Varro: RERVM RVSTICARVM DE AGRI CVLTURA

Otium si essem consecutus, Fundania, commodius tibi haec scriberem, quae nunc, ut potero, exponam cogitans esse properandum, quod, ut dicitur, si est homo bulla, eo magis senex. Annus enim octogesimus admonet me ut sarcinas conligam, antequam proficiscar e vita. Quare, quoniam emisti fundum, quem bene colendo fructuosum cum facere velis, meque ut id mihi habeam curare roges, experiar; et non solum, ut ipse quoad vivam, quid fieri oporteat ut te moneam, sed etiam post mortem.

If I had attained leisure, Fundania, I would write these things to you more commodiously; which now, as I can, I will expound, thinking there must be hastening, because, as it is said, if man is a bubble, so much the more an old man. For the eightieth year admonishes me to gather my baggage before I set out from life. Wherefore, since you have bought a farm, which you wish to make fruitful by cultivating it well, and ask me to have it in charge to see to this for you, I will try; and not only, so long as I live, to advise you what ought to be done, but even after death.

Neque patiar Sibyllam non solum cecinisse quae, dum viveret, prodessent hominibus, sed etiam quae cum perisset ipsa, et id etiam ignotissimis quoque hominibus; ad cuius libros tot annis post publice solemus redire, cum desideramus, quid faciendum sit nobis ex aliquo portento: me, ne dum vivo quidem, necessariis meis quod prosit facere. Quocirca scribam tibi tres libros indices, ad quos revertare, siqua in re quaeres, quem ad modum quidque te in colendo oporteat facere. Et quoniam, ut aiunt, dei facientes adiuvant, prius invocabo eos, nec, ut Homerus et Ennius, Musas, sed duodecim deos Consentis; neque tamen eos urbanos, quorum imagines ad forum auratae stant, sex mares et feminae totidem, sed illos XII deos, qui maxime agricolarum duces sunt.

Nor will I allow that the Sibyl not only sang things which, while she lived, were beneficial to human beings, but also things after she herself had perished—and that even for utterly unknown people; to whose books, so many years afterward, we are accustomed publicly to return whenever we desire to know what is to be done by us from some portent—while I, not even while I live, do something that would profit my dependents. Therefore I will write for you three books as indices, to which you may return, if in any matter you inquire, in what manner you ought to do each thing in cultivating. And since, as they say, the gods help those who act, first I will invoke them—not, as Homer and Ennius, the Muses, but the twelve gods Consentes; and not those city gods, whose gilded images stand by the forum, six males and as many females, but those 12 gods who are most the leaders of farmers.

Primum, qui omnis fructos agri culturae caelo et terra continent, Iovem et Tellurem: itaque, quod ii parentes, magni dicuntur, Iuppiter pater appellatur, Tellus terra mater. Secundo Solem et Lunam, quorum tempora observantur, cum quaedam seruntur et conduntur. Tertio Cererem et Liberum, quod horum fructus maxime necessari ad victum: ab his enim cibus et potio venit e fundo.

First, Jupiter and Tellus, who contain all the fruits of agriculture within sky and earth; and so, because those parents are called great, Jupiter is called Father, Tellus Mother Earth. Secondly, the Sun and the Moon, whose times are observed, when certain things are sown and stored. Third, Ceres and Liber, because the fruits of these are most necessary for sustenance: from them indeed food and drink come from the farm.

Quarto Robigum ac Floram, quibus propitiis neque robigo frumenta atque arbores corrumpit, neque non tempestive florent. Itaque publice Robigo feriae Robigalia, Florae ludi Floralia instituti. Item adveneror Minervam et Venerem, quarum unius procuratio oliveti, alterius hortorum; quo nomine rustica Vinalia instituta.

Fourth, Robigo and Flora, by whose favor neither blight corrupts the grain and the trees, nor do they fail to flower in due season. And so, publicly, for Robigo the holiday Robigalia, for Flora the games Floralia have been instituted. Likewise I revere Minerva and Venus, of whom the care of the one is of the olive-grove, of the other of the gardens; under which name the Rustic Vinalia have been instituted.

Nec non etiam precor Lympham ac Bonum Eventum, quoniam sine aqua omnis arida ac misera agri cultura, sine successu ac bono eventu frustratio est, non cultura. Iis igitur deis ad venerationem advocatis ego referam sermones eos quos de agri cultura habuimus nuper, ex quibus quid te facere oporteat animadvertere poteris. in quis quae non inerunt et quaeres, indicabo a quibus scriptoribus repetas et Graecis et nostris.

Nor indeed do I fail also to pray to Lympha and Good Outcome, since without water every agriculture is dry and wretched, and without success and good outcome it is frustration, not cultivation. These gods therefore having been called to veneration, I will recount those discourses which we had recently about agriculture, from which you will be able to observe what you ought to do. In these, for the things that will not be included and that you inquire about, I will indicate from which writers, both Greek and our own, you should retrieve them.

Qui Graece scripserunt dispersim alius de alia re, sunt plus quinquaginta. Hi sunt, quos tu habere in consilio poteris, cum quid consulere voles, Hieron Siculus et Attalus Philometor: de philosophis Democritus physicus, Xenophon Socraticus, Aristoteles et Theophrastus peripatetici, Archytas Pythagoreus: item Amphilochus Atheniensis, Anaxipolis Thasius, Apollodorus Lemnius, Aristophanes Mallotes, Antigonus Cymaeus, Agathocles Chius, Apollonius Pergamenus, Aristandros Atheniensis, Bacchius Milesius, Bion Soleus, Chaeresteus et Chaereas Athenienses, Diodorus Prieneus, Dion Colophonius, Diophanes Nicaeensis, Epigenes Rhodios, Euagon Thasius, Euphronii duo, unus Atheniensis, alter Amphipolites, Hegesias Maronites, Menandri duo, unus Prieneus, alter Heracleotes, Nicesius Maronites, Pythion Rhodius. De reliquis, quorum quae fuerit patria non accepi, sunt Androtion, Aeschrion, Aristomenes, Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysios, Euphiton, Euphorion, Eubulus, Lysimachus, Mnaseas, Menestratus, Plentiphanes, Persis, Theophilus.

