ex ea parte agri, quae maxime displicebit, effossae glebae, et in fictili vase madefactae dulci aqua permisceatur, ac more faeculenti vini diligenter colatae gustu explorentur. Nam qualem traditum ab eis rettulerit humor saporem, talem esse dicemus eius soli.. Sed citra hoc experimentum multa sunt, quae et dulcem terram et frumentis habilem significent, ut iuncus, ut calamus, ut gramen, ut trifolium, ebulum, rubi, pruni silvestres, et alia complura, quae etiam indagatoribus aquarum nota, non sini dulcibus terrae venis educantur.

Although those things which I have now recounted cannot seem so true as when the soil is blackish, which is better approved by the produce of crops. By savor also we shall discern, if from that part of the field which most displeases, clods having been dug up and, in an earthenware vessel, soaked with sweet water be commixed, and, carefully strained in the manner of feculent wine, be tested by taste. For whatever flavor the moisture delivered by them shall have reported, such we shall say is that soil’s.. But short of this experiment there are many things which signify both sweet earth and earth handy for grains, such as rush, such as reed, such as grass, such as trefoil, elder, brambles, wild plum-trees, and many others, which also, known to investigators of waters, are not reared without the sweet veins of the earth.

Nec contentos esse nos oportet prima specie summi soli, sed diligenter exploranda est inferioris materiae qualitas, terrena necne sit. Frumentis autem sat erit, si aeque bona suberit bipedanea humus: arboribus altitudo quattuor pedum abunde est. Haec cum ita exploraverimus, agrum sationibus faciundis expediemus.

Nor ought we to be content with the first appearance of the topsoil, but the quality of the lower material must be carefully explored, whether it be earthy or not. For grain it will suffice if an equally good soil underlies to a depth of 2 feet; for trees a depth of 4 feet is amply sufficient. When we have thus explored these things, we will ready the field for sowings to be made.

Is autem non minimum exuberat, si curiose et scite subigitur. Quare antiquissimum est formam huius operis conscribere, quam velut sectam legemque in proscindendis agris sequantur agricolae. Igitur in opere boves arcte iunctos habere convenit, quo speciosius ingrediantur sublimes et elatis capitibus, ac minus colla eorum labefactentur, iugumque melius aptum cervicibus insidat.

Moreover, it does not flourish the least, if it is carefully and skillfully subjugated. Wherefore it is most important to prescribe the form of this work, which the farmers may follow as a sect and law in plowing up the fields. Therefore, in the operation it is fitting to have the oxen closely joined, whereby they may step more seemly, lofty and with raised heads, and their necks be less shaken, and the yoke, better fitted, may sit upon their necks.

Hoc enim genus iuncturae maxime probatum est. Nam illud, quod in quibusdam provinciis usurpatur, ut cornibus illigetur iugum, fere repudiatum est ab omnibus, qui praecepta rusticis conscripserunt; neque immerito. Plus enim queunt pecudes collo et pectore conari, quam cornibus.

For this kind of junction has been most approved. For that practice which is used in certain provinces, that the yoke be bound to the horns, has been almost repudiated by all who have composed precepts for husbandmen; nor without cause. For the cattle are able to strive more with the neck and breast than with the horns.

Atque hoc modo tota mole corporis totoque pondere nituntur; at illo, retractis et resupinis capitibus excruciantur, aegreque terrae summam partem levi admodum vomere sauciant. Et ideo minoribus aratris moliuntur, qui non valent alte perfossa novalium terga rescindere; quod cum fit, omnibus virentibus plurimum confert. Nam penitus arvis sulcatis maiore incremento segetum arborumque foetus grandescunt.

And so in this way they brace themselves with the whole mass of the body and with the whole weight; but in that other method, with their heads drawn back and thrown supine, they are tormented, and they scarcely wound the topmost part of the earth with a very light ploughshare. And therefore they toil with smaller ploughs, which are not able to cut through deeply the backs (sods) of fallow ground; and when this is done, it contributes very greatly to all things that are green. For when the fields are furrowed deep, the produce, both of crops and of trees, grows to a greater increase.

Et in hoc igitur a Celso dissentio, qui reformidans impensam, quae scilicet largior est in amplioribus armentis, censet exiguis vomeribus et dentalibus terram subigere, quo minoris formae bubus administrari id possit; ignorans, plus esse reditus in ubertate frugum, quam impendii, si maiora mercemur armenta, praesertim in Italia, ubi arbustis atque oleis consitus ager altius resolvi ac subigi desiderat, ut et summae radices vitium olearumque vomeribus rescindantur; quae si maneant, frugibus obsint; et inferiores penitus subacto solo facilius capiant humoris alimentum. Potest tamen illa Celsi ratio Numidiae et Aegypto convenire, ubi plerumque arboribus viduum solum frumentis seminatur. Atque eiusmodi terram pinguibus arenis putrem veluti cinerem solutam quamvis levissimo dente moveri satis est.

And in this, therefore, I dissent from Celsus, who, shrinking from the expense—which, to be sure, is more lavish in larger teams—thinks the soil should be subdued with slight ploughshares and plough-boards, so that it can be managed by oxen of smaller size; not knowing that there is more return in the abundance (uberty) of the crops than outlay, if we purchase larger teams—especially in Italy, where a field planted with vine-rows and olives desires to be loosened and worked more deeply, so that even the uppermost roots of the vines and olives may be cut back by the ploughshares; which, if they remain, are harmful to the crops; and the lower roots, with the soil thoroughly worked in depth, more easily take in the nourishment of moisture. Yet that rule of Celsus can suit Numidia and Egypt, where for the most part soil bereft of trees is sown with grain. And such land, with rich sands, crumbly like loosened ash, is sufficiently moved even by a very light “tooth.”

Bubulcum autem per proscissum ingredi oportet, alternisque versibus obliquum tenere aratrum, et alternis recto plenoque sulcare; sed ita necubi crudum solum et immotum relinquat, quod agricolae scamnum vocant. Boves cum ad arborem venerint, fortiter retinere ac retardare, ne in radicem maiore nisu vomis impactus colla commoveat, neve aut cornu bos ad stipitem vehementius offendat, aut extremo iugo truncum delibet ramumque deplantet. Voce potius quam verberibus terreat, ultimaque sint opus recusantibus remedia plagae.

The oxherd ought to walk through the cut furrow, and on alternate passes keep the plough slanting, and on the alternate ones plough straight and full; but in such a way that he leave nowhere raw and unmoved soil, which the farmers call a bench. When the oxen come to a tree, he must hold them firmly and slow them, lest the share, driven with greater exertion into a root, should jar their necks, and lest either an ox strike too violently with its horn against a stump, or with the far end of the yoke graze the trunk and displant a branch. Let him frighten them by voice rather than by blows, and let strokes be the last remedies for those refusing the task.

Numquam stimulo lacessat iuvencum, quod retrectantem calcitrosumque eum reddit. Nonnumquam tamen admoneat flagello. Sed nec in media parte versurae consistat, detque requiem in summa, ut spe cessandi totum spatium bos agilius enitatur.

Let him never provoke the young ox with the goad, since it makes him back off and kick. Sometimes, however, let him admonish with the whip. But let him not halt in the middle part of the turning-place, and let him grant rest at the far end, so that, by the hope of ceasing, the ox may strive more nimbly through the whole stretch.

Sulcum autem ducere longiorem, quam pedum centumviginti, contrarium pecori est; quoniam plus aequo fatigatur, ubi hunc modum excessit. Cum ventum erit ad versuram, in priorem partem iugum propellat, et boves inhibeat, ut colla eorum refrigescant, quae celeriter conflagrant, nisi assidue refrigerentur, et ex eo tumor ac deinde ulcera invadunt. Nec minus dolabra quam vomere bubulcus utatur; et praefractas stipes summasque radices, quibus ager arbusto consitus implicatur, omnes refodiat ac persequatur.

But to draw a furrow longer than 120 feet is detrimental to the cattle; since it is fatigued more than is meet when it has exceeded this measure. When he shall have come to the turning-place, let him drive the yoke forward and check the oxen, so that their necks may cool, which quickly become inflamed unless they are assiduously cooled, and from this swelling and then ulcers attack. Let the oxherd use the mattock no less than the ploughshare; and let him dig up and pursue all the broken-off stumps and the topmost roots, with which a field planted with an arbustum is entangled.

III. Boves cum ab opere disiunxerit, substrictos confricet, manibusque comprimat dorsum, et pellem revellat, nec patiatur corpori adhaerere, quia et genus morbi maxime est armentis noxium. Colla subigat, merumque faucibus, si aestuaverint, infundat. Satis autem est singulis binos sextarios praebere: sed ante ad praesepia boves religari non expedit, quam sudare atque anhelare desierint.

3. When he has unyoked the oxen from their work, let him rub down the tightly-cinched beasts, press the back with his hands, and loosen the skin, not allowing it to adhere to the body, because that kind of disease is especially noxious to herds. Let him work the necks, and, if they have overheated, pour pure wine into their throats. It is enough to provide two sextarii apiece; but it is not expedient for the oxen to be tied at the mangers before they have ceased to sweat and to pant.

Cum deinde tempestive potuerint vesci, non multum nec universum cibum, sed partibus et paulatim praebere convenit. Quem cum absumpserint, ad aquam duci oportet, sibiloque allectari, quo libentius bibant; tum demum reductos largiori pabulo satiari. Hactenus de officio bubulci dixisse abunde est.

When thereafter they are able to feed at the right time, it is fitting to provide not much nor the whole food, but in portions and little by little. When they have consumed it, they ought to be led to water and enticed by a whistle, so that they may drink more willingly; then at last, once led back, they should be satisfied with more ample fodder. Thus far it is enough to have spoken about the office of the oxherd.

Sequitur ut tempora quoque subigendi arvi praecipiamus.

It follows that we should also prescribe the times for subduing the field.

IV. Pingues campi, qui diutius continent aquam, proscindendi sunt anni tempore iam incalescente, cum omnis herbas ediderint, neque adhuc earum semina maturuerint; sed tam frequentibus densisque sulcis arandi sunt, ut vix dignoscatur in utram partem vomer actus sit; quoniam sic omnes radices herbarum perruptae necantur. Sed et compluribus iterationibus sic resolvatur vervactum in pulverem, ut vel nullam vel exiguam desideret occationem, cum seminaverimus. Nam veterea Romani dixerunt male subactum agrum, qui satis frugibus occandus sit.

4. Rich fields, which hold water for a longer time, must be broken up when the season of the year is already warming, when they have put forth all herbage, and yet the seeds of it have not ripened; but they are to be plowed with furrows so frequent and dense that one can scarcely discern to which side the ploughshare has been driven; since thus all the roots of the grasses, broken through, are killed. And by several repetitions let the fallow be so resolved into powder that, when we have sown, it may desire either no harrowing or only a slight one. For the old Romans said that land is badly subjugated which must be harrowed for the crops.

Eum porro an recte aretur, frequenter explorare debet agricola. Nec tantum visu, qui fallitur nonnumquam, superfusa terra latentibus scamnis, verum etiam tactu, qui minus decipitur, cum solidi rigoris admota pertica transversis sulcis inseritur. Ea si aequaliter ac sine offensione penetravit, manifestum est totum solum deinceps esse motum; sin autem subeunti durior aliqua pars obstitit, crudum vervactum esse demonstrat.

Moreover, the farmer ought frequently to explore whether it is being ploughed correctly. And not only by sight, which is sometimes deceived, the overpoured earth concealing latent benches, but also by touch, which deceives less, when a pole of solid rigor, being applied, is inserted into the transverse furrows. If it has penetrated evenly and without offense, it is manifest that the whole soil has been moved in succession; but if some harder part has opposed the entering, it demonstrates that the fallow is raw.

Hoc cum saepius bubulci fieri vident, non committunt scamna facere. Igitur uliginosi campi proscindi debent post Idus mensis Aprilis. Quo tempore cum arati fuerint viginti diebus interpositis circa solstitium, quod est nonum vel octavum Kalend.

When the oxherds see this happening rather often, they do not allow benches (scamna) to form. Therefore uliginous fields ought to be ploughed after the Ides of the month of April (after April 13). At which time, when they have been ploughed, with twenty days interposed, about the solstice, which is the ninth or eighth day before the Kalends of July (June 23 or June 24).

Iulias, iteratos esse oportebit, ac deinde circa Septembris Kalendas tertiatos: quoniam in id tempus ab aestivo solstitio convenit inter peritos rei rusticae non esse arandum, nisi si magnis, ut fit nonnumquam, ac subitaneis imbribus quasi hibernis pluviis terra permaduerit. Quod cum accidit, nihil prohibet, quo minus mense Iulio vervacta subigantur. Sed quandoque arabitur, observabimus, ne lutosus ager tractetur, neve exiguis nimbis semimadidus, quam terram rustici variam cariosamque appellant.

The July plowings must be repeated, and then about the Kalends of September done a third time: since for that interval from the summer solstice it is agreed among experts of the rustic art that there should not be plowing, unless the earth has been thoroughly moistened by great and, as sometimes happens, sudden showers, as if by wintry rains. When this happens, nothing hinders but that in the month of July the fallow fields be subdued. But whenever there shall be plowing, we shall take care that a muddy field not be worked, nor one half-damp from slight showers, which soil the rustics call “variegated and carious (rotten).”

Ea est cum post longas siccitates levis pluvia superiorem partem glaebarum madefecit, inferiorem non attigit. Nam quae limosa versantur arva, toto anno desinunt posse tractari, nec sunt habilia sementi aut occationi aut sarritioni. At rursus, quae varia subacta sunt, continuo triennio sterilitate afficiuntur.

This is when, after long droughts, a light rain has moistened the upper part of the clods, but has not reached the lower. For the fields that are limose (silty), when they are turned, cease for the whole year to be capable of being worked, nor are they fit for sowing or for harrowing or for weeding. But, in turn, those which have been worked when variegated (i.e., patchily moistened) are immediately afflicted with barrenness for three years in a row.

Medium igitur temperamentum maxime sequamur in arandis agris, ut neque succo careant, nec abundent uligine. Quippe nimius humor, ut dixi, limosos lutososque reddit. At qui siccitatibus aruerunt, expediri probe non possunt.

Therefore let us chiefly follow a middle temper in plowing the fields, so that they neither lack juice nor abound in uliginous wetness. For indeed excessive moisture, as I have said, makes them slimy and muddy. But those which have been parched by droughts cannot be properly worked.

Nam vel respuitur duritia soli dens aratri, vel si qua parte penetravit, non minute diffundit humum, sed vastos caespites convellit; quibus obiacentibus impeditum arvum minus recte potest iterari; quia ponderibus glaebarum sicut aliquibus obstantibus fundamentis, vomis a sulco repellitur: quo evenit, ut in iteratione quoque scamna fiant, et boves iniquitate operis pessime multentur. Accedit huc, quod omnis humus, quamvis laetissima, tamen inferiorem partem ieiuniorem habet, eamque attrahunt excitatae maiores glaebae. Quo evenit, ut infecundior materia mixta pinguiori segetem minus uberem reddat, tum etiam ratio rustici aggravatur exiguo profectu operis.

For either the tooth of the plough is repelled by the hardness of the soil, or, if it has penetrated in some part, it does not finely diffuse the earth, but wrenches up vast sods; with these lying in the way, the obstructed field can be less properly gone over again; because by the weights of the clods, as by certain opposing foundations, the ploughshare is driven back from the furrow: wherefore it comes about that in the re-iteration benches (ridges) too are made, and the oxen are punished most badly by the iniquity (unevenness) of the work. Add to this, that every soil, however most joyous (fertile), nonetheless has its lower part more fasting (barren), and the larger clods when stirred up draw it up. Whereby it comes about that the more infecund material, mixed with the fatter, renders the crop less uberous (abundant), and then also the farmer’s ratio is aggravated by the slight progress of the work.

Iusta enim fieri nequeunt, cum induruit ager. Itaque siccitatibus censeo quod iam proscissum est iterare, pluviamque opperiri, quae, madefacta terra, facilem nobis culturam praebeat. Sed iugerum talis agri quattuor operis expeditur.

For the proper tasks cannot be effected when the field has hardened. Therefore in droughts I advise to go over again what has already been first-ploughed, and to await the rain, which, the earth having been moistened, may afford us an easy cultivation. But a iugerum of such a field is expedited by four labors.