Those who have written in Greek, here and there each on a different matter, are more than fifty. These are they whom you will be able to have for counsel, whenever you wish to consult anything, Hieron the Sicilian and Attalus Philometor: of the philosophers, Democritus the physicist (natural philosopher), Xenophon the Socratic, Aristotle and Theophrastus the Peripatetics, Archytas the Pythagorean: likewise Amphilochus the Athenian, Anaxipolis the Thasian, Apollodorus the Lemnian, Aristophanes of Mallos, Antigonus the Cymaean, Agathocles the Chian, Apollonius the Pergamene, Aristandros the Athenian, Bacchius the Milesian, Bion of Soli, Chaeresteus and Chaereas the Athenians, Diodorus of Priene, Dion the Colophonian, Diophanes the Nicaean, Epigenes the Rhodian, Euagon the Thasian, two Euphronii, one an Athenian, the other of Amphipolis, Hegesias the Maronite, two Menandri, one of Priene, the other a Heracleote, Nicesius the Maronite, Pythion the Rhodian. Of the rest, whose homeland I have not learned, are Androtion, Aeschrion, Aristomenes, Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysios, Euphiton, Euphorion, Eubulus, Lysimachus, Mnaseas, Menestratus, Plentiphanes, Persis, Theophilus.

Hi quos dixi omnes soluta oratione scripserunt; easdem res etiam quidam versibus, ut Hesiodus Ascraeus, Menecrates Ephesius. Hos nobilitate Mago Carthaginiensis praeteriit, poenica lingua qui res dispersas comprendit libris XXIIX, quos Cassius Dionysius Uticensis vertit libris XX ac Graeca lingua Sextilio praetori misit: in quae volumina de Graecis libris eorum quos dixi adiecit non pauca et de Magonis dempsit instar librorum VIII. Hosce ipsos utiliter ad VI libros redegit Diophanes in Bithynia et misit Deiotaro regi.

All those whom I have named wrote in prose; the same subjects were also treated by certain men in verses, such as Hesiod the Ascraean and Menecrates of Ephesus. These Mago the Carthaginian surpassed in renown, who in the Punic language compiled the scattered matters in 28 books, which Cassius Dionysius of Utica translated into 20 books and sent, in the Greek language, to the praetor Sextilius; into which volumes he added not a few things from the Greek books of those whom I have mentioned and subtracted from Mago the equivalent of 8 books. These very same Diophanes in Bithynia profitably reduced to 6 books and sent to King Deiotarus.

Quo brevius de ea re conor tribus libris exponere, uno de agri cultura, altero de re pecuaria, tertio de villaticis pastionibus, hoc libro circumcisis rebus, quae non arbitror pertinere ad agri culturam. Itaque prius ostendam, quae secerni oporteat ab ea, tum de his rebus dicam sequens naturales divisiones. Ea erunt ex radicibus trinis, et quae ipse in meis fundis colendo animadverti, et quae legi, et quae a peritis audii.

Wherefore I try to set forth the matter more briefly in three books: one on agriculture, another on stock-raising, a third on villa pasturings; in this book pruning away the things which I do not think pertain to agriculture. And so I shall first show what ought to be separated from it, then I shall speak of these matters following natural divisions. These will be from three roots: both what I myself have noticed by cultivating on my own farms, and what I have read, and what I have heard from experts.

II.

Sementivis feriis in aedem Telluris veneram rogatus ab aeditumo, ut dicere didicimus a patribus nostris, ut corrigimur a recentibus urbanis, ab aedituo. Offendi ibi C. Fundanium, socerum meum, et C. Agrium equitem R. Socraticum et P. Agrasium publicanum spectantes in pariete pictam Italiam. Quid vos hic?

On the Sementivae holidays I had come into the temple of Tellus, having been invited by the aeditumus—as we learned to say from our fathers; as we are corrected by the recent townsmen, by the aedituus. There I ran into C. Fundanius, my father-in-law, and C. Agrius, a Roman knight, a Socratic, and P. Agrasius, a publican, gazing at Italy painted on the wall. What are you doing here?

inquam, num feriae sementivae otiosos huc adduxerunt, ut patres et avos solebant nostros? Nos vero, inquit Agrius, ut arbitror, eadem causa quae te, rogatio aeditumi. Itaque si ita est, ut annuis, morere oportet nobiscum, dum ille revertatur.

I said, have the Sementival feast-days brought you here otiose, as our fathers and grandfathers used to be? We indeed, said Agrius, as I suppose, by the same cause as you, a request of the aedituus. And so, if it is so, as you assent, you must tarry with us until he returns.

Nam accersitus ab aedile, cuius procuratio huius templi est, nondum rediit et nos uti expectaremus se reliquit qui rogaret. Voltis igitur interea vetus proverbium, quod est 'Romanus sedendo vincit', usurpemus, dum ille venit?

For, having been summoned by the aedile, whose management this temple is, he has not yet returned, and has left us to wait for him, the one who invited us. Do you wish, then, in the meantime, that we employ the old proverb, which is “the Roman conquers by sitting,” till he comes?

Sane, inquit Agrius, et simul cogitans portam itineri dici longissimam esse ad subsellia sequentibus nobis procedit.

“Surely,” says Agrius, and at the same time, thinking that “the gate for a journey is said to be the longest,” he proceeds to the benches, with us following.

Cum consedissemus, Agrasius, Vos, qui multas perambulastis terras, ecquam cultiorem Italia vidistis? inquit. Ego vero, Agrius, nullam arbitror esse quae tam tota sit culta.

When we had sat down, Agrasius says, You, who have perambulated many lands, have you seen any more cultivated than Italy? I indeed, Agrius, judge that there is none which is so wholly cultivated.

Primum cum orbis terrae divisus sit in duas partes ab Eratosthene maxume secundum naturam, ad meridiem versus et ad septemtriones, et sine dubio quoniam salubrior pars septemtrionalis est quam meridiana, et quae salubriora illa fructuosiora, dicendum utique Italiam magis etiam fuisse opportunam ad colendum quam Asiam, primum quod est in Europa, secundo quod haec temperatior pars quam interior. Nam intus paene sempiternae hiemes, neque mirum, quod sunt regiones inter circulum septemtrionalem et inter cardinem caeli, ubi sol etiam sex mensibus continuis non videtur. Itaque in oceano in ea parte ne navigari quidem posse dicunt propter mare congelatum.

First, since the terrestrial orb was divided into two parts by Eratosthenes, most in accordance with nature, toward the south and toward the north, and without doubt since the septentrional part is more salubrious than the meridional, and those which are more salubrious are more fruitful, it must indeed be said that Italy was even more opportune for being cultivated than Asia, first because it is in Europe, secondly because this part is more temperate than the interior. For inside there are almost sempiternal winters; nor is it a wonder, because there are regions between the septentrional circle (the Arctic Circle) and the pole of the heavens, where the sun is not seen even for six continuous months. And so in the Ocean in that part they say it is not even possible to sail on account of the frozen sea.

Fundanius, Em ubi tu quicquam nasci putes posse aut coli natum. Verum enim est illud Pacuvi, sol si perpetuo sit aut nox, flammeo vapore aut frigore terrae fructos omnis interire. Ego hic, ubi nox et dies modice redit et abit, tamen aestivo die, si non diffinderem meo insiticio somno meridie, vivere non possum.