Nam commode proscinditur duabus, una iteratur, tertiatur dodrante, in liram satum redigitur, quadrante operae. Liras autem rustici vocant easdem porcas, cum sic aratum est, ut inter duos latius distantes sulcos medius cumulus siccam sedem frumentis praebeat. Colles pinguis soli peracta satione trimestri mense Martio, si vero tepor caeli siccitasque regionis suadebit, Februario statim proscindendi sunt.

For it is conveniently first-ploughed by two, gone over again by one, third-ploughed by three-quarters, and the sowing is reduced into the lira, with a quarter of a day’s work. Farmers call lirae these same ridges, when it has been ploughed in such a way that, between two furrows set at a wider distance, the middle heap affords a dry seat for the grains. The ridges of rich soil, the sowing of the three-month crop having been completed, are to be first-ploughed in the third month, March; but if the mildness of the sky and the dryness of the region shall recommend it, straightway in February they are to be first-ploughed.

Deinde ab Aprili medio usque in solstitium iterandi tertiandique Septembri circa aequinoctium. Ac totidem operis, quot uliginosi campi, excolitur iugerum. Sed tali agro in arando maxime est observandum, semper ut transversus mons sulcetur.

Then from mid-April up to the solstice for re-plowing and third-plowing; and in September about the equinox. And a iugerum is cultivated with just as many labors as a waterlogged field. But in plowing such land it is especially to be observed that the hill be furrowed crosswise always.

Nam hac ratione difficultas acclivitatis infringitur, laborque pecudum et hominum commodissime sic minuitur. Paulum tamen quotiescumque iterabitur, modo in elatiora, modo in depressiora clivi obliquum agi sulcum oportebit, ut in utramque partem rescindamus, nec eodem vestigio terram moliamur. Exilis ager planus, qui aquis abundat, primum aretur ultima parte mensis Augusti, subinde Septembri sit iteratus, paratusque sementi circa aequinoctium.

By this method the difficulty of the acclivity is broken, and the labor of the beasts and of men is most conveniently thus diminished. A little, however, whenever it is gone over again, it will be necessary to drive the furrow obliquely now toward the higher, now toward the lower parts of the slope, so that we may cut back in either direction, and not work the soil in the same track. A flat exiguous field, which abounds in water, should first be ploughed in the last part of the month of August, then in September be gone over again, and be made ready for sowing about the equinox.

Expeditior autem labor eiusmodi solo est, eo quod pauciores impenduntur operae: nam tres uni iugero sufficiunt. Item graciles clivi non sunt aestate arandi, sed circa Septembres Kalendas; quoniam si ante hoc tempus proscinditur, effoeta et sine succo humus aestivo sole peruritur, nullasque virium reliquias habet. Itaque optime inter Kalendas et Idus Septembris aratur, ac subinde iteratur, ut primis pluviis aequinoctialibus conseri possit; neque in lira, sed sub sulco talis ager seminandus est.

The labor, moreover, is more expeditious in soil of this sort, in that fewer labors are expended: for three suffice for one iugerum. Likewise, gentle slopes are not to be ploughed in summer, but around the Kalends of September; since, if it is broken up before this time, the ground, effete and without juice, is scorched by the summer sun and has no remnants of strength. Therefore it is best to plough between the Kalends and the Ides of September, and thereafter to go over it again, so that with the first equinoctial rains it may be able to be sown; and such a field must be sown not on the ridge (lira), but beneath the furrow.

V. Prius tamen quam exilem terram iteremus, stercorare conveniet: nam eo quasi pabulo gliscit. Ia campo rarius, in colle spissius acervi stercoris instar quinque modiorum disponentur, atque in plano pedes intervalli quoquo versus octo, in clivo duobus minus relinqui sat erit. Sed id nobis decrescente luna fieri placet: nam ea res herbis liberat segetes.

5. Before, however, we go over the meager soil again, it will be proper to manure it: for by this, as if by pabulum (fodder), it grows luxuriant. In the plain more sparsely, on the hill more thickly, dung-heaps of the size of five modii will be set out, and on level ground eight feet of interval in every direction, on a slope it will be enough to leave two less. But we prefer this to be done with the moon waning: for this thing frees the crops from herbs (weeds).

Iugerum autem desiderat, quod spissius stercoratur, vehes quattuor et viginti; quod rarius, duodeviginti. Disiectum deinde protinus fimum inarari et obrui convenit, ne solis halitu vires amittat, et ut permixta humus praedicto alimento pinguescat. Itaque cum in agro disponentur acervi stercoris, non debet maior modus eorum dissipari, quam quem bubulci eodem die possint obruere.

Moreover, the iugerum requires, when it is manured more thickly, twenty‑four cartloads; when more sparsely, eighteen. Then the dung, once scattered, it is expedient to have immediately ploughed in and covered, lest by the sun’s breath it lose its forces, and so that the soil, mixed with the aforesaid aliment, may grow fat. Therefore, when heaps of manure are being set out in the field, no greater measure of them ought to be spread than what the oxherds can cover over on the same day.

VI. Quoniam sementi terram docuimus praeparare, nunc seminum genera persequemur. Prima et utilissima sunt hominibus frumenta, triticum et semen adoreum. Tritici genera complura cognovimus.

6. Since we have taught how to prepare the land for sowing, now we will pursue the kinds of seeds. The first and most useful for men are the grains, wheat and spelt-seed. We have recognized several kinds of wheat.

Verum ex his maxime serendum est, quod robus dicitur, quoniam et pondere et nitore praestat. Secunda conditio est habenda siliginis, cuius species in pane praecipua pondere deficitur. Tertium erit trimestre, cuius usus agricolis gratissimus.

But among these, that which is called robus is most to be sown, since it excels both in weight and in luster. The second rank is to be held by siligo, whose kind is outstanding in bread, but is deficient in weight. The third will be the three‑month (trimestral) grain, whose use is most welcome to farmers.

Nam ubi propter aquas aliamve causam matura satio est omissa, praesidium ab hoc petitur. Id genus est seliginis. Reliquae tritici species, nisi si quos multiplex varietas frugum et inanis delectat gloria, supervacuae sunt.

For when, on account of waters or some other cause, the seasonable sowing has been omitted, assistance is sought from this; that is the kind of siligo. The remaining species of wheat are superfluous, unless there are some whom the manifold variety of crops and empty glory delights.

Adorei autem plerumque videmus in usu genera quattuor. Far, quod appellatur Clusinum, candoris nitidi. Far, quod vocatur vennunculum, rutilum, atque alterum candidum, sed utrumque maioris ponderis quam Clusinum.

Of spelt (ador), moreover, we generally see in use four kinds. Far, which is called Clusian (Clusinum), of gleaming whiteness. Far, which is called the Vennunculum, rutilant, and another [variety] white, but both of greater weight than the Clusian.

Semen trimestre, quod dicitur halicastrum, idque pondere et bonitate est praecipuum. Sed haec genera tritici et adorei, propterea custodienda sunt agricolis, quod raro quisquam ager ita situs est, ut uno semine contenti esse possimus, interveniente parte aliqua vel uliginosa vel arida. Triticum autem sicco loco melius coalescit.

The three-month seed, which is called halicastrum, is outstanding in weight and in quality. But these kinds of wheat and emmer must therefore be kept by farmers, because rarely is any field so situated that we can be content with a single kind of seed, with some portion intervening that is either uliginous or arid. Wheat, however, thrives better in a dry place.

Adoreum minus infestatur humore.

Spelt is less infested by moisture.

VII. Leguminum genera cum sint complura, maxime grata et in usu hominum videntur faba, lenticula, phaselus, cicer, cannabis, milium, panicum, sesama, lupinum, linum etiam, et ordeum, quia ex eo ptisana est. Item pabulorum optima sunt medica et foenum Graecum, nec minus vicia. Proxime deinde cicera et ervum et farrago, quae est ex ordeo.

7. Although the kinds of legumes are several, the most pleasing and in human use seem to be the bean (faba), the lentil, the phaselus-bean, the cicer (chickpea), cannabis (hemp), millet (milium), panic (panic-grass), sesame, lupine, linum (flax/linseed) as well, and barley, because from it comes ptisan (barley-gruel). Likewise among fodders the best are medick (alfalfa) and fenugreek (foenum Graecum), and no less the vetch. Next then, close after these, are cicera and ervum and farrago, which is from barley.

Sed de his prius disseremus, quae nostra causa seminantur, memores antiquissimi praecepti, quo monemur ut locis frigidis ocissime, tepidis celerius, calidis novissime seramus. Nunc autem proinde ac si temperatae regioni praecepta dabimus.

But first we shall discourse about those which are sown for our sake, mindful of the most ancient precept, by which we are admonished to sow in cold places most swiftly, in tepid ones more quickly, in hot ones last of all. Now, however, we will give precepts as if for a temperate region.

VIII. Placet nostro poetae adoreum atque etiam triticum non ante seminare, quam occiderint Vergiliae. Quod ipsum numeris sic edisserit:

8. It pleases our poet not to sow emmer and also wheat before the Vergiliae (Pleiades) have set. And he explains this very thing in numbers thus:

     At si triticeam in messem robustaque farra
     exercebis humum, solisque instabis aristis,
     ante tibi Eoae Atlantides abscondantur.

     But if into a wheat harvest and robust spelts you will exercise the soil,
     and will press for the ears alone,
     first for you let the Eastern Atlantids be hidden.

Absconduntur autem altero et trigesimo die post autumnale aequinoctium, quod fere conficitur nono Kaled. Octobris; propter quod intellegi debet tritici satio dierum sex et quadraginta ab occasu Vergiliarum, qui fit ante diem IX Kalend. Novembr.

They are hidden, moreover, on the 32nd day after the autumnal equinox, which is for the most part accomplished on the 9th day before the Kalends of October; on account of which it ought to be understood that the sowing of wheat is for 46 days from the setting of the Pleiades, which takes place on the 9th day before the Kalends of November.

ad brumae tempora. Sic enim servant prudentes agricolae, ut quindecim diebus prius quam conficiatur bruma, totidemque post eam confectam neque arent, neque vitem aut arborem putent. Nos quoque non abnuimus in agro temperato et minime humido sementem sic fieri debere.

to the time of the winter solstice. For thus prudent farmers observe: that fifteen days before the solstice is completed, and just as many after it has been completed, they neither plow nor prune the vine or any tree. We also do not deny that, in a temperate and least-humid field, the sowing ought to be done thus.

Ceterum locis uliginosis atque exilibus aut frigidis aut etiam opacis plerumque cirta Kalendas Octobris seminare convenire, dum sicca tellure licet, dum nubila pendent, ut prius convalescant radices frumentorum quam hibernis imbribus aut gelicidiis pruinisve infestentur. Sed quamvis tempestive sementis confecta erit, cavebitur tamen ut patentes liras crebrosque sulcos aquarios, quos nonnulli elices vocant, faciamus, et omnem humorem in colliquias, atque inde extra segetes derivemus. Nec ignoro quosdam veteres auctores praecepisse ne seminarentur agri nisi cum terra pluviis permaduisset.

Moreover, in waterlogged and meagre places, or cold or even shady ones, it is generally suitable to sow around the Kalends of October (October 1), while the earth is dry, while clouds hang, so that the roots of the grains may grow strong before they are assailed by winter showers or freezing rains or hoarfrosts. But although the sowing will have been completed in due season, care must nevertheless be taken that we make open ridges and frequent water-furrows, which some call elices, and that we draw all moisture into soakaways, and from there divert it outside the crops. Nor am I unaware that certain ancient authors have prescribed that fields not be sown unless the soil had been thoroughly soaked by rains.

Quod ego, si tempestive competat, magis conducere agricolae non dubito. Sed si, quod evenit nonnumquam, seri sunt imbres, quamvis sitienti solo recte semen committitur: idque etiam in quibusdam provinciis, ubi status talis caeli est, usurpatur. Nam quod sicco solo ingestum et inoccatum est, pereinde ac si repositum in horreo non corrumpitur, atque ubi venit imber, multorum dierum sementis uno die surgit.

Which, if it be seasonably opportune, I do not doubt is more conducive to the farmer. But if, as sometimes happens, the rains are late, even to a thirsty soil the seed is rightly committed: and this too is practiced in certain provinces where the condition of the sky is such. For what is cast into dry soil and harrowed in does not spoil, just as if it were laid up in a granary; and when the rain comes, the sowing of many days springs up in a single day.

Tremellius quidem asseverat, prius quam impluerit, ab avibus aut formicis sata non infestari, dum aestivis serenitatibus ager aret. Idque etiam saepius nos experti verum adhuc esse non comperimus. Magis apte tamen in eiusmodi agris adoreum quam triticum seritur; quoniam folliculum, quo continetur, firmum et durabilem adversus longioris temporis humorem habet.

Tremellius indeed asserts that, before it has rained, the sowings are not infested by birds or ants, while in summer serenities the field is parched. And this too, although we have more than once tested it, we have not yet found to be true. More suitably, however, in fields of this sort emmer rather than wheat is sown; since the follicle (husk) in which it is contained has a firm and durable resistance against the moisture of a longer time.

IX. Iugerum agri pinguis plerumque modios tritici quattuor, mediocris quinque postulat: adorei modios novem, si est laetum solum; si mediocre, decem desiderat. Nam quamvis de mensura minus auctoribus convenit, hanc tamen videri commodissimam docuit noster usus; quem si quis sequi recusat, utatur praeceptis eorum qui bene uberem campum in singula iugera tritici quinque et adorei octo modiis obserere praecipiunt, atque hac portione mediocribus agris semina praebenda censent. Nobis ne istam quidem, quam praediximus,mensuram semper placet servari, quod eam variat aut loci aut temporis aut caeli conditio.

9. One iugerum of rich land for the most part requires four modii of wheat, of middling five: of adoreum nine modii, if the soil is luxuriant; if middling, it desires ten. For although the authorities agree less about the measure, yet our own practice has taught that this seems most convenient; which if anyone refuses to follow, let him use the precepts of those who bid that a well-fertile field be sown, for each iugerum, with five modii of wheat and eight of adoreum, and they judge that seed should be supplied to middling fields in this proportion. For us, not even that measure which we have stated pleases to be always observed, because the condition of the place, or of the time, or of the sky (weather) alters it.

Loci, cum vel in campis vel collibus frumentum seritur, atque his vel pinguibus vel mediocribus vel macris. Temporis, cum autumno aut etiam ingruente hieme frumenta iacimus. Nam prima sementis rarius serere permittit, novissima spissius postulat.

Of place: when grain is sown either in the plains or on the hills, and in these either rich, or middling, or lean. Of time: when we cast the grain in autumn, or even with winter pressing on. For the first sowing permits sowing more sparsely; the latest demands it more thickly.

Caeli, cum aut pluvium aut siccum est. Nam illud idem quod prima sementis, hoc quod ultima desiderat. Omne autem frumentum maxime campo patente et ad solem prono apricoque et soluto laetatur.

Of the sky, when it is either rainy or dry. For the former is the same as what the first sowing requires, the latter as what the last demands. Moreover, all grain most delights in a field lying open and facing sunward, sunny and loosened.

Collis enim quamvis granum robustioris aliquanto, minus tamen tritici reddit. Densa cretosaque et uliginosa humus siliginem et far adoreum non incommode alit. Ordeum nisi solutum et siccum locum non patitur.

For a hill, although it produces grain somewhat more robust, nevertheless yields less wheat. A dense, chalky and uliginous soil not incommodiously nourishes siligo and far (spelt). Barley does not tolerate a place unless loose and dry.

Atque illa vicibus annorum requietum agitatumque alternis et quam laetissimum volunt arvum. Hoc nullam mediocritatem postulat: nam vel pinguissima vel macerrima humo iacitur. Illa post continuos imbres, si necessitas exigat, quamvis adhuc limoso et madente solo sparseris, iniuriam sustinet.

And these, by the turns of the years, want the field alternately at rest and worked, and as most gladsome (fertile) as possible. This postulates no mediocrity: for it is cast either upon the very fattest or the very leanest soil. That, after continuous rains, if necessity demands, although you scatter it with the ground still miry and soaking, endures the injury.

Hoc si lutoso commiseris, emoritur.. Siliginis autem vel tritici, si mediocriter cretosus uliginosusve ager est, etiam paulo plus, quam, ut prius iam dixi, quinque modiis ad sationem opus est. At si siccus et resolutus locus, idemque vel pinguis, vel exilis est, quattuor; quoniam e contrario macer tantumdem seminis poscit. Nam nisi rare conseritur, vanam minutam spicam facit.

If you commit this to muddy soil, it dies.. But for siligo or for wheat, if the field is moderately chalky or water-logged, there is need for even a little more than, as I have already said before, five modii for sowing. But if the place is dry and loose, and likewise either rich or lean, four; since, on the contrary, the lean ground demands just as much seed. For unless it is sown sparsely, it makes an empty, minute ear.

At ubi ex uno semine pluribus culmis fruticavit, etiam ex rara segete densam facit. Inter cetera quoque non ignorare debemus, quinta parte seminis amplius occupari agrum consitum arbusto, quam vacuum et apertum. Atque adhuc de satione autumnali loquimur: hanc enim potissimam ducimus.

But when from a single seed it has tillered into several culms, it even makes a dense crop from a sparse stand. Among other things we must also not be unaware that a field planted with an arbustum (tree‑vine plantation) takes up by a fifth part more seed than one that is empty and open. And as yet we are speaking of autumnal sowing: for this we deem the most preferable.

Sed est et altera, cum cogit necessitas: trimestrem vocant agricolae. Ea locis praegelidis ac nivosis, ubi aestas est humida et sine vaporibus, recte committitur. Ceteris admodum raro respondet.

But there is also another, when necessity compels: the farmers call it the trimestral. It is rightly undertaken in places rather gelid and snowy, where the summer is humid and without vapors. For the rest, it succeeds very rarely.

Quam tamen ipsam celeritur et utique ante aequinoctium vernum conveniet peragere. Si vero locorum et caeli conditio patietur, quanto maturius severimus, <tanto> commodius proveniet. Neque enim est ullum, sicut multi crediderunt, natura trimestre semen: quippe idem iactum autumno melius respondet.

Which, however, it will be proper to carry out quickly and in any case before the vernal equinox. But if the condition of the place and climate will allow, the earlier we sow, <tanto> the more advantageously it will come up. For there is no seed, as many have believed, trimester by nature; for the same, cast in autumn, responds better.

Sunt nihilo minus quaedam aliis potiora, quae sustinent veris tepores, ut siligo et ordeum Galaticum et halicastrum, granumque fabae Marsicae. Nam cetera robusta frumenta semper ante hiemem seri debent in regionibus temperatis. Solet autem salsam nonnumquam et amaram uliginem vomere terra, quae quamvis matura iam sata manante noxio humore corrumpit, et locis calentibus sine ulla stirpe seminum areas reddit.

None the less there are certain things preferable to others, which sustain the tepid warmths of spring, such as siligo, and Galatic barley, and halicastrum, and the grain of the Marsic bean. For the remaining robust grains must always be sown before winter in temperate regions. But the earth is wont sometimes to vomit a salty and bitter uliginous ooze, which, although the sowings are already mature, corrupts them with its noxious moisture as it runs, and in hot places renders the plots without any stock of seeds.

Ea glabreta signis adhibitis notari convenit, ut suo tempore vitiis eiusmodi medeamur. Nam ubi vel uligo, vel aliqua pestis segetem enecat, ibi columbinum stercus, vel si id non est, folia cupressi convenit spargi et inarari. Sed antiquissimum est, omnem inde humorem facto sulco deducere: aliter vana erunt praedicta remedia.

It is proper that those bare patches (glabreta) be marked by applying markers, so that at the proper time we may remedy vices of such a kind. For where either uligo (marshy damp) or some pest kills the crop, there pigeon dung—or, if that is not available, cypress leaves—ought to be scattered and plowed in. But the most ancient practice is to draw off all the moisture from there by making a furrow: otherwise the aforesaid remedies will be vain.

Nonnulli pelle hyaenae satoriam trimodiam vestiunt, atque ita ex ea, cum paulum immorata sunt semina, iaciunt, non dubitantes proventura, quae sic sata sint. Quaedam etiam subterraneae pestes adultas segetes radicibus subsectis enecant. Id ne fiat, remedio est aquae mixtus succus herbae, quam rustici sedum appellant; nam hoc medicamine una nocte semina macerata iaciuntur.

Some people garment a three-modius sowing-box with a hyena’s hide, and thus from it, when the seeds have lingered a little, they cast them, not doubting that those sown in this way will come forth. Certain subterranean pests also kill mature grain-crops by cutting away the roots from below. Lest this happen, a remedy is the juice of the herb which rustics call sedum, mixed with water; for with this medicament the seeds, macerated for one night, are cast.

Quidam cucumeris anguini humorem expressum, et eiusdem tritam radicem diluunt aqua, similique ratione madefacta semina terrae mandant. Alii hac eadem aqua vel amurca insulsa, cum coepit infestari seges, perfundunt sulcos, et ita noxia animalia submovent. Illud deinceps praecipiendum habeo, ut demissis segetibus iam in area futuro semini consulamus.

Certain people dilute with water the expressed juice of the snake‑cucumber and the pounded root of the same, and in like manner, the seeds, having been soaked, they commit to the earth. Others, with this same water or with unsalted amurca (olive lees), when the crop begins to be infested, drench the furrows and thus drive off noxious animals. This next I have to prescribe: that, the crops having been brought in, now on the threshing‑floor, we should provide for the seed to come.

Nam quod ait Celsus, ubi mediocris est fructus, optimam quamque spicam legere oportet, separatimque ex ea semen reponere; cum rursus amplior messis provenerit, quicquid exteretur, capisterio expurgandum erit, et semper quod propter magnitudinem ac pondus in imo subsederit, ad semen reservandum. Nam id plurimum prodest, quia quamvis celerius locis humidis, tamen etiam siccis frumenta degenerant, nisi cura talis adhibeatur. Neque enim dubium est, ex robusto semine posse fieri non robustum.

For what Celsus says—when the yield is middling, one ought to pick every finest ear, and set aside seed from it separately; when in turn a fuller harvest has come, whatever is threshed must be cleansed with the winnowing-basket, and always what, on account of magnitude and weight, has settled at the bottom is to be reserved for seed. For that is very greatly beneficial, because although more quickly in moist places, yet even in dry ones the grains degenerate, unless such care is applied. Nor indeed is it doubtful that from robust seed it is possible for what is not robust to come to be.

Quod vero protinus ex levi natum sit, numquam robur accipere manifestum est. Ideoque Virgilius cum et alia tum et hoc de seminibus praeclare sic disseruit:

But indeed it is manifest that what is born straightaway from light seed never acquires robustness. And therefore Virgil, both on other things and on this as well concerning seeds, has most excellently thus discoursed:

     Vidi lecta diu, et multo spectata labore
     degenerare tamen, ni vis humana quotannis
     maxima quaeque manu legeret. Sic omnia fatis
     in peius ruere, ac retro sublapsa referri.

     I have seen what was long selected, and with much labor inspected,
     nevertheless to degenerate, unless human force each year
     should with the hand gather whatever is the greatest. Thus all things by the Fates
     rush into the worse, and, having slipped backward, are carried back.

Granum autem rutilum si, cum diffissum est, eundem colorem interiorem habet, integrum esse non dubitamus. Quod extrinsecus albidum, intus etiam conspicitur candidum, leve ac vanum intellegi debet. Nec nos tamquam optabilis agricolis fallat siligo.

But if a ruddy grain, when it has been split, has the same interior color, we do not doubt that it is entire. That which is whitish on the outside, and within also is seen to be bright-white, ought to be understood as light and empty. Nor let siligo deceive us, as if it were desirable to farmers.

Nam hoc tritici vitium est, et quamvis candore praestet, pondere tamen vincitur. Verum in humido statu caeli recte provenit; et ideo locis manantibus magis apta est. Nec tamen ea longe nobis aut magna difficultate requirenda est.

For this is a defect of wheat, and although it excels in candor, yet it is overcome in weight. Yet in a humid condition of the sky it grows rightly; and therefore it is more apt for seeping places. Nor, however, must it be sought by us far away or with great difficulty.

Nam omne triticum solo uliginoso post tertiam sationem convertitur in siliginem. Proximus est his frumentis usus ordei, quod rustici hexastichum, quidam etiam cantherinum appellant; quoniam et omnia animalia, quae ruri sunt, melius quam triticum, et homines salubrius quam malum triticum pascit. Nec aliud in egenis rebus magis inopiam defendit.

For all wheat in uliginous (marshy) soil, after the third sowing, is converted into siligo. Next to these grains in use is barley, which the rustics call hexastich (six‑rowed), some even cantherinum; since it feeds all the animals that are in the countryside better than wheat, and men more healthfully than bad wheat. Nor does anything else more defend against want in needy circumstances.

Seritur soluta siccaque terra, et vel praevalida vel exili, quia constat arva segetibus eius macescere; propter quod pinguissimo agro, cuius nimis viribus noceri non possit, aut macro, cui nihil aliud, committitur. Altero sulco seminari debet post aequinoctium, media fere sementi, si laeto solo; si gracili, maturius. Iugerum quinque modii occupabunt.

It is sown in loosened and dry earth, and either in very strong or in meager soil, because it is agreed that the fields grow lean from its crops; on which account it is committed either to the very fattest field, whose excessive strength cannot be harmed, or to a lean one, to which nothing else is entrusted. It ought to be sown at the second furrow after the equinox, almost at mid-sowing, if in fertile soil; if in slender soil, earlier. An iugerum will take five modii.

Idque ubi paulum maturuerit, festinantius quam ullum aliud frumentum demetendum erit. Nam et fragili culmo, et nulla vestitum palea granum eius celeriter decidit, iisdemque de causis facilius teritur, quam cetera. Sed cum eius messem sustuleris, optimum est novalia pati anno cessare; si minus, stercore saturare, et omne virus, quod adhuc inest terrae, propulsare.

And when it has ripened a little, it will have to be reaped more hastily than any other grain. For both because of its fragile stalk, and because its grain, clothed with no chaff, falls quickly; and for the same reasons it is threshed more easily than the rest. But when you have carried off its harvest, it is best to allow the fallow/new-broken ground to lie idle for a year; if not, to saturate it with manure, and to drive off every noxious “virus” that still is in the soil.

Alterum quoque genus ordei est, quod alii distichum, Galaticum nonnulli vocant, ponderis et candoris eximii, adeo ut tritico mixtum egregia cibaria familiae praebeat. Seritur quam pinguissimis, sed frigidis locis circa Martium mensem. Melius tamen respondet, si clementia hiemis permittit, cum seminatur circa Idus Ianuarias.

There is also another kind of barley, which some call distichum, some Galatic, of exceptional weight and whiteness, to such a degree that, when mixed with wheat, it provides excellent provisions for the household. It is sown in the richest, yet cold, places around the month of March. It responds better, however, if the mildness of winter allows, when it is sown around the Ides of January.

Iugerum sex modios postulat. Inter frumenta etiam panicum et milium ponenda sunt, quamvis iam leguminibus ea contribuerim. Nam multis regionibus cibariis eorum coloni sustinentur.

One iugerum requires six modii. Among the grains, panic and millet also ought to be placed, although I have already contributed them to the legumes. For in many regions tenant-farmers are sustained by their rations.

Levem solutamque humum desiderant. Nec in sabuloso solo, sed in arena quoque proveniunt, modo humido caelo vel riguo solo. Nam siccum cretosumque reformidant.

They desire a light and loosened soil. Not only in gravelly soil, but they also come up in sand, provided the sky is humid or the soil irrigated. For they dread dry and chalky ground.

Ante ver seri non possunt, quoniam teporibus maxime laetantur, ultima tamen parte Martii mensis commodissimae terrae committuntur. Nec impensa gravi rationem cultoris onerant; quippe sextariis fere quattuor iugerum implent. Frequentem tamen exigunt sarritionem et runcationem, ut herbis liberentur.

Before the spring they cannot be sown, since they take especial delight in mild warmth; yet in the last part of the month of March they are committed to the most suitable soil. Nor do they burden the cultivator’s account with heavy expense; for with about four sextarii one sows an iugerum. They require, however, frequent sarritation and runcation, so that they may be freed from weeds.

Ea cum spicas ediderunt, prius quam semina hient aestibus, manu carpuntur, et suspensa in sole cum assicata fuerint, reconduntur, atque ita reposita perennant diutius quam cetera. Panis ex milio conficitur, qui antequam refrigescat, sine fastidio potest assumi. Panicum pinsitum et evolutum furfure, sed et milium quoque pultem quavis in copia maxime cum lacte non fastidientem praebet.

When these have put forth spikes, before the seeds gape in the heats, they are plucked by hand, and, when hung in the sun and desiccated, they are stored away; and thus laid up they last longer than the rest. Bread is made from millet, which, before it cools, can be taken without distaste. Panic, pounded and stripped of bran—and millet too—provides a porridge, in whatever quantity, not displeasing, especially with milk.

X. Quoniam de frumentis abunde praecepimus, de leguminibus deinceps disseramus. Lupini prima ratio est, quod et minimum operarum absumit, et vilissime emitur, et maxime ex iis quae seruntur, iuvat agrum. Nam vineis <iam> emaciatis, et arvis optimum stercus praebet, ac vel effoeto solo provenit, vel repositum in granario patitur aevum.

10. Since we have amply given precepts about grains, let us next discourse concerning legumes. The first consideration is of lupins, because they both consume the least labors, and are bought most cheaply, and, most of all among the things that are sown, they help the field. For for vineyards already exhausted, and for arable fields, they provide the best manure, and they either come up even in effete soil, or, laid away in the granary, they endure age.

Boves per hiemem coctum maceratumque probe alit. Famem quoque, si sterilitas annorum incessit hominibus, commode propulsat. Spargitur statim ex area.

It well nourishes oxen through the winter, when cooked and macerated. It also conveniently repulses hunger for people, if a sterility of years has set upon them. It is broadcast immediately from the threshing-floor.

Atque id solum omnium leguminum non desiderat requiem in horreo, sive Septembri mense ante aequinoctium, seu protinus a Kalendis Octobribus crudis novalibus ingeras. Et qualitercumque obruas, sustinet coloni neglegentiam. Teporem tamen autumni desiderat, ut celeriter confirmetur.

And that alone of all legumes does not require a rest in the granary, whether in the month of September before the equinox, or immediately from the Kalends of October you cast it into raw fallows. And however you cover it, it endures the farmer’s negligence. It nevertheless desires the tepid warmth of autumn, so that it may be quickly confirmed.

Nam si non ante hiemem convaluerit, frigoribus affligitur. Reliquum quod semini superest, in tabulatum, quo fumus pervenit, optime reponis. Quoniam si humor invasit, vermes gignit; qui simul atque oscilla lupinorum adederunt, reliqua pars enasci non potest.

For if it has not recovered before winter, it is afflicted by the cold. The remainder that is left for seed you most excellently store on a loft to which smoke reaches. For if moisture has invaded, it breeds worms; which, as soon as they have gnawed the little “mouths” of the lupines (the germ/eye), the remaining part cannot sprout.

Id, ut dixi, exilem amat terram, et rubricam praecipue. Nam cretam reformidat limosoque non exit agro. Iugerum decem modii occupant.

It, as I said, loves lean soil, and red earth especially. For it shudders at chalk and does not come up in a miry field. Ten modii occupy an iugerum.

Ab hoc recte phaselus terrae mandabitur, vel in veretro, vel melius pingui et restibili agro. Nec amplius quattuor modiis iugerum obseretur.. Similis quoque ratio est pisi, quod tamen facilem et solutam terram desiderat tepidumque locum et caelum frequentis humoris. Eadem mensura iugerum vel modio minus quam phaselum licet obserere primo tempore sementis ab aequinoctio autumnali.

From this, the phaselus-bean will rightly be committed to the earth, either in the fallow (veretrum), or better in a rich and restible field. Let not an iugerum be sown with more than four modii.. A similar rule holds also for the pea, which, however, desires an easy and loose soil, a tepid site, and a climate of frequent moisture. It is permitted to sow with the same measure per iugerum, or by one modius less than for the phaselus, at the first sowing-time from the autumnal equinox.