Fundanius, Look, where do you suppose anything can be born or, once born, be cultivated? For that saying of Pacuvius is true: if the sun or night were perpetual, by flaming vapor or by cold all the fruits of the earth would perish. I, here, where night and day return and depart in measure, nevertheless on a summer day, if I did not split the day at midday with my engrafted sleep, cannot live.

Illic in semenstri die aut nocte quem ad modum quicquam seri aut alescere aut meti possit? Contra quid in Italia utensile non modo non nascitur, sed etiam non egregium fit? Quod far conferam Campano?

There, in a six-month day or night, how could anything be sown or grow or be reaped? Conversely, what useful thing in Italy not only does not spring up, but even fails to become outstanding? What spelt shall I compare to the Campanian?

Quod triticum Apulo? Quod vinum Falerno? Quod oleum Venafro?

What wheat shall I compare with Apulian? What wine with Falernian? What oil with Venafran?

Non arboribus consita Italia, ut tota pomarium videatur? An Phrygia magis vitibus cooperta, quam Homerus appellat ampeloessan, quam haec? Aut tritico Argos, quod idem poeta polupuron?

Is not Italy planted with trees, so that it seems an entire orchard? Or is Phrygia more covered with vines than this land, which Homer calls ampeloessan? Or Argos with wheat, which the same poet calls polupuron?

In qua terra iugerum unum denos et quinos denos culleos fert vini, quot quaedam in Italia regiones? An non M. Cato scribit in libro Originum sic: 'ager Gallicus Romanus vocatur, qui viritim cis Ariminum datus est ultra agrum Picentium. In eo agro aliquotfariam in singula iugera dena cullea vini fiunt'? Nonne item in agro Faventino, a quo ibi trecenariae appellantur vites, quod iugerum trecenas amphoras reddat?

In what land does a single iugerum bear ten and fifteen cullei of wine, as certain regions in Italy do? Or does not M. Cato write thus in the book Origins: ‘the Gallic field is called Roman, which was given man by man on this side of Ariminum, beyond the territory of the Picentes. In that field, in several places, ten cullei of wine are made for each iugerum’? And likewise in the Faventine land, whence the vines there are called trecenariae, because a iugerum yields three hundred amphoras?

Simul aspicit me, Certe, inquit, Libo Marcius, praefectus fabrum tuos, in fundo suo Faventiae hanc multitudinem dicebat suas reddere vites. Duo in primis spectasse videntur Italici homines colendo, possentne fructus pro impensa ac labore redire et utrum saluber locus esset an non. Quorum si alterutrum decolat et nihilo minus quis vult colere, mente est captus adque adgnatos et gentiles est deducendus.

At once he looks at me: “Surely,” he says, “Libo Marcius, your prefect of the craftsmen, on his estate at Faventia was saying that his vines yield this multitude.” Two things especially seem to have been looked to by Italian men in cultivating: whether the fruits could return for the expense and the labor, and whether the place was salubrious or not. If either of these is deficient and nonetheless someone wishes to cultivate, he is out of his mind and must be led away to his agnates and gentiles (clansmen).

Nemo enim sanus debet velle impensam ac sumptum facere in cultura, si videt non posse refici, nec si potest reficere fructus, si videt eos fore ut pestilentia dispereant. Sed, opinor, qui haec commodius ostendere possint adsunt. Nam C. Licinium Stolonem et Cn. Tremelium Scrofam video venire: unum, cuius maiores de modo agri legem tulerunt (nam Stolonis illa lex, quae vetat plus D iugera habere civem R.), et qui propter diligentiam culturae Stolonum confirmavit cognomen, quod nullus in eius fundo reperiri poterat stolo, quod effodiebat circum arbores e radicibus quae nascerentur e solo, quos stolones appellabant.

For no sane man ought to wish to make an outlay and expense in cultivation, if he sees that it cannot be recouped, nor should he, even if the produce can make it good, if he sees that they will perish by pestilence. But, I suppose, those who can show these matters more commodiously are present. For I see Gaius Licinius Stolo and Gnaeus Tremelius Scrofa coming: the one, whose ancestors carried a law concerning the measure of land (for that law of Stolo, which forbids a Roman citizen to have more than 500 iugera), and who, on account of his diligence in cultivation, confirmed the cognomen Stolo, because no stolon could be found on his estate, since he used to dig out around the trees the shoots that sprang from the soil from the roots, which they called stolones.

Eiusdem gentis C. Licinius, tr. pl. cum esset, post reges exactos annis CCCLXV primus populum ad leges accipiendas in septem iugera forensia e comitio eduxit. Alterum collegam tuum, viginti virum qui fuit ad agros dividendos Campanos, video huc venire, Cn. Tremelium Scrofam, virum omnibus virtutibus politum, qui de agri cultura Romanus peritissimus existimatur. An non iure?

C. Licinius of the same clan, when he was tribune of the plebs, three hundred and sixty-five (365) years after the kings had been driven out, was the first to lead the people out from the Comitium into the seven iugera of the Forum for the receiving of laws. I see your other colleague, one of the board of twenty who was for dividing the Campanian fields, coming here, Cn. Tremelius Scrofa, a man polished in all virtues, who is esteemed the most expert Roman on agriculture. And not with injustice, is it?

inquam. Fundi enim eius propter culturam iucundiore spectaculo sunt multis, quam regie polita aedificia aliorum, cum huius spectatum veniant villas, non, ut apud Lucullum, ut videant pinacothecas, sed oporothecas. Huiusce, inquam, pomarii summa sacra via, ubi poma veneunt contra aurum, imago.

I say. For his farms, on account of their cultivation, are for many a more pleasant spectacle than the regally polished edifices of others, since they come to see this man’s villas, not, as at Lucullus’s, to see pinacothecas, but oporothecas. Of this man’s orchard, I say, the image is at the summit of the Sacred Way, where fruits are sold in exchange for gold.

Illi interea ad nos, et Stolo, Num cena comessa, inquit, venimus? Nam non L. videmus Fundilium, qui nos advocavit. Bono animo este, inquit Agrius.

Meanwhile they came over to us; and Stolo said, “Have we come after the dinner has been eaten? For we do not see L. Fundilius, who summoned us.” “Be of good cheer,” said Agrius.

Nam non modo ovom illut sublatum est, quod ludis circensibus novissimi curriculi finem facit quadrigis, sed ne illud quidem ovom vidimus, quod in cenali pompa solet esse primum. Itaque dum id nobiscum una videatis ac venit aeditumus, docete nos, agri cultura quam summam habeat, utilitatemne an voluptatem an utrumque. Ad te enim rudem esse agri culturae nunc, olim ad Stolonem fuisse dicunt.