Fabae pinguissimus locus vel stercoratus destinatur, et si veteretum erit in valle situm, quod a superiore parte succum accipit; prius autem iaciemus semina, deinde proscindemus terram, proscissamque in liram revocabimus occabimusque, quo altius largiore humo contegatur. Nam id plurimum refert, ut radices enatorum seminum penitus demersae sint. Sin autem proximae messis occupandum erit restibile, desectis stramentis quattuor et viginti vehes stercoris in iugerum disponemus dissipabimusque.

The fattest place, or one manured, is assigned for the bean; and, if an old fallow be situated in a valley, because it receives moisture from the higher part. But first we will cast the seeds, then we will plough up the ground, and the ploughed soil we will draw back into ridge and harrow it, in order that it may be covered deeper with more liberal earth. For it matters very greatly that the roots of the sprouted seeds be plunged thoroughly deep. But if the resowable stubble-land that the next harvest must occupy is to be taken, with the straw cut down we shall arrange and scatter twenty-four cartloads of dung per iugerum.

Et similiter cum semen crudo solo ingesserimus, inarabimus, imporcatumque occabimus; quamvis sint, qui negent locis frigidis oportere occari fabam, quia exstantes glaebae a gelicidiis adhuc eam teneram vindicent, et aliquem teporem frigore laboranti praebeant. Sunt etiam qui putent in arvis hanc eandem vice stercoris fungi. Quod sic ego interpretor, ut existimem, non sationibus eius pinguescere humum, sed minus hanc quam cetera semina vim terrae consumere.

And similarly, when we have put the seed into the raw soil, we shall plow it in, and, having ridged it, we shall harrow it; although there are those who say that in cold places the bean ought not to be harrowed, because the protruding clods, by the frosts, protect it while still tender, and furnish some warmth to that which is laboring under the cold. There are also those who think that in the fields this same plant serves in the stead of manure. Which I interpret thus: I judge that the soil is not enriched by its sowings, but that this consumes the force of the earth less than the other seeds.

Nam certum habeo, frumentis utiliorem agrum esse, qui nihil, quam qui istam siliquam proximo anno tulerit. Iugerum agri, ut Tremellio, quattuor, ut nobis videtur, fabae sex occupant modii, si solum pingue sit; si mediocre, paulo amplius. Eaque nec macrum nec nebulosum locum patitur.

For I hold as certain that a field is more useful for cereals if it has borne nothing than if it bore that pod-crop the previous year. Per iugerum of land, according to Tremellius, four modii, but as it seems to us, six modii of bean-seed are required if the soil is fat; if middling, a little more. And it tolerates neither a lean nor a foggy site.

Densa tamen humo saepe commode respondet. Media sementi pars seri, et pars ultima debet, quae septimontialis satio dicitur. Tempestiva frequentius, nonnumquam tamen sera melior est.

Yet in dense soil it often responds to good effect. It ought to be sown in the middle part of the sowing season, and in the last part as well, which is called the septimontial sowing. More frequently the seasonable is better, yet sometimes the late is better.

Post brumam parum recte seritur, pessime vere; quamvis sit etiam trimestris faba, quae mense Februario seratur, quinta parte amplius quam matura. Sed exiguas paleas, nec multam siliquam facit. Veteres itaque rusticos plerumque dicentes audio, malle se maturae fabalia quam fructum trimestris.

After midwinter it is sown somewhat improperly, and worst of all in spring; although there is also a three‑month bean (trimestral), which is sown in the month of February, with a fifth part more than the mature kind. But it makes scant straw and not many pods. Therefore I often hear old rustic farmers saying that they prefer the bean‑fodder (fabalia) of the mature crop to the yield of the three‑month one.

Sed quocumque tempore anni seretur, opera danda erit, ut quantum destinaverimus in sationem, tantum quintadecima luna, si tamen ea non transcurret eo die solis radios, quod Graeci apokrousin vocant, si minus, quartadecima utique adhuc lunae crescente lumine spargatur, etiam si confestim totum semen operiri non poterit. Nihil enim nocebitur ei nocturnis roribus aliisve ex causis, dum a pecore et avibus vindicetur. Priscis autem rusticis nec minus Virgilio prius amurca vel nitro macerari eam et ita seri placuit, laetior ut fetus siliquis fallacibus esset, et quamvis igni exiguo properata maderent.

But at whatever time of the year it may be sown, care will have to be taken that as much as we have destined for sowing be broadcast on the fifteenth moon—provided, however, that on that day it does not traverse the rays of the sun, which the Greeks call apokrousin; if not, then assuredly on the fourteenth, while the moon’s light is still increasing, let it be scattered—even if the whole seed cannot at once be covered. For nothing will harm it by nocturnal dews or by other causes, so long as it is protected from livestock and birds. Moreover, it pleased the ancient rustics, and no less Vergil, that it first be soaked with amurca or nitre and thus be sown, in order that the yield might be more luxuriant, with pods prone to deception, and that, although quickened by a slight fire, the seeds would become moistened.

Nos quoque sic medicatam comperimus, cum ad maturitatem perducta sit, minus a curculione infestari. Sed et illud, quod deinceps dicturi sumus, experti praecipimus. Silente luna fabam vellito ante lucem.

We too have found that, medicated thus (treated in this way), when it has been brought to maturity, it is less infested by the curculio (weevil). But this also, which we are next about to say, having tried it, we prescribe. With the moon “silent,” pluck the bean before daybreak.

Deinde cum in area exaruerit, confestim, prius quam luna incrementum capiat, excussam refrigeratamque in granarium conferto. Sic condita a curculionibus erit innoxia. Maximeque ex leguminibus ea et sine iumentis teri et sine vento purgari expeditissime sic poterit.

Then, when it has dried out on the threshing-floor, at once, before the moon takes on increase, pack the shaken-out and cooled produce into the granary. Thus stored, it will be unharmed by weevils. And especially among the legumes, it can in this way most expeditiously be threshed without draft animals and cleaned without wind.

Modicus fasciculorum numerus resolutus in extrema parte areae collocetur, quem per longissimum eius mediumque spatium tres vel quattuor homines promoveant pedibus, et baculis furcillisve contundant; deinde cum ad lateram partem areae pervenerint, in acervum culmos regerant. Nam semina excussa in area iacebunt, superque ea paulatim eodem modo reliqui fasciculi excutientur. Ac durissimae quidem acus reiectae separataeque erunt a cudentibus: minutae vero, quae de siliquis cum faba resederint, alitere secernentur.

Let a moderate number of bundles, untied, be placed at the far end of the threshing-floor, which three or four men shall advance through its longest and middle stretch with their feet, and pound with sticks or little forks; then, when they have reached the lateral part of the floor, let them turn the stalks into a heap. For the seeds shaken out will lie on the floor, and over these the remaining bundles will little by little be shaken out in the same way. And the very hard spines will be cast off and separated by the beaters; but the small particles which from the pods have settled with the bean will be separated otherwise.

Nam cum acervus paleis granisque mixtus in unum fuerit congestus, paulatim ex eo ventilabris per longius spatium iactetur. Quo facto palea, quae levior est, citra decidet; faba, quae longius emittitur, pura eo perveniet, quo ventilator eam iaculabitur. Lentim modo a dimidiata luna usque in duodecimam solo tenui et resoluto vel pingui et sicco maxime loco seri convenit; nam in flore facile luxuria et humore corrumpitur.

For when a heap mixed of chaff and grains has been piled together into one, little by little let it be thrown from it with winnowing-fans over a longer stretch. When this has been done, the chaff, which is lighter, will fall short; the bean, which is sent farther, will reach clean to the place to which the winnower will cast it. As for lentils, it is fitting to be sown from the half-moon up to the 12th, most especially in soil that is thin and loosened, or rich and dry; for in the flower it is easily spoiled by luxuriance and moisture.

Quae ut celeriter prodeat et ingrandescat, antequam seratur fimo arido permisceri debet, et cum ita quatriduo aut quinque diebus requieverit, spargi. Sationes eius duas servamus, alteram maturam per mediam sementim, seriorem alteram mense Februario. Iugerum agri paulo plus quam modius occupat.

Which, in order that it may quickly come forth and grow large, ought, before it is sown, to be mixed with dry manure; and when it has thus rested for four or five days, to be scattered. We observe two sowings for it, one earlier in the middle of the seed-time, the other later in the month of February. A iugerum of field is occupied by a little more than a modius.

Ea ne curculionibus absumatur (nam etiam dum est in siliqua exestur) curandum erit, ut cum extrita sit, in aquam demittatur, et ab inani, quae protinus innatat, separetur solida; tum in sole siccetur, et radice silphii trita cum aceto aspergatur, defriceturque <oleo>, atque ita rursus in sole siccata et mox refrigerata recondatur, si maior est modus, in horreo, si minor, in vasis oleariis salsamentariisque. Quae repleta cum confestim gypsata sunt, quandoque in usus prompserimus, integram lentem reperiemus. Potest tamen etiam citra istam medicationem cineri mixta commode servari.

That it not be consumed by weevils (for even while it is in the pod it is eaten out), care must be taken that, when it has been threshed out, it be let down into water, and the solid be separated from the empty, which at once floats; then let it be dried in the sun, and sprinkled with silphium root ground with vinegar, and rubbed with <oil>, and thus, dried again in the sun and soon cooled, it be stored away—if the quantity is greater, in the granary; if smaller, in oil-jars and salsamentary jars. Which, when filled and immediately plastered with gypsum, whenever we bring them forth for use, we shall find the lentil intact. Yet it can also, even without that medication, be conveniently kept when mixed with ash.

Lini semen, nisi si magnus est eius in ea regione, quam colis, proventus, et pretium proritat, serendum non est. Agris enim praecipue noxius est. Itaque pinguissimum locum et modice humidum poscit.

Linseed is not to be sown, unless its yield is great in the region which you cultivate, and the price spurs it on. For it is especially noxious to fields. Therefore it requires a very rich site and moderately moist.

Seritur a Kalendis Octobribus in ortum Aquilae, qui est VII Idus Decembr. Iugerum agri octo modiis obseritur. Nonnullis placet macro solo et quam spississimum semen eius committi, quo tenuius linum proveniat.

It is sown from the Kalends of October until the rising of Aquila, which is on December 7. One iugerum of land is sown with 8 modii. Some prefer that it be committed on lean soil and with its seed as thick as possible, so that the flax may come up more tenuous.

Idem etiam si laeto solo seratur mense Februario, modios in iugerum iaci oportere, dicunt. Sesama, quae rigantur, maturius; quae carent humore, ab aequinoctio autumnali serenda sunt in Idus Octobr. Putre solum, quod Campani pullum vocant, plerumque desiderant.

They say the same, too: that if it is sown in rich soil in the month of February, modii ought to be cast per iugerum. Sesame which is irrigated ripens earlier; that which lacks moisture is to be sown from the autumnal equinox to the Ides of October. They generally desire putrid (friable) soil, which the Campanians call pullum.

Non deterius tamen etiam pinguibus harenis vel congesticia humo proveniunt; tantumque seminis, quantum milium panicumque, interdum etiam duobus sextariis amplius in iugerum spargitur. Sed hoc idem semen Ciliciae Syriaeque regionibus ipse vidi mense Iunio Iulioque conseri, et per autumnum cum permaturuerit, tolli. Cicercula quae piso est similis, mense Ianuario et Februario seri debet laeto loco, caelo humido.

Not worse, however, do they also come up in fat sands or in heaped-up soil; and as much seed as for millet and panic (millet), sometimes even by two sextarii more, is scattered per iugerum. But this same seed I myself have seen in the regions of Cilicia and Syria being sown in the months of June and July, and through autumn, when it has fully ripened, being taken up. The chickling vetch, which is similar to the pea, ought to be sown in January and February in a fertile place, with a moist sky.

Quibusdam tamen Italiae locis ante Kalend. Novembr. seritur.

In some places of Italy, however, it is sown before the Kalends of November.

Tres modii iugerum implent. Nec ullum legumen minus agro nocet. Sed raro respondet, quoniam nec siccitates nec austros in flore sustinet; quae utraque incommoda fere eo tempore anni sunt, quo deflorescit.

Three modii fill an iugerum. Nor does any legume harm the field less. But it rarely answers, since it endures neither droughts nor the south winds while in flower; both of which inconveniences are generally at that time of the year when it goes out of blossom.

Cicer quod arietinum vocatur, itemque alterius generis, quod Punicum, seri mense Martio toto potest caelo humido, loco quam laetissimo. Nam etiam id terram laedit; atque ideo improbatur a callidioribus agricolis. Quod tamen si seri debeat, pridie macerandum erit, ut celerius enascatur.

The cicer which is called arietine, and likewise another kind, which is Punic, can be sown through the whole month of March, with a humid sky, in the most fertile place possible. For that too harms the soil; and therefore it is disapproved by the more shrewd farmers. Yet if it ought to be sown, it will have to be macerated the day before, so that it may spring up more quickly.

Iugero modii tres abunde sunt. Cannabis solum pingue stercoratumque et riguum vel planum atque humidum et alte subactum deposcit. In quadratum pedem seruntur grana sex eius seminis Arcturo exoriente, quod est ultimo mense Februario circa sextum aut quintum Kalend.

Three modii per iugerum are abundantly sufficient. Hemp demands soil that is rich, manured, and irrigated, or level and moist, and deeply worked. In a square foot six grains of its seed are sown at the rising of Arcturus, which is in the last month of February, around the 6th or 5th day before the Kalends of March.

Mart. Nec tamen usque in aequinoctium vernum, si sit pluvius caeli status, improbe seretur. Ab his leguminibus ratio est habenda naporum raporumque: nam utraque rusticos implent.

Mar. Nor, however, should one sow recklessly up to the vernal equinox, if the state of the sky is rainy. Along with these legumes, attention must be given to turnips and radishes: for both sustain the countryfolk.

Magis tamen utilia rapa sunt, quia et maiore incremento proveniunt, et non hominem solum, verum etiam boves pascunt, praecipue in Gallia, ubi hiberna cibaria praedictis pecudibus id olus praebet. Solum putre et solutum res utraque desiderat, nec densa nascitur humo. Sed rapa campis et locis humidis laetantur; napus devexam amat et siccam tenuique propiorem terram.

Yet turnips are more useful, because they come forth with greater increment, and they feed not man alone, but even oxen, especially in Gaul, where that pot-herb furnishes winter victuals to the aforesaid cattle. Both crops desire a rotten and loosened soil, nor do they spring up in dense earth. But turnips rejoice in fields and moist places; the navew loves sloping and dry ground, and soil nearer to thinness.

Itaque glareosis sabulosisque arvis melior exit, locique proprietas utriusque semen commutat. Namque in alio solo rapa biennio sata convertuntur in napum, in alio napus raporum accipit speciem. Riguis locis utrumque recte ab solstitio seritur; sicci, ultima parte mensis Augusti vel prima Septembris.

Therefore it turns out better in gravelly and sandy fields, and the property of the place changes the seed of each: for in one kind of soil turnips, sown for a biennium, are converted into navew, in another the navew takes on the appearance of turnips. In irrigated places both are properly sown from the solstice; in dry ones, in the last part of the month of August or the first of September.

Subactum solum pluribus iterationibus aratri vel rastri largoque stercore satiatum postulant. Nam id plurimum refert, non solum quod melius ea proveniunt, sed quod etiam post fructum eorum sic tractatum solum segetes opimas facit. Iugerum agri non amplius quattuor sextariis raporum seminis obserendum est; quarta parte amplius napi spargendum, quia non in ventrem latescit, sed tenuem radicem deorsum agit.

They require soil subdued by several passes of the plow or the harrow and saturated with lavish manure. For that matters most, not only because they come up better, but because even after their harvest the soil handled thus makes the grain-crops rich. A iugerum of field must be sown with no more than four sextarii of turnip-seed; for rape a fourth part more should be scattered, because it does not swell into a belly (bulb), but drives a slender root downward.

Atque haec hominum causa serenda censemus, illa deinde pecudum (XI) pabulorum genera complura, sicut Medicam, et viciam, farraginem quoque ordeaceam, et avenam, foenum Graecum, nec minus ervum, et ciceram. Nam cetera neque enumerare ac minus serere dignamur; excepta tamen cytiso, de qua dicemus in iis libris, quos de generibus surculorum conscripsimus. Sed ex iis, quae placent, eximia est herba Medica.

And we judge that these are to be sown for the sake of men, then those for cattle (11) many kinds of fodders, such as Medick, and vetch, a barley farrago as well, and oats, Greek hay, and no less ervil, and chickpea. For the rest we deign neither to enumerate, much less to sow; except, however, the cytisus, about which we shall speak in those books which we have composed on the kinds of shoots. But of those which please, the Medick herb is outstanding.

Quod cum semel seritur, decem annis durat; quod per annum deinde recte quater, interdum etiam sexies demetitur; quod agrum stercorat; quod omne emaciatum armentum ex ea pinguescit; quod aegrotanti pecori remedium est; quod iugerum eius toto anno tribus equis abunde sufficit. Seritur, ut deinceps praecipiemus. Locum, in quo Medicam proximo veresaturus es, proscindito circa Kalendas Octobris, et eum toto hieme putrescere sinito.

Which, when it is once sown, lasts for ten years; which then in a year is properly cut four times, sometimes even six times; which manures the field; which makes all emaciated herd-beasts grow fat upon it; which is a remedy for ailing livestock; which, in a single iugerum, suffices amply for three horses for the whole year. It is sown, as we shall hereafter prescribe. The place in which you are going to spring-fallow Medica next, plow up about the Kalends of October, and allow it to rot through the whole winter.

Deinde Kalendis Februariis diligenter iterato, et lapides omnes elegito, glaebasque offringito. Postea circa Martium mensem tertiato et occato. Cum sic terram subegeris, in morem horti areas latas pedum denum, longas pedum quinquagenum facito, ut per semitas aqua ministrari possit, aditusque utraque parte runcantibus pateat.

Then on the Kalends of February go over it diligently again, and pick out all the stones, and break up the clods. Afterwards, about the month of March, go over it a third time and harrow. When you have thus subdued the soil, make, after the manner of a garden, plots ten feet wide and fifty feet long, so that water can be supplied through the paths, and access may be open on both sides for those weeding.

Deinde vetus stercus inicito, atque ita mense ultimo Aprile serito tantum, quantum ut singuli cyathi seminis locum occupent decem pedum longum et quinque latum. Quod ubi feceris, ligneis rastris (id enim multum confert), statim iacta semina obruantur: nam celerrime sole aduruntur. Post sationem ferro tangi locus non debet.

Then cast on old dung, and so, at the end of April, sow only so much that single cyathi of seed each occupy a place ten feet long and five wide. When you have done this, with wooden rakes (for this contributes much), let the seeds just cast be immediately covered: for they are very quickly scorched by the sun. After the sowing the place ought not to be touched by iron.

Atque, ut dixi, ligneis rastris sarriendus et identidem runcandus est, ne laterius generis herba invalidam Medicam perimat. Tardius messem primam eius facere oportebit, cum iam seminum aliquam partem eiecerit. Postea quam voles teneram, cum prosiluerit, deseces licet, et iumentis praebeas; sed inter initia parcius, dum consuescant, ne novitas pabuli noceat.

And, as I said, it must be hoed with wooden rakes and weeded again and again, lest a lathyrian-kind herb destroy the feeble Medick. You ought to make its first harvest later, when it has already cast out some part of its seeds. Thereafter, whenever you wish, when it has sprung up, you may cut it tender and offer it to the draft-animals; but at the beginning more sparingly, until they grow accustomed, lest the novelty of the fodder harm.

Inflat enim, et multum creat sanguinem. Cum secueris autem, saepius eam rigato. Paucos deinde post dies, ut coeperit fruticare, omnes alterius generis herbas eruncato.

For it inflates (bloats), and creates much blood. But when you have cut it, irrigate it rather often. Then, after a few days, when it has begun to put forth shoots, eradicate all herbs of another kind.

Sic culta sexies in anno demeti poterit, et permanebit annis decem. Viciae autem duae sationem sunt. Prima, qua pabuli causa circa aequinoctium autumnale serimus septem modios eius in unum iugerum.

So cultivated, it can be mown six times in a year, and it will persist for ten years. But as for vetch, there are two sowings. The first, which we sow for the sake of fodder around the autumnal equinox, is seven modii of it on one iugerum.

Secunda, qua sex modios mense Ianuario vel etiam serius iacimus semini progenerando. Utraque satio potest cruda terra fieri, sed melius proscissa: idque genus praecipue non amat rores, cum seritur. Itaque post secundam diei horam vel tertiam spargendum est, cum iam omnis humor sole ventove detersus est, neque amplius proici debet, quam quod eodem die possit operiri.

Second, that in which we cast six modii in the month of January, or even later, for seed-propagation. Both sowings can be done in raw earth, but better in ploughed; and this kind especially does not love dews when it is sown. Therefore after the second hour of the day or the third it must be scattered, when all moisture has already been wiped away by sun or wind, and no more should be cast than what can be covered on the same day.

Nam si nox incessit, quantulocumque humore prius, quam obruatur, corrumpitur. Observandum erit, ne ante quintam et vigesimam lunam terrae mandetur. Aliter satae fere limacem nocere comperimus.

For if night has set in, it is spoiled by however little moisture before it is covered. It must be observed that it not be committed to the earth before the 25th lunar day. Otherwise, we have generally found the slug to harm what has been sown.

Farraginem in restibili stercoratissimo loco et altero sulco serere convenit. Ea fit optima, cum cantherini ordei decem modiis iugerum obseritur circa aequinoctium autumnale, sed impendentibus pluviis, ut consita rigataque imbribus celeriter prodeat, et confirmetur ante hiemis violentiam. Nam frigoribus cum alia pabula defecerunt, ea bubus ceterisque pecudibus optime desecta praebetur, et si depascere saepius voles usque in mensem Maium sufficit.

It is suitable to sow farrago in a place for aftermath, most richly manured, and in every other furrow. It turns out best when a iugerum is sown with ten modii of cantherine barley around the autumnal equinox, but with rains impending, so that, once planted and watered by showers, it may quickly come up and be strengthened before winter’s violence. For when, in cold weather, other fodders have failed, it, cut, is most excellently provided to oxen and the other flocks, and if you wish to graze it rather often, it suffices all the way into the month of May.

Quod si etiam semen voles ex ea percipere, a Kalend. Martiis pecora depellenda, et ab omni noxa defendenda est, ut sit idonea frugibus. Similis ratio avenae est.

But if you also wish to take seed from it, from the Kalends of March the herds must be driven off, and it must be defended from all harm, so that it may be suitable for crops. A similar rule applies to oats.

Caeditur in foenum vel pabulum, dum adhuc viret, quae autumno sata; partim semini custoditur. Foenum Graecum, quod siliquam vocant rustici, duo tempora sationum habet: quorum alterum est Septembris mensis, cum pabuli causa seritur, iisdem diebus quibus vicia circa aequinoctium; alterum autem mensis Ianuarii ultimi, vel primi Februarii, cum in messem seminatur. Sed hac satione iugerum sex modiis, illa septem occupamus; utraque cruda terra non incommode fit; daturque opera, ut spisse aretur, nec tamen alte.

It is cut into hay or fodder, while it is still green, that which was sown in autumn; part is kept for seed. Fenugreek (Foenum Graecum), which the rustics call siliqua, has two seasons of sowing: one is the month of September, when it is sown for the sake of fodder, on the same days as vetch around the equinox; the other is the last part of January or the first of February, when it is sown for a harvest. But with this sowing we occupy a iugerum with six modii, with that one with seven; either is done not inconveniently in raw (untilled) ground; and care is taken that it be ploughed thickly, yet not deep.

Nam si plus quattuor digitis adobrutum est semen eius, non facile prodit. Propter quod nonnulli prius quam serant, minimis aratris proscindunt, atque ita iaciunt semina, et sarculis adobruunt. Ervum autem laetatur loco macro nec humido, quia luxuria plerumque corrumpitur.

For if its seed is covered over more than four fingers, it does not easily come forth. Because of which some, before they sow, furrow with the smallest ploughs, and thus they cast the seeds and cover them with hoes. Bitter vetch (ervum), however, rejoices in a lean and not wet place, because by luxuriance it is for the most part corrupted.

Potest <et> autumno seri, nec minus post brumam, Ianuarii parte novissima, vel toto Februario, dum ante Kalendas Martias; quem mensem universum negant agricolae huic legumini convenire, quod eo tempore satum pecori sit noxium et praecipue bubus, quos pabulo suo cerebrosos reddat. Quinque modiis iugerum obseritur. Cicera bubus ervi loco fresa datur in Hispania Baetica; quae cum suspensa mola divisa est, paulum aqua maceratur, dum lentescat, atque ita mixta paleis subtritis pecori praebetur.

It can <et> be sown in autumn, and no less after the winter solstice, in the very last part of January, or throughout all of February, provided it is before the Kalends of March; but farmers say that this whole month does not suit this legume, because, if sown at that time, it is harmful to livestock and especially to oxen, whom its fodder makes hot-headed. An iugerum is sown at the rate of five modii. Chickpeas, ground, are given to oxen in Baetican Spain in place of bitter vetch; when they have been broken up with a suspended mill, they are soaked a little with water until they soften, and thus, mixed with finely-crushed chaff, they are offered to the herd.

Sed ervi duodecim librae satisfaciunt uni iugo, cicerae sexdecim. Eadem hominibus non inutilis neque iniucunda est. Sapore certe nihilo differt a cicercula, colore tantum discernitur: nam est obsoletior, et nigro propior.

But twelve pounds of vetch suffice for one yoke, of cicera sixteen. The same is not useless nor unpleasing to human beings. In savor it certainly differs in no way from the cicercula, and is distinguished only by color: for it is more dingy, and nearer to black.

Seritur primo vel altero sulco, mense Martio, ita ut postulat soli laetitia; quod eadem quattuor modiis, nonnumquam et tribus, interdum etiam duobus ac semodio iugerum occupat.

It is sown at the first or second furrow, in the month of March, as the fertility of the soil requires; for the same has a seeding rate of four modii to the iugerum, sometimes three, and occasionally even two and a half.

XI. Quoniam quando quidque serendum sit persecuti sumus, nunc quemadmodum quotque operis singula eorum quae rettulimus colenda sint, demonstrabimus. Peracta sementi, sequens cura est sarritionis; de qua non convenit inter auctores. Quidam negant eam quicquam proficere, quod frumenti radices sarculo detegantur, aliquae etiam succidantur, ac, si frigora incesserint post sarritionem, gelu frumenta enecentur; satius autem ea esse tempestive runcari et purgari.

11. Since we have pursued when each thing should be sown, now we will demonstrate how, and with how much labor, each of those things which we have related ought to be cultivated. With the sowing completed, the next care is the sarrition (hoeing); about which there is no agreement among the authors. Some deny that it profits anything, because the roots of the grain are laid bare by the hoe, and some even cut off; and, if cold spells have set in after the sarrition, the grain is killed by frost; but they say it is better that they be weeded in due season and cleansed.

Pluribus tamen sarriri placet; sed neque eodem modo, neque iisdem temporibus usquequaque fieri. Nam in agris siccis et apricis, simul ac primum sarritionem pati queant segetes, debere eas permota terra adobrui, ut fruticare possint; quod ipsum ante hiemem fieri oportere, deinde post hiemem iterari. In locis autem frigidis et palustribus plerumque transacta hieme sarriri, nec adobrui, sed plana sarritione terram permoveri.

Nevertheless, more people approve of hoeing; yet neither in the same manner nor at the same times is it to be done everywhere. For in dry and sunny fields, as soon as the crops can first endure a hoeing, they ought, the soil having been stirred, to be earthed up, so that they may be able to branch out (tiller); and this very thing ought to be done before winter, then after winter repeated. In frigid and marshy places, however, for the most part hoe when winter is past, and do not earth up, but with a level hoeing merely loosen the soil.

Multis tamen nos regionibus aptam esse hiemalem sarritionem comperimus, dumtaxat et siccitas caeli et tepores permittunt. Sed nec istud ubique fieri censemus; verum incolarum consuetudine uti. Sunt enim regionum propria munera, sicut Aegypti et Africae, quibus agricola post sementem ante messem segetem non attingit; quoniam caeli conditio et terrae bonitas ea est, ut vix ulla herba exeat, nisi ex semine iacto, sive quia rari sunt imbres, seu quia qualitas humi sic se cultoribus praebet.

Yet in many regions we have found winter sarritation (hoeing) to be apt, provided only that the dryness of the sky and mild temperatures permit. But neither do we judge that this should be done everywhere; rather, one should use the consuetude of the inhabitants. For there are the proper endowments of regions, as in Egypt and Africa, where the farmer does not touch the standing corn after sowing until the harvest; since the condition of the sky and the goodness of the soil is such that scarcely any herbage comes forth except from the cast seed, whether because rains are rare, or because the quality of the ground thus presents itself to cultivators.

In iis autem locis, ubi desideratur sarritio, non ante sunt attingendae segetes, etiam si caeli status permittit, quam cum sata sulcos contexerint. Triticumque et adoreum, cum quattuor fibras habere coeperint, ordeum cum quinque, faba et cetera legumina cum quattuor digitis a terra exstiterint, recte sarrientur, excepto tamen lupino, cuius semini contraria est sarritio, quoniam unam radicem habet, quae sive ferro succisa est seu vulnerata, totus frutex emoritur. Quod etiam si non fieret, supervacuus tamen esset cultus, cum sola haec res adeo non infestetur herbis, ut ipsa herbas perimat.

In those places, however, where hoeing is required, the crops should not be touched, even if the condition of the sky permits, until the sowings have woven together the furrows. Wheat and emmer, when they have begun to have four blades, barley when five, the fava-bean and the other legumes when they have stood forth four fingers from the earth, are rightly hoed—except, however, for the lupine, for hoeing is contrary to its seed, since it has a single root; if this is cut with iron or wounded, the whole plant perishes. And even if this did not occur, cultivation would nevertheless be superfluous, since this crop alone is so little infested by weeds that it destroys the weeds itself.

Atque aliae segetes vel humidae moveri possunt, melius tamen siccae sarriuntur, quoniam sic tractatae non infestantur rubigine. Hordeum vero nisi siccissimum tangi non debet. Fabam multi ne sarriendam quidem putant, quod et manibus, cum maturuerit, ducta secernatur a cetera runcatione, et internatae herbae foeno reserventur.

And other standing crops can be worked even when damp, yet they are better hoed when dry, since handled thus they are not infested by rust. Barley, however, ought not to be touched unless it is driest. Many think the bean should not even be hoed, because, when it has ripened, being drawn by hand it is separated from the rest of the runcation (weeding), and the intergrown weeds are reserved for hay.

Cuius opinionis etiam Cornelius Celsus est, qui inter ceteras dotes eius leguminis hanc quoque enumerat, quod sublata faba foenum ex eodem loco secari posse dicat. Sed mihi videtur pessimi agricolae committere ut satis herba proveniat. Frugibus enim plurimum detrahitur, si relinquitur runcatio.

Cornelius Celsus too is of this opinion, who among the other endowments of that legume enumerates this as well: that, once the bean has been removed, hay can be cut from the same place. But it seems to me the act of a very bad farmer to contrive that enough herbage should come up; for very much is detracted from the crops, if the weeding is left undone.

Neque <enim> est rustici prudentis magis pabulis studere pecudum, quam cibis hominum; cum praesertim liceat illa quoque cultu pratorum consequi; adeoque fabam sarriendam censeo, ut existimem debere etiam ter sarriri. Nam sic cultam comperimus non solum multiplicare fructum, sed et exiguam portionem in valvulis habere, fresaeque [eius et expurgatae] modium paene tam plenum esse, quam integrae, cum vix minuatur mensura detractis putaminibus. Atque in totum, sicut ante iam diximus, hiberna sarritio plurimum iuvat diebus serenis ac siccis post brumam confectam mense Ianuario, si gelicidia non sint.

Nor <for> is it the part of a prudent rustic to be more eager about the fodders of cattle than about the foods of men; especially since it is permitted to obtain those too by the cultivation of meadows; and so I judge that the bean ought to be hoed, to such a degree that I think it should even be hoed three times. For thus cultivated we have found it not only to multiply its fruit, but also to have only a small portion in the little valves; and when shelled [of it and cleansed] its modius is nearly as full as when whole, since the measure is scarcely diminished with the husks removed. And in general, as we have already said above, winter hoeing is very helpful on serene and dry days after the solstice is completed in the month of January, if there are no sleetfalls.