For not only has that egg been removed which in the circus-games marks the end of the last lap for the four-horse chariots (quadrigae), but we have not even seen that egg which is wont to be first in the banquet procession. Therefore, while you look at this together with us and the custodian comes, teach us what chief point agriculture has—utility or pleasure, or both. For they say that, with respect to you, I am now a novice in agriculture, as once I was with respect to Stolo.

Scrofa, Prius, inquit, discernendum, utrum quae serantur in agro, ea sola sint in cultura, an etiam quae inducantur in rura, ut oves et armenta. Video enim, qui de agri cultura scripserunt et Poenice et Graece et Latine, latius vagatos, quam oportuerit. Ego vero, inquit Stolo, eos non in omni re imitandos arbitror et eo melius fecisse quosdam, qui minore pomerio finierunt exclusis partibus quae non pertinent ad hanc rem.

Scrofa, “First,” said he, “it must be discerned whether the things that are sown in the field alone belong to cultivation, or also those that are introduced into the countryside, such as sheep and cattle-herds. For I see that those who have written about agriculture, in Punic and in Greek and in Latin, have ranged more broadly than was fitting.” “For my part,” said Stolo, “I think they are not to be imitated in every respect, and that some have done better, who have bounded the matter with a smaller pomerium, excluding the parts that do not pertain to this subject.”

Quare tota pastio, quae coniungitur a plerisque cum agri cultura, magis ad pastorem quam ad agricolam pertinere videtur. Quocirca principes qui utrique rei praeponuntur vocabulis quoque sunt diversi, quod unus vocatur vilicus, alter magister pecoris. Vilicus agri colendi causa constitutus atque appellatus a villa, quod ab eo in eam convehuntur fructus et evehuntur, cum veneunt.

Wherefore the whole pasturing, which by most is conjoined with agriculture, seems to pertain more to the shepherd than to the farmer. Therefore the principals who are put in charge of each matter are diverse also in appellations, because the one is called the vilicus, the other the master of the herd. The vilicus, constituted for the sake of cultivating the field and appellated from the villa, is so named because by him the fruits/produce are conveyed into it and carried out, when they are sold.

A quo rustici etiam nunc quoque viam veham appellant propter vecturas et vellam, non villam, quo vehunt et unde vehunt. Item dicuntur qui vecturis vivunt velaturam facere. Certe, inquit Fundanius, aliut pastio et aliut agri cultura, sed adfinis et ut dextra tibia alia quam sinistra, ita ut tamen sit quodam modo coniuncta, quod est altera eiusdem carminis modorum incentiva, altera succentiva.

From which cause the rustics even now also call the road “veham” on account of the haulages (vecturae), and “vellam,” not “villam,” the place to which they carry and from which they carry. Likewise, those who live by haulage are said to do “velatura.” Certainly, said Fundanius, pasturing is one thing and field-culture another, but akin; and as the right tibia is different from the left, yet in such a way that it is in a certain manner conjoined, in that the one is the incentive of the modes of the same song, the other the succentive.

Et quidem licet adicias, inquam, pastorum vitam esse incentivam, agricolarum succentivam auctore doctissimo homine Dicaearcho, qui Graeciae vita qualis fuerit ab initio nobis ita ostendit, ut superioribus temporibus fuisse doceat, cum homines pastoriciam vitam agerent neque scirent etiam arare terram aut serere arbores aut putare; ab iis inferiore gradu aetatis susceptam agri culturam. Quocirca ea succinit pastorali, quod est inferior, ut tibia sinistra a dextrae foraminibus. Agrius, Tu, inquit, tibicen non solum adimis domino pecus, sed etiam servis peculium, quibus domini dant ut pascant, atque etiam leges colonicas tollis, in quibus scribimus, colonus in agro surculario ne capra natum pascat: quas etiam astrologia in caelum recepit, non longe ab tauro.

And indeed you may add, I say, that the life of shepherds is the incentive, that of farmers the succentive, on the authority of the most learned man Dicaearchus, who shows us in such a way what the life of Greece was from the beginning, as to teach that in earlier times, when men led a pastoral life and did not even know how to plow the earth or plant trees or prune, agriculture was undertaken by them at a later stage of the age. Wherefore it sings under the pastoral, because it is inferior, as the left pipe to the finger-holes of the right. Agrius, “You,” says he, “piper, not only do you take away from the master his herd, but also from the slaves their peculium, which masters give them to pasture, and you even abolish the coloniary laws, in which we write, ‘let the colonus in a surcular field not pasture a kid’: which even astrology has received into heaven, not far from Taurus.”

Cui Fundanius, Vide, inquit, ne, Agri, istuc sit ab hoc, cum in legibus etiam scribatur 'pecus quoddam'. Quaedam enim pecudes culturae sunt inimicae ac veneno, ut istae, quas dixisti, caprae. Eae enim omnia novella sata carpendo corrumpunt, non minimum vites atque oleas. Itaque propterea institutum diversa de causa ut ex caprino genere ad alii dei aram hostia adduceretur, ad alii non sacrificaretur, cum ab eodem odio alter videre nollet, alter etiam videre pereuntem vellet.

To which Fundanius: “See, says he, lest, Agrius, that be from this, since in the laws there is even written ‘a certain pecus.’ For certain herd-animals are inimical to cultivation and like a poison, such as those you named, the goats. For they corrupt all newly sown plantings by nibbling, not least vines and olive trees. And so on that account it was instituted, for a different reason, that from the caprine kind a victim be led to the altar of one god, but to another it not be sacrificed, since with the same hatred one would not wish to see it, the other would even wish to see it perishing.”

Sic factum ut Libero patri, repertori vitis, hirci immolarentur, proinde ut capite darent poenas; contra ut Minervae caprini generis nihil immolarent propter oleam, quod eam quam laeserit fieri dicunt sterilem: eius enim salivam esse fructuis venenum: hoc nomine etiam Athenis in arcem non inigi, praeterquam semel ad necessarium sacrificium, ne arbor olea, quae primum dicitur ibi nata, a capra tangi possit. Nec ullae, inquam, pecudes agri culturae sunt propriae, nisi quae agrum opere, quo cultior sit, adiuvare, ut eae quae iunctae arare possunt. Agrasius, Si istuc ita est, inquit, quo modo pecus removeri potest ab agro, cum stercus, quod plurimum prodest, greges pecorum ministrent?

Thus it came about that to Father Liber, the discoverer of the vine, he-goats were immolated, so that, as it were, they might pay penalties with their head; but, conversely, that to Minerva nothing of the caprine kind should be immolated on account of the olive, because they say that the olive which a goat has injured becomes sterile: for its saliva is a poison to the fruit. For this reason also at Athens a goat is not led into the citadel, except once for a necessary sacrifice, lest the olive tree, which is said first to have sprung up there, be able to be touched by a goat. Nor, I say, are any beasts proper to agriculture, except those which help the field by work, whereby it is more cultivated, such as those which, yoked, can plow. Agrasius said, If that is so, how can livestock be removed from the field, since the herds of cattle supply dung, which profits most?