Ea porro sic debet fieri, ne radices satorum laedantur, et ut potius adobruantur, cumulisque exaggerentur, ut latius se frutex humi diffundat. Id prima sarritione fecisse proderit, secunda oberit; quia cum pullulare desiit frumentum, putrescit, si adobrutum est. Nihil itaque amplius in iteratione, quam remolliri terra debet aequaliter; eamque transacto aequinoctio verno statim peragi oportet intra dies viginti, ante quam seges in articulum eat, quoniam serius sarrita corrumpitur insequentibus aestivis siccitatibus et caloribus.

Moreover, this ought to be done in such a way that the roots of the sown crops are not injured, but rather are earthed up and increased with mounds, so that the plant may spread itself more broadly along the ground. To have done this at the first hoeing will be profitable; at the second it will be harmful, because when the grain has ceased to sprout, it rots if it is earthed up. Therefore, in the iteration, nothing more ought to be done than that the soil be loosened uniformly; and this must be carried through immediately after the vernal equinox, within twenty days, before the crop goes into the jointing stage, since, if hoed later, it is spoiled by the ensuing aestival droughts and heats.

Subiungenda deinde est sarritioni runcatio, curandumque ne florentem segetem tangamus; sed aut antea, aut mox cum defloruerit. Omne autem frumentum et hordeum, quicquid denique non duplici semine est, spicam a tertio ad quartum nodum emittit, et cum totam edidit, octo diebus deflorescit, ac deinde grandescit diebus quadraginta, quibus post florem ad maturitatem devenit. Rursus quae duplici semine sunt, ut faba, pisum, lenticula, diebus XL florent, simulque grandescunt.

Then weeding must be subjoined to the hoeing, and care must be taken that we do not touch the crop while it is in flower; but either beforehand, or soon after it has finished flowering. Moreover, all grain and barley—indeed whatever is not of double seed—puts forth the ear from the third to the fourth node; and when it has produced it entire, in eight days it sheds blossom, and then it swells in forty days, in which, after the flower, it comes to ripeness. Conversely, those which are of double seed, such as the bean, pea, and lentil, flower for 40 days, and at the same time they swell.

XII. Et ut iam percenseamus, quot operis in aream perducantur ea, quae terrae credidimus: tritici modii quattuor vel quinque bubulcorum operas occupant quattuor, occatoris unam, sarritoris duas primum, et unam cum iterum sarriuntur, runcatoris unam, messoris unam et dimidiam; in totum summam operarum decem et dimidiam. Siliginis modii quinque totidem operas desiderant. Seminis modii novem vel decem totidem operas quot tritici modii quinque postulant.

12. And now, to reckon up how many labors bring to the threshing-floor the things which we have entrusted to the earth: for four or five modii of wheat, the ox-teamsters’ labors take up four, the harrower’s one, the weeder’s two at first, and one when they are hoed a second time, the weed-cutter’s one, the reaper’s one and a half; in the whole, a sum of ten and a half labors. Five modii of siligo-wheat require just as many labors. Of seed-grain, nine or ten modii require just as many labors as five modii of wheat demand.

Hordei modii quinque bubulci operas tres exigunt, occatoriam unam, sarritoriam unam et dimidiam, messoriam unam, summam operarum sex et dimidiam. Fabae modii quattuor vel sex in vetereto duas operas bubulcorum detinent, at in restibili unam. Occantur sesquiopera, sarriuntur sesquiopera, iterum sarriuntur una opera, et tertio una, metuntur una.

Five modii of barley demand three ox‑driver workdays, one for harrowing, one and a half for weeding, one for reaping—the total of workdays is six and a half. Four or six modii of beans on fallow land detain two ox‑drivers’ workdays, but on land to be re‑sown (stubble) one. They are harrowed one and a half workdays, weeded one and a half workdays, weeded again one workday, and a third time one, and they are reaped one.

Summa fit operarum octo vel septem. Viciae modii sex vel septem in vetereto bubulcorum duas operas volunt, in restibili unam; item, occantur una opera, metuntur una. Summa fit operarum quattuor vel trium.

The sum comes to eight or seven work-days. For vetch, six or seven modii on old fallow want two ploughmen’s work-days; on stubble-land (re‑sowable), one; likewise, they are harrowed in one work-day, they are reaped in one. The sum comes to four or three work-days.

Ervi modii quinque totidem operis conseruntur, occantur una; item singulis sarriuntur, runcantur, metuntur; quae cuncta sex operas occupant. Siliquae modii sex vel septem totidem operis obruuntur, metuntur una. Phaseoli modii quattuor obruuntur totidem operis, occantur una, metuntur una.

Five modii of ervil are sown with just as many workdays, they are harrowed once; likewise, with a single workday they are hoed, weeded, reaped; all which together take up six workdays. Siliques six or seven modii are covered in with just as many workdays, they are reaped with one. Phaseoli four modii are covered in with just as many workdays, they are harrowed once, they are reaped with one.

Cicerae vel cicerculae modii quattuor operas bubulcorum tres postulant, occantur opera una, runcantur una, velluntur una. Summa fit sex operarum. Lentis sesquimodius totidem operas desiderat, occatur una, sarritur duabus, runcatur una, vellitur una.

Chickpeas or little chickpeas, four modii, demand three labors of the oxherds; they are harrowed in one labor, weeded in one, pulled up in one. The sum comes to six labors. A sesqui-modius (one and a half modius) of lentils requires just as many labors: it is harrowed in one, hoed in two, weeded in one, pulled up in one.

Summa fit operarum octo. Lupini modii decem obruuntur una, obbantur una, metuntur una. Milii sextarii quattuor, totidemque panici bubulcorum operas occupant quattuor, occantur operis tribus, sarriuntur tribus; quot operis carpantur, incertum est.

The total comes to eight operations. Ten modii of lupins are buried once, hilled (banked) once, harvested once. Of millet, four sextarii, and of panicum as many, occupy four oxherds’ operations; they are harrowed in three operations, hoed in three; in how many operations they are picked, it is uncertain.

Ciceris modii tres operis totidem seminantur, occantur duabus, sarriuntur una, runcantur una, velluntur tribus. Summa fit undecim operarum. Lini decem modii vel octo quattuor iugis conseruntur, occantur operis tribus, runcantur una, velluntur tribus.

Three modii of chickpea are sown by just so many operations, are harrowed twice, are hoed once, are weeded once, are pulled up thrice. The sum comes to eleven labors. Ten modii or eight of flax are sown with four yokes, are harrowed in three operations, are weeded once, are pulled up three times.

Summa fit undecim operarum. Sesami sextarii sex tribus iugis a proscissione coluntur, occantur operis tribus, sarriuntur quattuor, et sarriuntur iterum duabus, runcantur una, velluntur duabus. Summa fit operarum quindecim.

The total comes to eleven work-days. Six sextarii of sesame are cultivated with three yokes from the first breaking; they are harrowed in three work-days, hoed in four, and hoed again in two; they are weeded in one, and pulled up in two. The total comes to fifteen work-days.

Cannabis seritur, ut supra docuimus: sed incertum est, quantam impensam curamque desideret. At Medica obruitur non aratro, sed, ut dixi, ligneis rastellis. Iugerum agri eius occant duo, sarrit unus, metit unus.

Cannabis is sown, as we have taught above; but it is uncertain how much expense and care it requires. But Medica is covered not by a plow, but, as I said, with wooden rakes. A iugerum of its field: two harrow, one hoes, one reaps.

Hac consummatione operarum colligitur posse agrum ducentorum iugerum subigi duobus iugis boum totidemque bubulcis et sex mediastinis; si tamen vacet arboribus. At si sit arbustum, eundem modum Saserna tribus hominibus adiectis asseverat probe satis excoli. Quae nos ratio docet, sufficere posse iugum boum tritici centum viginti quinque modiis, totidemque leguminum, ut sit in asse autumnalis satio modiorum ducentorum quinquaginta; et post hanc nihilo minus conserat trimestrium modios quinque et septuaginta.

By this consummation of the labors it is gathered that a field of 200 iugera can be brought under cultivation by two yokes of oxen, with the same number of oxherds, and six mediastini; if, however, it is free of trees. But if it is an arbustum, Saserna asserts that the same plan, with three men added, can be cultivated well enough. Which reasoning teaches us that a yoke of oxen can suffice for 125 modii of wheat, and as many of legumes, so that in the whole the autumnal sowing is 250 modii; and after this, nonetheless, let him sow of the three-month crops 75 modii.

Hoc deinde sic probatur. Semina, quae quarto sulco seruntur in iugeribus viginti quinque, desiderant bubulcorum operas CXV. Nam proscinditur is agri modus quamvis durissimi quinquaginta operis, iteratur quinque et viginti, tertiatur et consereitur XL. Legumina occupant operas LX, id est menses duos.

This then is proved as follows. The seeds, which are sown at the fourth furrow on 25 iugera, require 115 work-days of ox-drivers. For that measure of field, however hard, is broken up with 50 work-days, is gone over a second time with 25, and is gone over a third time and sown with 40. The legumes occupy 60 work-days, that is, two months.

Pluviales quoque et feriarum computantur, quibus non aratur, dies quinque et XL. Item peracta sementi, quibus requiescunt, dies XXX. Sic in asse fiunt octo menses et dies X. Supersunt tamen de anno tres reliqui menses et dies V et XX, quos absumamus aut in satione trimestrium, aut in vecturis foeni et pabulorum et stercoris aliorumque utensilium.

The rainy days and the festival-days, on which no plowing is done, are also counted, 45 days. Likewise, when the sowing is completed, during which they rest, 30 days. Thus in the whole there are 8 months and 10 days. There still remain, however, of the year 3 remaining months and 25 days, which let us spend either on the sowing of the three-month crops, or on the haulage of hay and fodders and manure and other utensils.

XIII. Sed ex iis, quae rettuli, seminibus, idem Saserna putat aliis stercorari et iuvari agros, aliis rursus peruri et emaciari. Stercorari lupino, faba, vicia, ervilia, lente, cicercula, piso. De lupino nihil dubito, atque etiam de pabulari vicia, si tamen eam viridem desecatam confestim aratrum subsequatur, et quod falx reliquerit, priusquam inarescat, vomis rescindat atque obruat; id enim cedit pro stercore.

13. But from those seeds which I have recounted, Saserna likewise thinks that fields are by some manured and aided, by others in turn scorched and emaciated. To manure with lupine, bean, vetch, ervil, lentil, chickling, pea. About the lupine I do not doubt, and likewise about fodder vetch, provided, however, that the plow immediately follows it when cut green, and that what the sickle has left, before it dries, the share cuts down and buries; for that counts in place of manure.

Nam si radices eius desecato pabulo relictae inaruerint, succum omnem solo auferent, vimque terrae absument, quod etiam in faba ceterisque leguminibus, quibus terra gliscere videtur verisimile est accidere; ut nisi protinus sublata messe eorum proscindatur, nihil iis segetibus, quae deinceps in eo loco seminari debent, profuturum sit. Ac de iis quoque leguminibus, quae velluntur, Tremellius obesse maxime ait solo virus ciceris et lini: alterum quia sit salsae, alterum quia <sit> fervidae naturae; quod etiam Virgilius significat dicendo:

For if their roots, the fodder having been cut down and left behind, have dried out, they will carry off all the juice from the soil and consume the force of the earth, which also in the bean and the other legumes, by which the land seems to luxuriate, it is likely to happen; so that unless, their harvest immediately removed, it be ploughed up, nothing will be of use to those crops which thereafter ought to be sown in that place. And concerning those legumes also which are pulled up, Tremellius says that the taint (virus) of chickpea and of flax is most harmful to the soil: the one because it is of a salty nature, the other because it is of a hot nature; which even Virgil signifies by saying:

urit enim lini campum seges, urit avenae,
urunt Lethaeo perfusa papavera somno.

for the flax crop burns the field, the oats burn,
the poppies, perfused with Lethean sleep, burn.

Neque enim dubium, quin et iis seminibus infestetur ager, sicut etiam milio et panico. Sed omni solo, quod praedictorum leguminum segetibus fatiscit, una praesens medicina est, ut stercore adiuves, et absumptas vires hoc velut pabulo refoveas. Nec tantum propter semina, quae sulcis aratri committuntur, verum etiam propter arbores ac virgulta, quae maiorem in modum laetantur eiusmodi alimento.

For there is no doubt that the field is harassed by those seeds as well, just as also by millet and panic; but for every soil that grows frail from the crops of the aforesaid legumes, there is one present remedy: that you help it with dung, and restore its exhausted strengths with this as with fodder. And this not only on account of the seeds which are entrusted to the furrows of the plow, but also on account of trees and shoots, which to a greater degree luxuriate in nourishment of this kind.

Quare si est, ut videtur, agricolis utilissimum, diligentius de eo dicendum existimo, cum priscis auctoribus quamvis non omissa res, levi tamen admodum cura sit prodita.

Wherefore, if, as it seems, it is most useful for agriculturists, I think it should be discussed more diligently, since by the ancient authors, although the matter has not been omitted, yet it has been handed down with exceedingly slight care.

XIV. Tria igitur stercoris genera sunt praecipue, quod ex avibus, quod ex hominibus, quod ex pecudibus confit. Avium primum habetur, quod ex columbariis egeritur. Deinde quod gallinae ceteraeque volucres edunt: exceptis tamen palustribus ac nantibus, ut anatis et anseris; nam id noxium quoque est.

14. There are, then, three chief kinds of manure: that which is made from birds, that from humans, and that from livestock. Of the birds’ [manure], first place is held by that which is taken out of dovecotes. Next comes that which hens and the other winged creatures produce—marsh-dwellers and swimmers, however, being excepted, such as the duck and the goose; for that is even noxious.

Maxime tamen columbinum probamus, quod modice sparsum terram fermentare comperimus. Secundum deinde, quod homines faciunt, si et aliis villae purgamentis immisceatur, quoniam ferventioris naturae est, et idcirco terram perurit. Aptior est tamen surculis hominis urina, quam sex mensibus passus veterascere si vitibus aut pomorum arboribus adhibeas, nullo alio magis fructus exuberat; nec solum ea res maiorem facit proventum, sed etiam saporem et odorem vini pomorumque reddit meliorem.

Nevertheless we especially approve pigeon manure, which we have found to ferment the soil when sprinkled in moderation. Next in order is that which humans produce, if it be mixed with the other sweepings of the villa, since it is of a more fervid nature and therefore scorches the earth. Yet for young shoots human urine is more apt; if you allow it to age for six months and apply it to vines or to fruit trees, by no other does the fruit abound more; and not only does this bring about a greater yield, it also renders the savor and odor of the wine and of the fruits better.

Potest et vetus amurca, quae salem non habet, permixta huic commode frugiferas arbores et praecipue oleas rigare. Nam per se quoque adhibita multum iuvat. Sed usus utriusque maxime per hiemem est, et adhuc vere ante aestivos vapores, dum etiam vites et arbores oblaqueatae sunt.

Old amurca too, which does not have salt, when mixed with this, can conveniently irrigate fruit-bearing trees and especially olives. For applied by itself as well, it helps much. But the use of both is chiefly in winter, and further in spring before the summer vapors, while the vines and trees are likewise being watered.

Tertium locum obtinet pecudum stercus, atque in eo quoque discrimen est: nam optimum existimatur, quod asinus facit; quoniam id animal lentissime mandit, ideoque facilius concoquit, et bene confectum atque idoneum protinus arvo fimum reddit. Post haec quae diximus, ovillum, et ab hoc caprinum est, mox ceterorum iumentorum armentorumque. Deterrimum ex omnibus suillum habetur.

The third place is held by the dung of livestock, and in that too there is a distinction: for the best is esteemed to be that which the donkey makes; since that animal chews most slowly, and therefore more easily digests, and it produces dung well concocted and suitable immediately for the field. After these we have mentioned, there is ovine, and after this caprine; then that of the other beasts of draught and of herds. The worst of all is held to be swine-dung.

Quin etiam satis profuit cineris usus et favillae. Frutex vero lupini succisus optimi stercoris vim praebet. Nec ignoro, quoddam esse ruris genus, in quo neque pecora, neque aves haberi possint; attamen inertis est rustici eo quoque loco defici stercore.

Nay rather, the use of ash and of cinder has been sufficiently profitable. The lupine shrub, when cut down, furnishes the power of the best manure. Nor am I unaware that there is a certain kind of countryside in which neither cattle nor birds can be kept; nevertheless, it is the mark of an indolent rustic to be deficient in dung even in that place as well.

Licet enim quamlibet frondem, licet e vepribus et e viis compitisque congesta colligere; licet filicem sine iniuria vicini etiam cum officio decidere, et permiscere cum purgamentis cortis; licet depressa fossa, qualem stercori reponendo primo volumine fieri praecepimus, cinerem caenumque cloacarum et culmos ceteraque quae everruntur, in unum congerere. Sed eodem medio loco robustam materiam defigere convenit. Namque ea res serpentem noxiam latere in stercore prohibet.

For it is permitted to gather any foliage whatever, it is permitted to collect what has been heaped from brambles and from roads and crossroads; it is permitted, without injury to a neighbor, even with warrant, to cut down fern, and to mix it with the sweepings of the farmyard; it is permitted, in a sunken pit—such as in the first volume we instructed to be made for storing manure—to pile together in one ashes and the sewage-mire of drains and the stalks and the other things that are swept out. But in that same middle place it is fitting to fix a sturdy timber. For that measure prevents a harmful serpent from lying hidden in the dung.

Haec ubi viduus pecudibus ager. Nam ubi greges quadrupedum versantur, quaedam cotidie, ut culina et caprile, quaedam pluviis diebus, ut bubilia et ovilia debent emundari. Ac si tantum frumentarius ager est, nihil refert genera stercoris separari; sin autem surculo et segetibus atque etiam pratis fundus est dispositus, generatim quodque reponendum est, sicut caprarum et avium.

These things are for when the field is bereft of flocks. For where herds of quadrupeds are engaged, certain places must be cleansed daily, such as the kitchen and the goat-pen, and certain others on rainy days, such as the ox-stalls and the sheepfolds. And if the land is only a grain-field, it does not matter that the kinds of dung be kept separate; but if the farm is laid out for slips/shoots and for crops, and even for meadows, each sort ought to be stored by kind, as, for instance, that of goats and of birds.

Reliqua deinde in praedictum locum concavum congerenda, et assiduo humore satianda sunt, ut herbarum semina culmis ceterisque rebus immixta putrescant. Aestivis deinde mensibus non aliter ac si repastines, totum sterquilinium rastris permisceri oportet, quo facilius putrescat et sit arvis idoneum. Parum autem diligentes existimo esse agricolas apud quos minores singulae pecudes tricenis diebus minus quam singulas itemque maiores denas vehes stercoris efficiunt, totidemque singuli homines, qui non solum ea purgamenta, quae ipsi corporibus edunt, sed et quae colluvies cortis et aedificii cotidie gignit, contrahere et congerere possunt.

The rest, then, must be heaped together in the aforesaid hollow place, and be satiated with continual moisture, so that the seeds of weeds, mixed with the stalks and the other things, may putrefy. Then in the estival months, not otherwise than if you were to repastine, the whole dunghill ought to be worked through with rakes, whereby it may more easily rot and be suitable for the fields. Moreover, I consider those farmers to be lacking in diligence, among whom the smaller individual livestock in 30 days produce less than single cartloads of manure, and likewise the larger less than 10 loads; and individual men just as many each, who can collect and heap together not only those purgaments which they void from their bodies, but also those which the colluvies of the yard and of the building generates daily.

Illud quoque praecipiendum habeo, stercus omne quod tempestive repositum anno requieverit, segetibus esse maxime utile; nam et vires adhuc solidas habet, et herbas non creat; quanto autem vetustius sit, minus prodesse, quoniam minus valeat.Itaque pratis quam recentissimum debere inici, quod plus herbarum progeneret; idque mense Februario luna crescente fieri oportere. Nam ea quoque res aliquantum foeni fructum adiuvat. De cetero usus stercoris qualis in quaque re debeat esse, tum dicemus, cum singula persequemur.

I have also to give this instruction, that all dung which, having been timely laid up, has rested for a year, is most useful for the sown crops; for it still has solid strength, and it does not create herbs; but the older it is, the less it profits, since it has less vigor.Therefore it ought to be cast upon the meadows as fresh as possible, because it brings forth more herbage; and this ought to be done in the month of February with the moon waxing. For that practice too somewhat helps the hay’s yield. As for the rest, what the use of dung ought to be in each matter, we will speak of then, when we pursue the several particulars.

XV. Interim qui frumentis arva praeparare volet, si autumno sementem facturus est, mense Septembri; si vere, qualibet hiemis parte modicos acervos luna decrescente disponat, ita ut plani loci iugerum duodeviginti, clivosi quattuor et viginti vehes stercoris teneant; et, ut paulo prius dixi, non antea dissipet cumulos, quam erit araturus. Si tamen aliqua causa tempestivam stercorationem facere prohibuerit, secunda ratio est, ante quam seras more seminantis ex aviariis pulverem stercoris per segetem spargere. Si et is non erit, caprinum manu iacere, atque ita terram sarculis permiscere.

15. Meanwhile, whoever will wish to prepare the fields for grain-crops, if he is going to make the sowing in autumn, in the month of September; if in spring, in any part of winter let him arrange modest heaps with the moon waning, in such a way that a iugerum of level ground may take 18 cart-loads of dung, of sloping ground 24 cart-loads; and, as I said a little before, let him not scatter the piles sooner than when he is about to plough. If, however, some cause has forbidden making timely manuring, the second course is, before you sow, in the manner of a sower to scatter through the cornfield dust of dung from bird-houses. If even that will not be available, throw goat-manure by hand, and thus mix the earth with little hoes.

ea res laetas segetes reddit. Nec ignorare colonos oportet, sicuti refrigescere agrum, qui non stercoretur, ita peruri, si nimium stercoretur; magisque conducere agricolae, frequenter id potius, quam immodice facere. Nec dubium quin aquosus ager maiorem eius copiam, siccus minorem desideret.

that practice makes the crops luxuriant. Nor ought farmers to be ignorant that, just as a field which is not manured grows chilled, so it is scorched if it is manured too much; and that it is more conducive to the agriculturist to do this frequently rather than immoderately. Nor is there a doubt that a watery field desires a greater supply of it, a dry one a lesser.

Alter, quod assiduis humoribus rigens hoc adhibito regelatur; alter, quod per se tepens siccitatibus, hoc assumpto largiore, torretur; propter quod nec deesse ei talem materiam nec superesse oportet. Si tamen nullum genus stercoris suppetet, ei multum proderit fecisse, quod M. Columellam patruum meum doctissimum et diligentissimum agricolam saepenumero usurpasse memoria repeto, ut sabulosis locis cretam ingereret, cretosis ac nimium densis sabulum, atque ita non solum segetes laetas excitaret, verum etiam pulcherrimas vineas efficeret. Nam idem negabat stercus vitibus ingerendum, quod saporem vini corrumperet; melioremque censebat esse materiam vindemiis exuberandis, congesticiam vel de vepribus vel denique aliam quamlibet arcessitam et advectam humum.

One, because stiffened by continual moistures, is regulated by this when it is applied; the other, because tepid of itself through droughts, when this is taken on more liberally, is scorched; on account of which such material ought neither to be lacking to it nor to be in excess. If, however, no kind of dung is available, it will greatly benefit him to have done what I recall Marcus Columella, my uncle, a most learned and most diligent farmer, to have very often employed: to bring clay into sandy places, sand into clayey and overly dense ones, and thus not only to rouse joyous crops, but also to make most beautiful vineyards. For the same man maintained that dung ought not to be applied to vines, because it corrupted the savor of the wine; and he judged a better material for making the vintages exuberant to be heaped-up soil, either from brambles or, finally, any other earth fetched and brought in.

Iam vero et ego reor, si deficiatur omnibus rebus agricola, lupini certe expeditissimum praesidium non deesse; quod cum exili solo circa Idus Septembris sparserit et inaraverit, vim optimae stercorationis exhibebit. Succidi autem lupinum sabulosis locis oportet, cum secundum florem, rubricosis, cum tertium egerit. Illic dum tenerum est convertitur, ut celeriter ipsum putrescat, permisceaturque gracili solo; hic iam robustius, quod solidiores glaebas diutius sustineat et suspendat, ut eae solibus aestivis vaporatae resolvantur.

Now indeed I too think that, if the farmer is deficient in all resources, at least the most expeditious safeguard of lupine is not lacking; which, when he has scattered it upon lean soil about the Ides of September and has ploughed it in, will exhibit the power of the best manuring. But lupine ought to be cut down in sandy places when at its second bloom, in red soils when it has put forth the third. There, while it is tender, it is turned in, so that it may quickly rot and be mixed with the light soil; here, already more robust, because it holds up and suspends the more solid clods longer, so that these, warmed by the summer suns, may be loosened.

XVI. Atque haec arator exsequi poterit, si non solum, quae rettuli, genera pabulorum providerit, verum etiam copiam foeni, quo melius armenta tueatur, sine quibus terram commode moliri difficile est; et ideo necessarius ei cultus est etiam prati, cui veteres Romani primas in agricolatione tribuerunt. Nomen quoque indiderunt ab eo, quod protinus esset paratum, nec magnum laborem desideraret. M. quidem Porcius et illa commemoravit, quod nec tempestatibus affligeretur, ut aliae partes ruris, minimique sumptus egens, per omnes annos praeberet reditum, neque eum simplicem, cum etiam in pabulo non minus redderet, quam in foeno.

16. And the plowman will be able to carry out these things, if he provides not only the kinds of fodders which I have related, but also a supply of hay, by which he may better safeguard the herds, without which it is difficult to work the ground conveniently; and therefore cultivation of meadow is also necessary for him, to which the ancient Romans gave first place in agriculture. They also bestowed the name from the fact that it is forthwith prepared, and does not require great labor. Marcus Porcius indeed also noted this: that it is not afflicted by storms, as other parts of the countryside are, and, needing the least expense, it yields a return through all years—and not a simple one, since even in pasture it yields no less than in hay.

Eius igitur animadvertimus duo genera, quorum alterum est siccaneum, alterum riguum. Laeto pinguique campo non desideratur influens rivus, meliusque habetur foenum, quod suapte natura succoso gignitur solo, quam quod irrigatum aquis elicitur, quae tamen sunt necessariae, si macies terrae postulat. Nam et in densa et resoluta humo quamvis exili pratum fieri potest, cum facultas irrigandi datur.

Therefore we have observed two kinds of it, of which one is dryland, the other irrigated. In a lush and rich field a flowing brook is not needed, and the hay is held better which, by its own nature, is produced in succose soil, than that which, being irrigated, is drawn forth by waters; which, however, are necessary if the leanness of the soil requires it. For both in dense and in loosened earth a meadow can be made, even on meager soil, when the faculty of irrigating is given.

Ac nec campus concavae positionis esse neque collis praeruptae debet; ille, ne collectam diutius contineat aquam; hic, ne statim praecipitem fundat. Potest tamen mediocriter acclivis, si aut pinguis est aut riguus ager, pratum fieri. At planities maxime talis probatur, quae exigue prona non patitur diutius imbres aut influentes rivos immorari, sed ut quis eam supervenit humor, lente prorepit.

And neither should a field be of a concave position nor a hill precipitous: the former, lest it hold the collected water too long; the latter, lest it at once pour it off precipitately. Yet a meadow can be made on ground that is moderately acclivous, if the land is either rich or irrigated. But a plain of the best sort is approved, one that, being slightly prone, does not allow rains or inflowing rills to linger long, but, as any moisture comes upon it, it creeps away slowly.

Itaque si palus in aliqua parte subsidens restagnat, sulcis derivanda est. Quippe aquarum abundantia atque penuria graminibus aeque est exitio.

Therefore, if a marsh, subsiding in some part, stagnates, it must be diverted by furrows. For both the abundance and the penury of waters are equally to the ruin of grasses.

XVII. Cultus autem pratorum magis curae quam laboris est. Primum, ne stirpes aut spinas validioris incrementi herbas inesse patiamur; atque alias ante hiemem, et per autumnum exstirpemus, ut rubos, virgulta, iuncos; alias per ver evellamus, ut intuba ac solstitiales spinas; ac neque suem velimus impasci, quoniam rostro suffodiat et cespites excitet; neque pecora maiora, nisi cum siccissimum solum est, quia udo demergunt ungulas, et atterunt scinduntque radices herbarum. Tum deinde macriora et pendula loca mense Februario luna crescente fimo iuvanda sunt.

17. The cultivation of meadows is more a matter of care than of labor. First, let us not allow plants of stronger growth, whether stocks or thorns, to be present; and let us extirpate some before winter and through autumn, such as brambles, brushwood, rushes; others let us pull up in spring, such as endive and solstitial thorns; and let us neither wish to let swine pasture there, since with their snout they dig up and heave the sods; nor larger livestock, unless when the soil is driest, because in wet they sink their hoofs, and wear down and split the roots of the grasses. Then next, the leaner and hanging places in the month of February, with the moon waxing, must be aided with manure.

Omnesque lapides et siqua obiacent falcibus noxia, colligi debent, ac longius exportari, submittique pro natura locorum aut temporius aut serius. Sunt etiam quaedam prata situ vetustatis obducta, quibus mederi solent agricolae veteri eraso musco seminibusque de tabulato superiectis, vel ingesto stercore. Quorum neutrum tantum prodest, quantum si cinerem saepius ingeras.

And all stones, and if any things lie that are noxious to the sickles, ought to be gathered and carried farther away, and the mowing should be put in, earlier or later according to the nature of the places. There are also certain meadows overlaid with the mould of age, for which farmers are wont to apply a remedy by scraping off the old moss and casting seed from the granary-floor on top, or by bringing in manure. Of which neither benefits so much as if you more frequently apply ash.

Ea res muscum enecat. Attamen pigriora sunt ista remedia, cum sit efficacissimum de integro locum exarare. Sed hoc, si prata accepimus, facere debemus.

That measure kills the moss. Yet those remedies are more sluggish, since the most efficacious thing is to plough the place anew. But this we ought to do, if we have taken the meadows on lease.

Sin autem nova fuerint instituenda, vel antiqua renovanda, (nam multa sunt, ut dixi, quae negligentia exolescant, et fiant sterilia) ea expedit interdum etiam frumenti causa exarare, quia talis ager post longam desidiam laetas segetes affert. Igitur eum locum, quem prato destinaverimus, aestate proscissum subactumque saepius per autumnum rapis vel napo vel etiam faba conseremus; insequente deinde anno, frumento; tertio diligenter arabimus, omnesque validiores herbas et rubos et arbores, quae interveniunt radicibus, exstirpabimus, nisi si fructus arbusti id facere nos prohibuerit. Deinde viciam permixtam seminibus foeni seremus.

But if, however, new ones are to be instituted, or old ones renewed, (for many things, as I said, with negligence grow out of use and become sterile) it is expedient sometimes even for the sake of grain to plow them up, because such a field after long idleness brings forth gladsome harvests. Accordingly, the place which we shall have destined for meadow, having been ploughed up in summer and worked, we shall often through autumn sow with turnips or rape or even bean; then in the following year, with grain; in the third we shall carefully plow, and we shall extirpate all the stronger weeds and brambles and trees, which intervene with their roots, unless the fruit of the arbustum has prevented us from doing this. Then we shall sow vetch mixed with seeds of hay.

Tum glaebas sarculis resolvemus, et inducta crate coaequabimus, grumosque, quos ad versuram plerumque tractae faciunt crates, dissipabimus ita, <ut> necubi ferramentum foenisecis possit offendere. Sed eam viciam non convenit ante desecare, quam permaturuerit, et aliqua semina subiacenti solo iecerit. Tum foenisecas oportet inducere et desectam herbam religare et exportare; deinde locum rigare, si fuerit facultas aquae; si tamen terra densior est.

Then we will loosen the clods with hoes, and, the harrow drawn over, we will level them, and the lumps which the dragged harrows generally make at the turn we will scatter, so that nowhere the mowers’ iron may catch. But it is not proper to cut that vetch before it has fully matured and has cast some seeds upon the soil lying beneath. Then it is right to bring in the mowers and to bind up and carry out the cut herbage; then to water the place, if there is a supply of water; especially if the soil is denser.