Sic, inquit Agrius, venalium greges dicemus agri culturam esse, si propter istam rem habendum statuerimus. Sed error hinc, quod pecus in agro esse potest et fructus in eo agro ferre, quod non sequendum. Nam sic etiam res aliae diversae ab agro erunt adsumendae, ut si habet plures in fundo textores atque institutos histonas, sic alios artifices.

Thus, says Agrius, shall we say that for-sale herds belong to agriculture, if for that reason we decide they must be kept? But the error comes from this: that cattle can be on the land and bear profit on that land—an inference not to be followed. For thus even other things diverse from the field would have to be taken up, as, if he has many weavers on the estate and looms installed, so also other artificers.

Scrofa, Diiungamus igitur, inquit, pastionem a cultura, et siquis quid vult aliud. Anne ego, inquam, sequar Sasernarum patris et filii libros ac magis putem pertinere, figilinas quem ad modum exerceri oporteat, quam argentifodinas aut alia metalla, quae sine dubio in aliquo agro fiunt? Sed ut neque lapidicinae neque harenariae ad agri culturam pertinent, sic figilinae.

Scrofa, let us therefore disjoin, he says, pasturage from cultivation, and, if anyone wishes, anything else. Or am I, I say, to follow the books of the Sasernae, father and son, and think it to pertain more, how potteries ought to be worked, than silver-mines or other mines, which without doubt are carried on in some field? But as neither stone-quarries nor sand-pits pertain to the cultivation of a field, so potteries.

Neque ideo non in quo agro idoneae possunt esse non exercendae, atque ex iis capiendi fructus: ut etiam, si ager secundum viam et opportunus viatoribus locus, aedificandae tabernae devorsoriae, quae tamen, quamvis sint fructuosae, nihilo magis sunt agri culturae partes. Non enim, siquid propter agrum aut etiam in agro profectus domino, agri culturae acceptum referre debet, sed id modo quod ex satione terra sit natum ad fruendum. Suscipit Stolo, Tu, inquit, invides tanto scriptori et obstrigillandi causa figlinas reprehendis, cum praeclara quaedam, ne laudes, praetermittas, quae ad agri culturam vehementer pertineant.

Nor for that reason, in whatever field they can be suitable, are they not to be worked, and profits to be taken from them: just as also, if a field is along a road and a place convenient for travelers, lodging-taverns should be built, which, however, although profitable, are none the more parts of agriculture. For if anything, on account of the field or even in the field, accrues to the owner, it ought not to be entered to the credit of agriculture, but only that which from sowing has been born of the earth for enjoyment. Stolo takes it up: You, he says, envy so great a writer and, for the sake of strigilling, you censure the potteries, when you pass over certain excellent things, lest you praise them, which very strongly pertain to agriculture.

Cum subrisisset Scrofa, quod non ignorabat libros et despiciebat, et Agrasius se scire modo putaret ac Stolonem rogasset ut diceret, coepit: Scribit cimices quem ad modum interfici oporteat his verbis: 'cucumerem anguinum condito in aquam eamque infundito quo voles, nulli accedent; vel fel bubulum cum aceto mixtum, unguito lectum'. Fundanius aspicit ad Scrofam, Et tamen verum dicit, inquit, hic, ut hoc scripserit in agri cultura. Ille, Tam hercle quam hoc, siquem glabrum facere velis, quod iubet ranam luridam coicere in aquam, usque qua ad tertiam partem decoxeris, eoque unguere corpus. Ego, Quod magis, inquam, pertineat ad Fundani valetudinem in eo libro, est satius dicas: nam huiusce pedes solent dolere, in fronte contrahere rugas.

When Scrofa had smiled, because he was not ignorant of the books and despised them, and Agrasius thought that he alone knew and had asked Stolo to speak, he began: “He writes how bedbugs ought to be killed in these words: ‘pickle a serpent-cucumber in water and pour that wherever you wish; none will come near; or mix ox-gall with vinegar, anoint the bed.’” Fundanius looks toward Scrofa, “And yet he speaks true,” he says, “in that he wrote this in agriculture.” He: “By Hercules, just as much as this—if you wish to make someone glabrous, where he bids you throw a lurid frog into water, and boil it down even to a third part, and with that anoint the body.” I: “What pertains more,” I say, “to Fundanius’s health in that book, it is better you say: for this man’s feet are wont to ache, to contract wrinkles in his forehead.”

Dic sodes, inquit Fundanius: nam malo de meis pedibus audire, quam quem ad modum pedes betaceos seri oporteat. Stolo subridens, Dicam, inquit, eisdem quibus ille verbis scripsit (vel Tarquennam audivi, cum homini pedes dolere coepissent, qui tui meminisset, ei mederi posse): 'ego tui memini, medere meis pedibus, terra pestem teneto, salus hic maneto in meis pedibus'. Hoc ter noviens cantare iubet, terram tangere, despuere, ieiunum cantare. Multa, inquam, item alia miracula apud Sasernas invenies, quae omnia sunt diversa ab agri cultura et ideo repudianda.

"Say, please," says Fundanius: "for I prefer to hear about my own feet, rather than how beet cuttings ought to be sown." Stolo, smiling, "I will say," he said, "in the same words in which he wrote (or I heard at Tarquinii, when a man’s feet had begun to hurt, that someone who had remembered you could medicate him): 'I remember you; medicate my feet; earth, hold the pest; health, stay here in my feet'." He bids this to be sung three times nine, to touch the earth, to spit, to chant while fasting. "Many likewise other miracles you will find among the Sasernas," I said, "which are all diverse from agriculture and therefore to be repudiated."

Quasi vero, inquit, non apud ceteros quoque scriptores talia reperiantur. An non in magni illius Catonis libro, qui de agri cultura est editus, scripta sunt permulta similia, ut haec, quem ad modum placentam facere oporteat, quo pacto libum, qua ratione pernas sallere? Illud non dicis, inquit Agrius, quod scribit, 'si velis in convivio multum bibere cenareque libenter, ante esse oportet brassicam crudam ex aceto aliqua folia quinque'.

As if indeed, he says, such things are not also found among the other writers. Or is it not the case that in that great Cato’s book, which has been published on agriculture, very many similar things are written, such as these: in what manner it is proper to make a placenta (cake), by what method a libum (cheese-cake), by what plan to salt hams? “That you do not say,” says Agrius, “what he writes: ‘if you wish at a convivium to drink much and to dine gladly, beforehand it is proper to eat raw cabbage with vinegar, some five leaves.’”

III.

Igitur, inquit Agrasius, quae diiungenda essent a cultura cuius modi sint, quoniam discretum, de iis rebus quae scientia sit in colendo nos docete, ars id an quid aliud, et a quibus carceribus decurrat ad metas. Stolo cum aspexisset Scrofam, Tu, inquit, et aetate et honore et scientia quod praestas, dicere debes. Ille non gravatus, Primum, inquit, non modo est ars, sed etiam necessaria ac magna; eaque est scientia, quae sint in quoque agro serenda ac facienda, quo terra maximos perpetuo reddat fructus.

Therefore, says Agrasius, as to what things ought to be disjoined from culture, of what sort they are—since that has been set apart—teach us, about those matters, what the science is in cultivating, whether it is an art or something else, and from what starting-gates it runs down to the goals. Stolo, when he had looked at Scrofa, said, You, since you excel in age and honor and knowledge, ought to speak. He, without reluctance, First, he said, it is not only an art, but also necessary and great; and it is the science of what things are to be sown and done in each field, so that the earth may render the greatest fruits perpetually.

IV.

Eius principia sunt eadem, quae mundi esse Ennius scribit, aqua, terra, anima et sol. Haec enim cognoscenda, priusquam iacias semina, quod initium fructuum oritur. Hinc profecti agricolae ad duas metas dirigere debent, ad utilitatem et voluptatem.

Its principles are the same as those which Ennius writes are the world’s: water, earth, anima (spirit/air), and the sun. For these must be known before you cast the seeds, since from them the beginning of fruits arises. Setting out from this, farmers ought to direct themselves toward two goals, toward utility and toward pleasure.

Utilitas quaerit fructum, voluptas delectationem: priores partes agit quod utile est, quam quod delectat. Nec non ea, quae faciunt cultura honestiorem agrum, pleraque non solum fructuosiorem eadem faciunt, ut cum in ordinem sunt consita arbusta atque oliveta, sed etiam vendibiliorem atque adiciunt ad fundi pretium. Nemo enim eadem utilitati non formosius quod est emere mavult pluris, quam si est fructuosus turpis.

Utility seeks fruit, pleasure delectation: what is useful takes the prior part over what delights. And those things which by cultivation make a field more seemly, for the most part the same things make it not only more fruitful—as when vineyards and olive-groves are planted in order—but also more vendible, and they add to the price of the estate. For no one, given the same utility, does not prefer to buy for more what is more shapely, than if it is productive but unsightly.

Utilissimus autem is ager qui salubrior est quam alii, quod ibi fructus certus; contra [quod] in pestilenti calamitas, quamvis in feraci agro, colonum ad fructus pervenire non patitur. Etenim ubi ratio cum orco habetur, ibi non modo fructus est incertus, sed etiam colentium vita. Quare ubi salubritas non est, cultura non aliud est atque alea domini vitae ac rei familiaris.

But the most useful field is that which is more salubrious than others, because there the fruit is certain; conversely, in a pestilential place calamity, even in a fertile field, does not allow the farmer to reach the fruits. Indeed, where a reckoning is held with Orcus, there not only is the fruit uncertain, but also the life of those who cultivate. Therefore, where there is no salubrity, cultivation is nothing other than a gamble with the owner’s life and household estate.

Nec haec non deminuitur scientia. Ita enim salubritas, quae ducitur e caelo ac terra, non est in nostra potestate, sed in naturae, ut tamen multum sit in nobis, quo graviora quae sunt ea diligentia leviora facere possimus. Etenim si propter terram aut aquam odore, quem aliquo loco eructat, pestilentior est fundus, aut propter caeli regionem ager calidior sit, aut ventus non bonus flet, haec vitia emendari solent domini scientia ac sumptu, quod permagni interest, ube sint positae villae, quantae sint, quo spectent porticibus, ostiis ac fenestris.

Nor are these not lessened by knowledge. For salubrity, which is drawn from sky and earth, is not in our power but in Nature’s; yet much is within us, whereby by diligence we can make lighter the more grievous conditions. For indeed, if on account of the soil or the water, by a stench which in some place belches forth, an estate is more pestilential, or if, on account of the region of the sky, the field is hotter, or an unwholesome wind blows, these faults are wont to be emended by the master’s science and expense—since it matters very greatly where the farmhouses are placed, how large they are, and which way they look with their porticoes, doors, and windows.

An non ille Hippocrates medicus in magna pestilentia non unum agrum, sed multa oppida scientia servavit? Sed quid ego illum voco ad testimonium? Non hic Varro noster, cum Corcyrae esset exercitus ac classis et omnes domus repletae essent aegrotis ac funeribus, immisso fenestris novis aquilone et obstructis pestilentibus ianuaque permutata ceteraque eius generis diligentia suos comites ac familiam incolumes reduxit?

Or did not that medic Hippocrates, in a great pestilence, save not one field, but many towns, by his science? But why do I call him as a witness? Did not our own Varro here, when at Corcyra the army and the fleet were present and all the houses were filled with the sick and with funerals, by letting in Aquilo (the north wind) through new windows and stopping up the pestilential ones and by changing the doorway, and by other diligence of that kind, bring back his companions and household safe and sound?

Sed quoniam agri culturae quod esset initium et finis dixi, relinquitur quot partes ea disciplina habeat ut sit videndum. Equidem innumerabiles mihi videntur, inquit Agrius, cum lego libros Theophrasti complures, qui inscribuntur phuton istorias et alteri phutikon aition. Stolo, Isti, inquit, libri non tam idonei iis qui agrum colere volunt, quam qui scholas philosophorum; neque eo dico, quo non habeant et utilia et communia quaedam.

But since I have said what is the beginning and the end of agriculture, it remains to be seen how many parts that discipline has. Indeed, they seem innumerable to me, said Agrius, when I read several books of Theophrastus, which are entitled phuton istorias and another phutikon aition. Stolo, Those, said he, books are not so suitable for those who wish to cultivate a field as for those who frequent the schools of philosophers; nor do I say this on that account, because they do not also have certain useful and common things.

Quapropter tu potius agri culturae partes nobis expone. Scrofa, Agri culturae, inquit, quattuor sunt partes summae: e quis prima cognitio fundi, solum partesque eius quales sint; secunda, quae in eo fundo opus sint ac debeant esse culturae causa; tertia, quae in eo praedio colendi causa sint facienda; quarta, quo quicque tempore in eo fundo fieri conveniat. De his quattuor generalibus partibus singulae minimum in binas dividuntur species, quod habet prima ea quae ad solum pertinent terrae et iterum quae ad villas et stabula.

Wherefore do you rather set forth to us the parts of agriculture. Scrofa: The chief parts of agriculture are four: of which the first is the knowledge of the farm—what the soil and its parts are like; the second, what things on that farm are needed and ought to be for the sake of cultivation; the third, what things on that estate must be done for the sake of tilling; the fourth, at what time each thing is fitting to be done on that farm. Of these four general parts, each is divided at least into two species, in that the first comprises those things which pertain to the soil of the land, and again those which pertain to the farmhouses and the stables.