Nam in resoluta humo non expedit inducere maiorem vim rivorum, prius quam conspissatum et herbis colligatum sit solum: quoniam impetus aquarum proluit terram, nudatisque radicibus gramina non patitur coalescere. Propter quod ne pecora quidem oportet teneris adhuc et subsidentibus pratis immittere, sed quotiens herba prosiluerit, falcibus desecare. Nam pecudes, ut ante iam dixi, molli solo infigunt ungulas, atque interruptas non sinunt herbarum radices serpere et condensari.

Therefore in loosened soil it is not expedient to bring in a greater force of rivulets before the ground has been thickened and bound together with grasses: since the onrush of waters washes away the earth, and, with the roots laid bare, does not allow the turf to coalesce. For which reason one ought not even to let livestock into meadows still tender and subsiding, but, as often as the herbage has sprung forth, to cut it down with sickles. For the herd-beasts, as I have already said before, fix their hoofs in the soft soil, and do not allow the roots of the grasses, once interrupted, to creep and condense.

Altero tamen anno minora pecora post foenisicia permittemus admitti, si modo siccitas et conditio loci patietur. Tertio deinde cum pratum solidius ac durius erit, poterit etiam maiores recipere pecudes. Sed in totum curandum est, ut secundum Favonii exortum mense Februario circa Idus immixtis seminibus foeni macriora loca et utique celsiora stercorentur.

Nevertheless, in the second year we will permit the smaller livestock to be admitted after the hay-harvest, if only dryness and the condition of the place allow. Then in the third, when the meadow will be more solid and harder, it will be able even to receive larger livestock. But in general it must be cared for that, after the rising of the Favonius in the month of February, about the Ides, the leaner places of the hay-meadow, and in any case the higher ones, be manured, with seeds mixed in.

Nam editior clivus praebet etiam subiectis alimentum, cum superveniens imber aut manu rivus perductus succum stercoris in inferiorem partem secum trahit. Atque ideo fere prudentes agricolae etiam in aratis collem magis, quam vallem stercorant, quoniam, ut dixi, pluviae semper omnem pinguiorem materiam in ima deducunt.

For a higher slope provides nourishment even to those lying below, since a supervening shower or a rivulet conducted by hand draws with it the juice of the manure into the lower part. And therefore nearly all prudent agriculturists even in arable lands manure the hill rather than the valley, because, as I said, the rains always lead down all the richer material into the lowest places.

XVIII. Foenum autem demetitur optime ante quam inarescat; nam et largius percipitur, et iucundiorem cibum pecudibus praebet. Est autem modus in siccando, ut neque peraridum neque rursus viride colligatur; alterum, quod omnem succum si amisit, stramenti vicem obtinet, alterum <quod> si nimium retinuerit, in tabulato putrescit; ac saepe cum concaluit, ignem creat et incendium. Nonnumquam etiam cum foenum caedimus, imber oppressit; quod si permaduit, inutile est udum movere; meliusque patiemur superiorem partem sole siccari.

18. Hay is best mown before it dries out; for then it is both more copiously obtained, and it offers the cattle more pleasant fodder. There is, moreover, a method in drying, that it be gathered neither over-dry nor, on the other hand, green; the former, because if it has lost all its juice, takes the place of straw; the latter, <which> if it has retained too much, rots in the loft; and often, when it has heated up, it creates fire and a conflagration. Sometimes also, when we cut the hay, a shower overtakes us; and if it has been thoroughly soaked, it is useless to move it while wet; and it will be better to allow the upper part to be dried by the sun.

Tunc demum convertemus, et utrimque siccatum coartabimus in strigam, atque ita manipulos vinciemus. Nec omnino cunctabimur, quo minus sub tectum congerantur, vel si non competit ut in villam foenum portetur, at in manipulos colligatum certe quicquid ad eum modum quo debet siccatum erit, in metas exstrui conveniet, easque ipsas in angustissimos vertices exacui. Sic enim commodissime foenum defenditur a pluviis, quae etiam si non sint, non alienum tamen est praedictas metas facere; ut si quis humor herbis inest, exsudet atque excoquatur in acervis.

Then at last we shall turn it, and, dried on both sides, we shall compress it into a swath, and thus we shall bind bundles. Nor shall we at all delay to have them heaped under a roof; or, if it is not fitting that the hay be carried into the villa, then, at least gathered into bundles, whatever shall have been dried to the measure as it ought, it will be proper to erect into stacks, and to sharpen those very stacks into the narrowest peaks. For thus most commodiously the hay is defended from rains; and even if there are none, it is nonetheless not out of place to make the aforesaid stacks, so that if any moisture is present in the herbage, it may sweat out and be cooked off in the heaps.

Propter quod prudentes agricolae quamvis iam illatum tecto non ante componunt, quam per paucos dies aliquos temere congestum in se concoqui et defervescere patiantur. Sed iam foenisicia sequitur cura messis, quam ut recte possimus percipere, prius instrumenta praeparanda sunt, quibus fruges coguntur.

For which reason prudent farmers, although it has already been brought under a roof, do not set it in order before they allow it, for a few days, being hastily heaped together, to cook together within itself and for the heat to subside. But now haymaking is followed by the care of the harvest, which, in order that we may rightly take in, first the instruments must be prepared by which the crops are gathered.

XIX. Area quoque si terrena erit, ut sit ad trituram satis habilis, primum radatur, deinde confodiatur, permixtisque paleis cum amurca, quae salem non accepit, extergatur. Nam ea res a populatione murium formicarumque frumenta defendit. Tum aequata paviculis vel molari lapide condensetur, et rursus superiectis paleis inculcetur, atque ita solibus siccanda relinquatur.

19. The threshing-floor also, if it will be earthen, so that it may be sufficiently fit for threshing, should first be scraped, then dug, and, with chaff mixed with amurca which has not received salt, be smeared over. For this thing defends the grain from the depredation of mice and ants. Then, having been leveled with small rammers or with a molar stone (millstone), let it be compacted, and again, with chaff thrown over, let it be trodden in, and thus be left to be dried in the sun.

Suunt tamen, qui prati obiacentem favonio partem triturae destinant, areamque demessa faba et iniecta expoliunt; nam dum a pecudibus legumina proculcantur, herbae etiam ungulis atteruntur, atque ita glabrescit et fit idonea trituris area.

There are, however, those who designate for threshing the part of a meadow lying open to Favonius (the west wind), and they polish the threshing-floor with the beans having been mown and strewn; for while the legumes are trampled by the cattle, the grasses too are worn down by the hooves, and thus it grows smooth and the threshing-floor becomes suitable for threshings.

XX. Sed cum matura fuerit seges, ante quam torreatur vaporibus aestivi sideris, qui sunt vastissimi per ortum Caniculae, celeriter demetatur. Nam dispendiosa est cunctatio, primum, quod avibus praedam ceterisque animalibus praebet; deinde quod grana et ipsae spicae culmis arentibus et aristis celeriter decidunt. Si vero procellae ventorum aut turbines incesserint, maior pars ad terram defluit; propter quae recrastinari non debet, sed aequaliter flaventibus iam satis, ante quam ex toto grana indurescant, cum rubicundum colorem traxerunt, messis facienda est, ut potius ia area et in acervo, quam in agro grandescant frumenta.

20. But when the crop has become mature, before it is scorched by the vapors of the summer star, which are most vast at the rising of the Dog-star, let it be swiftly reaped. For procrastination is costly: first, because it provides prey for birds and other animals; then, because the grains and the ears themselves, as the stalks and awns dry, quickly fall off. But if squalls of winds or whirlwinds assail, the greater part sinks to the ground; on account of which it ought not to be procrastinated, but, with the grain now sufficiently and evenly turning golden, before the kernels harden entirely, when they have taken on a ruddy color, the harvest should be made, so that the grain may grow larger on the threshing-floor and in the stack rather than in the field.

Constat enim, si tempestive decisa sint, postea capere incrementum. Sunt autem metendi genera complura. Multi falcibus veruculatis atque iis vel rostratis vel denticulatis medium culmum secant; multi mergis, alii pectinibus spicam ipsam legunt, idque in rara segete facillimum in densa difficillimum est.

For it is agreed that, if they are cut seasonably, afterwards they take increment. There are, moreover, several kinds of reaping. Many cut the middle of the stalk with sickles furnished with little barbs, and with those either rostrate or denticulated; many with reaping-hooks, others with combs pick the ear itself—and this is easiest in a sparse crop, most difficult in a dense one.

Quod si falcibus seges cum parte culmi demessa sit, protinus in acervum vel in nubilarium congeritur, et subinde opportunis solibus torrefacta proteritur. Sin autem spicae tantummodo recisae suunt, possunt in horreum conferri et deinde per hiemem vel baculis excuti vel exteri pecudibus. At si competit, ut in area teratur frumentum, nihil dubium est, quin equis melius quam bubus ea res conficiatur; et si pauca iuga sunt, adicere tribulam et traham possis; quae res utraque culmos facillime comminuit.

But if the crop has been reaped with sickles along with a part of the stalk, it is straightway heaped into a pile or into a nubilarium (a rain-shed), and then, dried by opportune suns, it is trodden out. But if the ears alone have been cut, they can be carried into the granary and then during the winter either be beaten out with cudgels or be trodden out by flock-animals. But if it suits that the grain be threshed on the threshing-floor, there is no doubt that this business is accomplished better by horses than by oxen; and if there are few yokes, you can add the tribulum (threshing-sledge) and the traha (drag-sledge); each of which very easily comminutes the stalks.

Ipsae autem spicae melius fustibus cuduntur, vannisque expurgantur. At ubi paleis immixta sunt frumenta, vento separentur. Ad eam rem Favonius habetur eximius, qui lenis aequalisque aestivis mensibus perflat; quem tamen opperiri lenti est agricolae, quia saepe dum esxpectatur, saeva nos hiems deprehendit.

The ears themselves are better beaten with staves, and are purged with winnowing-fans. But when the grains are mixed with chaff, let them be separated by the wind. For that purpose Favonius is held outstanding, which, gentle and equable, blows through in the summer months; yet to wait for it is a slow farmer’s part, because often, while it is awaited, savage winter overtakes us.

Itaque in area detrita frumenta sic sunt aggeranda, ut omni flatu possint excerni. At si compluribus diebus undique silebit aura, vannis expurgentur, ne post nimiam ventorum segnitiem vasta tempestas irritum faciat totius anni laborem. Pura deinde frumenta, si in annos reconduntur, repurgari debent.

Therefore on the threshing-floor the threshed grains are to be heaped in such a way that by every breeze they can be winnowed. But if for several days on all sides the air falls silent, let them be expurgated with winnowing-baskets, lest after an excessive sluggishness of the winds a vast tempest make void the labor of the whole year. Then the pure grain, if it is stored for years, ought to be re-purged.

Nam quanto sunt expolitiora, minus a curculionibus exeduntur. Sin protinus usui destinantur, nihil attinet repoliri, satisque est in umbra refrigerari, et ita granario inferri. Leguminum quoque non alia cura est, quam reliquorum frumentorum; nam ea quoque vel statim absumuntur, vel reconduntur.

For the more polished they are, the less they are eaten away by weevils. But if they are destined straightway for use, there is no need to be repolished; it is enough to be cooled in the shade, and thus to be carried into the granary. The care of legumes also is no other than that of the remaining grains; for these too are either consumed at once, or stored away.

Atque hoc supremum est aratoris emolumentum percipiendorum seminum, quae terrae crediderat.

And this is the ploughman’s supreme emolument: the taking-in of the seeds which he had entrusted to the earth.

XXI. Sed cum tam otii quam negotii rationem reddere maiores nostri censuerint, nos quoque monendos esse agricolas existimamus, quae feriis facere, quaeque non facere debeant. Sunt enim, ut ait poeta, quae

21. But since our ancestors judged that an account should be rendered of leisure as well as of business, we too think that farmers must be admonished what they ought to do on feast-days, and what they ought not to do. For there are, as the poet says, things which

     ... festis ... exercere diebus
     fas et iura sinunt: rivos deducere nulla
     religio vetuit, segeti praetendere saepem,
     insidias avibus moliri, incendere vepres,
     balantumque gregem fluvio mersare salubri.

     ... to work on feast days ...
     divine right and laws permit: to draw down rills no
     religious scruple has forbidden, to stretch a hedge before the crop,
     to contrive snares for birds, to set brambles on fire,
     and to plunge the bleating flock in a healthful river.

Quamquam pontifices negant segetem feriis sepiri debere. Vetant quoque lanarum causa lavari oves, nisi propter medicinam. Virgilius qui liceat feriis flumine adluere gregem praecepit, et idcirco adiecit, fluvio mersare salubri.

Although the pontiffs say that the crop ought not to be hedged on feast-days. They also forbid sheep to be washed for the sake of wool, unless on account of medicine. Virgil prescribed that it is permitted on feast-days to lave the flock with the river, and therefore he added, to immerse in a salubrious river.

Sunt enim vitia, quorum causa pecus utile sit lavare.

For there are ailments, for the sake of which it is useful to wash the flock.

Feriis autem ritus maiorum etiam illa permittit, far pinsere, faces incidere, candelas sebare, vineam conductam colere; piscinas, lacus, fossas veteres tergere et purgare, prata sicilire, stercora aequare, foenum in tabulata componere, fructus oliveti conductos cogere, mala, pira, ficos pandere, caseum facere, arbores serendi causa collo vel mulo clitellario afferre; sed iuncto advehere non permittitur, nec apportata serere, neque terram aperire, neque arborem collucare; sed ne sementem quidem administrare, nisi prius catulo feceris; nec foenum secare aut vincire aut vehere; ac ne vindemiam quidem cogi per religiones pontificum feriis licet; nec oves tondere, nisi si catulo feceris. Defrutum quoque facere et defrutare vinum licet. Uvas itemque olivas conditui legere licet.

On holidays, however, the rite of the ancestors permits even these things: to pound spelt, to cut torches, to tallow candles, to cultivate a leased vineyard; to wipe and purge fishponds, lakes, old ditches; to reap meadows with the sickle, to level manure, to arrange hay on platforms, to collect the fruits of an olive-grove under contract, to spread out apples, pears, figs, to make cheese, to bring trees for planting on the neck or by a pack-mule; but it is not permitted to convey with a yoked team, nor to plant the things brought, nor to open the soil, nor to lop a tree; nay, not even to manage the sowing, unless you shall first have done it with a whelp; nor to cut hay or bind or carry it; and not even the vintage is allowed to be gathered, by reason of the religious scruples of the pontiffs, on holidays; nor to shear sheep, unless if you have done it with a whelp. It is also permitted to make defrutum and to defrutate wine. Grapes and likewise olives may be picked for preserving.

Pellibus oves vestiri non licet. In horto quicquid olerum causa facias, omne licet. Feriis publicis hominem mortuum sepelire non licet.

It is not permitted to clothe sheep with skins. In the garden, whatever you do for the sake of pot-herbs/greens, all is permitted. On public holidays it is not permitted to bury a dead man.

M. Porcius Cato mulis, equis, asinis nullas esse ferias dixit. Idemque boves permittit coniungere lignorum et frumentorum advehendorum causa. Nos apud pontifices legimus, feriis tantum denicalibus mulos iungere non licere, ceteris licere.

M. Porcius Cato said that for mules, horses, and asses there are no holidays. And the same man permits oxen to be yoked for the purpose of conveying wood and grain. We read among the pontiffs that only on the denical holidays it is not permitted to yoke mules, on the rest it is permitted.

Hoc loco certum habeo quosdam, cum solemnia festorum percensuerim, desideraturos lustrationum ceterorumque sacrificiorum, quae pro frugibus fiunt, morem priscis usurpatum. Nec ego abnuo docendi curam; sed differo in eum librum, quem componere in animo est, cum agricolationis totam disciplinam perscripsero. Finem interim praesentis disputationis faciam, dicturus exordio sequente, quae de vineis arbustisque prodidere veteres auctores, quaeque ipse mox comperi.

At this point I am certain that some, after I have reviewed the solemnities of the festivals, will desire the practice—used by the ancients—of lustrations and the other sacrifices that are performed on behalf of the crops. Nor do I refuse the care of teaching; but I defer it to that book which I have in mind to compose, when I shall have written out the entire discipline of agriculture. Meanwhile I shall bring the present disquisition to an end, intending, with the following exordium, to set forth what the ancient authors have handed down about vineyards and tree-plantations for vines, and what I myself soon discovered.