Secunda pars, quae moventur atque in fundo debent esse culturae causa, est item bipertita, de hominibus, per quos colendum, et de reliquo instrumento. Tertia pars quae de rebus dividitur, quae ad quamque rem sint praeparanda et ubi quaeque facienda. Quarta pars de temporibus, quae ad solis circumitum annuum sint referenda et quae ad lunae menstruum cursum.

The second part, the things which are moved and which ought to be on the estate for the sake of cultivation, likewise is bipartite: about the people by whom it is to be cultivated, and about the remaining instruments (equipment). The third part, which is about matters, is divided as to what must be prepared for each task and where each thing must be done. The fourth part is about times, which are to be referred to the sun’s annual circuit and to the moon’s monthly course.

De primis quattuor partibus prius dicam, deinde subtilius de octo secundis.

I will first speak about the first four parts, then more subtly about the eight secondary ones.

VI.

Igitur primum de solo fundi videndum haec quattuor, quae sit forma, quo in genere terrae, quantus, quam per se tutus. Formae cum duo genera sint, una quam natura dat, altera quam sationes imponunt, prior, quod alius ager bene natus, alius male, posterior, quod alius fundus bene consitus est, alius male, dicam prius de naturali. Igitur cum tria genera sint a specie simplicia agrorum, campestre, collinum, montanum, et ex iis tribus quartum, ut in eo fundo haec duo aut tria sint, ut multis locis licet videre, e quibus tribus fastigiis simplicibus sine dubio infimis alia cultura aptior quam summis, quod haec calidiora quam summa, sic collinis, quod ea tepidiora quam infima aut summa: haec apparent magis ita esse in latioribus regionibus, simplicia cum sunt.

Therefore first, about the soil of the estate, these four things must be considered: what its form is, in what kind of earth, how great, how safe in itself. Since there are two kinds of form, one which nature gives, the other which sowings impose, the former, in that one field is well-born, another ill-born; the latter, in that one estate is well-planted, another ill-planted, I will speak first about the natural. Therefore, since there are three kinds, simple by species, of fields—level, hilly, mountainous—and from these three a fourth, such that in that estate these two or three are present, as it is permitted to see in many places, of which three simple elevations without doubt for the lowest a certain cultivation is more apt than for the highest, because these are warmer than the topmost; so for the hills, because they are more tepid than the lowest or the highest: these things appear the more to be so in broader regions, when they are simple.

Itaque ubi lati campi, ibi magis aestus, et eo in Apulia loca calidiora ac graviora, et ubi montana, ut in Vesuvio, quod leviora et ideo salubriora: qui colunt deorsum, magis aestate laborant, qui susum, magis hieme. Verno tempore in campestribus maturius eadem illa seruntur quae in superioribus et celerius hic quam illic coguntur. Nec non susum quam deorsum tardius seruntur ac metuntur.

Accordingly, where the fields are broad, there is more heat, and so in Apulia the places are hotter and more oppressive; and where there are mountains, as on Vesuvius, they are lighter and therefore more salubrious. Those who till down below labor more in summer; those up above, more in winter. In springtime on the plains the same crops are sown earlier than in the higher places, and are brought in more quickly here than there. And likewise they are sown and reaped more slowly up above than down below.

Quaedam in montanis prolixiora nascuntur ac firmiora propter frigus, ut abietes ac sappini, hic, quod tepidiora, populi ac salices: susum fertiliora, ut arbutus ac quercus, deosum, ut nuces graecae ac mariscae fici. In collibus humilibus societas maior cum campestri fructu quam cum montano, in altis contra. Propter haec tria fastigia formae discrimina quaedam fiunt sationum, quod segetes meliores existimantur esse campestres, vineae collinae, silvae montanae.

Certain things in the montane parts grow more elongated and sturdier because of the cold, as firs and pines; here, because it is warmer, poplars and willows: up above, more fertile, as arbutus and oak; down below, as Greek nuts (walnuts) and Mariscan figs. On low hills there is a greater fellowship with campestral produce than with montane, on high ones the contrary. On account of these three slopes, certain discriminations of form are made in plantings, because grain-crops are thought to be better on the plains, vineyards on the hills (colline), woodlands on the mountains (montane).

Plerumque hiberna iis esse meliora, qui colunt campestria, quod tunc prata ibi herbosa, putatio arborum tolerabilior: contra aestiva montanis locis commodiora, quod ibi tum et pabulum multum, quod in campis aret, ac cultura arborum aptior, quod tum hic frigidior aer. Campester locus is melior, qui totus aequabiliter in unam partem verget, quam is qui est ad libellam aequos, quod is, cum aquae non habet delapsum, fieri solet uliginosus: eo magis, siquis est inaequabilis, eo deterior, quod fit propter lacunas aquosus. Haec atque huiusce modi tria fastigia agri ad colendum disperiliter habent momentum.

For the most part, winters are better for those who cultivate the plains, because then the meadows there are grassy, and the pruning of trees more tolerable; conversely, summers are more commodious in montane places, because there at that time both fodder is abundant—since in the plains it is parched—and the cultivation of trees is more apt, because then here the air is cooler. A campestral site is better which as a whole evenly inclines in one direction, than one which is exactly level (true to the level), because that, when it does not have a runoff for the waters, is wont to become marshy; all the more, if any is uneven, so much the worse, because it becomes waterlogged on account of pools. These things, and the three gradients of the land of this sort, have moment for cultivation with differing peril.

VII.

Stolo, Quod ad hanc formam naturalem pertinet, de eo non incommode Cato videtur dicere, cum scribit optimum agrum esse, qui sub radice montis situs sit et spectet ad meridianam caeli partem. Subicit Scrofa, De formae cultura hoc dico, quae specie fiant venustiora, sequi ut maiore quoque fructu sint, ut qui habent arbusta, si sata sunt in quincuncem, propter ordines atque intervalla modica. Itaque maiores nostri ex arvo aeque magno male consito et minus multum et minus bonum faciebant vinum et frumentum, quod quae suo quicque loco sunt posita, ea minus loci occupant, et minus officit aliud alii ab sole ac luna et vento.

Stolo, As regards this natural form, Cato seems to speak not inaptly about it, when he writes that the best field is one which is situated under the foot of a mountain and looks toward the southern part of the sky. Scrofa adds, As to the cultivation of form I say this: that those things which become more comely in appearance are thereby also of greater yield, as with those who have arbusta (tree‑vine plantations), if they are planted in a quincunx, on account of the rows and the moderate intervals. And so our ancestors, from a field equally large but ill‑planted, made both wine and grain less in quantity and less good, because the things which are placed each in its own proper place occupy less space, and one hinders another less with respect to the sun and the moon and the wind.

Hoc licet coniectura videre ex aliquot rebus, ut nuces integras quas uno modio comprendere possis, quod putamina suo loco quaeque habet natura composita, cum easdem, si fregeris, vix sesquimodio concipere possis. Praeterea quae arbores in ordinem satae sunt, eas aequabiliter ex omnibus partibus sol ac luna coquunt. Quo fit ut uvae et oleae plures nascantur et ut celerius coquantur.

This may be seen by conjecture from several matters, as in the case that whole nuts which you can comprehend within one modius, because their shells, each in its proper place, Nature has composed; whereas the same, if you break them, you can scarcely contain in a sesqui-modius. Moreover, the trees that are sown in order the sun and the moon ripen evenly from all sides. Wherefore more grapes and olives are produced and they ripen more quickly.

Quas res duas sequuntur altera illa duo, ut plus reddant musti et olei et preti pluris.

These two things are followed by those other two: that they render more must and oil, and at a higher price.

Sequitur secundum illud, quali terra solum sit fundi, a qua parte vel maxime bonus aut non bonus appellatur. Refert enim, quae res in eo seri nascique et cuius modi possint: non enim eadem omnia in eodem agro recte possunt. Nam ut alius est ad vitem appositus, alius ad frumentum, sic de ceteris alius ad aliam rem.

Next follows the second point: of what sort the soil of the estate is, in which respect it is called most of all good or not good. For it matters what things can be sown and grow in it and of what kind they can be; for not all the same things can properly be done in the same field. For as one sort is apposite to the vine, another to grain, so with the rest, one to one thing, another to another.

Itaque Cretae ad Cortyniam dicitur platanus esse, quae folia hieme non amittat, itemque in Cypro, ut Theophrastus ait, una, item Subari, qui nunc Thurii dicuntur, quercus simili esse natura, quae est in oppidi conspectu: item contra atque apud nos fieri ad Elephantinen, ut neque ficus neque vites amittant folia. Propter eandem causam multa sunt bifera, ut vitis apud mare Zmyrnae, malus in agro Consentino. Idem ostendit, quod in locis feris plura ferunt, in iis quae sunt culta meliora.

Therefore at Cortynia in Crete there is said to be a plane-tree which does not lose its leaves in winter, and likewise in Cyprus, as Theophrastus says, a single one; likewise at Subari, which are now called Thurii, an oak is of similar nature, which is in sight of the town: likewise, contrary to what happens among us, at Elephantine neither fig-trees nor vines lose their leaves. For the same cause many are twice-bearing, as a vine by the sea at Smyrna, an apple-tree in the Consentine countryside. The same fact shows that in wild places they bear more, in those which are cultivated, better.

Eadem de causa sunt quae non possunt vivere nisi in loco aquoso aut etiam aqua, et id discriminatim alia in lacubus, ut [h]arundines in Reatino, alia in fluminibus, ut in Epiro arbores alni, alia in mari, ut scribit Theophrastus palmas et squillas. In Gallia transalpina intus, ad Rhenum cum exercitum ducerem, aliquot regiones accessi, ubi nec vitis nec olea nec poma nascerentur, ubi agros stercorarent candida fossicia creta, ubi salem nec fossicium nec maritimum haberent, sed ex quibusdam lignis combustis carbonibus salsis pro eo uterentur. Stolo, Cato quidem, inquit, gradatim praeponens alium alio agrum meliorem dicit esse in novem discriminibus, quod sit primus ubi vineae possint esse bono vino et multo, secundus ubi hortus inriguus, tertius ubi salicta, quartus ubi oliveta, quintus ubi pratum, sextus ubi campus frumentarius, septimus ubi caedua silva, octavus ubi arbustum, nonus ubi glandaria silva.

For the same cause there are things which cannot live except in a watery place or even in water, and this with distinction: some in lakes, as [h]arundines in the Reatine district; others in rivers, as in Epirus alder trees; others in the sea, as Theophrastus writes, palms and squills. In Transalpine Gaul inland, toward the Rhine, when I was leading an army, I came to several regions where neither vine nor olive nor fruits were produced, where they manured the fields with white pit-dug chalk, where they had neither mined salt nor maritime salt, but used instead, from certain woods when burned, salty charcoals in place of it. Stolo says, indeed—“Cato,” he says—setting one field before another step by step, that there are nine distinctions in which one field is better than another: first, where vineyards can yield wine both good and abundant; second, where there is an irrigated garden; third, where there are willow-plantations; fourth, where there are olive-groves; fifth, where there is meadow; sixth, where there is a grain-bearing plain; seventh, where there is coppice-wood; eighth, where there is arbustum (tree-orchard); ninth, where there is an acorn-bearing wood.

Scrofa, Scio, inquit, scribere illum; sed de hoc non consentiunt omnes, quod alii dant primatum bonis pratis, ut ego, a quoantiqui prata parata appellarunt. Caesar Vopiscus, aedilicius causam cum ageret apud censores, campos Roseae Italiae dixit esse sumen, in quo relicta pertica postridie non appareret propter herbam.

Scrofa, “I know,” said he, “that he writes that; but not all agree about this, because some give the primacy to good meadows, as I do—on which account the ancients called meadows ‘prepared’ (prata parata). Caesar Vopiscus, as aedilician, when he was pleading a cause before the censors, said that the Rosean fields of Italy were the udder, in which a pole left behind would not appear on the next day on account of the grass.”

VIII.

Contra vineam sunt qui putent sumptu fructum devorare. Refert, inquam, quod genus vineae sit, quod sunt multae species eius. Aliae enim humiles ac sine ridicis, ut in Hispania, aliae sublimes, quae appellantur iugatae, ut pleraeque in Italia.

As for the vineyard, there are those who think the expense devours the fruit. It matters, I say, what genus of vineyard it is, since there are many species of it. For some are low and without props, as in Spain; others are lofty, which are called yoked, as most in Italy.

Cuius generis nomina duo, pedamenta et iuga. Quibus stat rectis vinea, dicuntur pedamenta; quae transversa iunguntur, iuga: ab eo quoque vineae iugatae. Iugorum genera fere quattuor, pertica, harundo, restes, vites: pertica, ut in Falerno, harundo, ut in Arpano, restes, ut in Brundisino, vites, ut in Mediolanensi.

Cuius kind there are two names, pedaments and yokes. Those by which the vineyard stands with uprights are called pedaments; those which are joined crosswise, yokes: from this also vineyards are called yoked. The kinds of yokes are nearly four: pole, reed, ropes, vines: pole, as in the Falernian; reed, as in the Arpanian; ropes, as in the Brundisian; vines, as in the Milanese.

iugationis species duae, una derecta, ut in agro Canusino, altera conpluviata in longitudinem et latitudinem iugata, ut in Italia pleraeque. Haec ubi domo nascuntur, vinea non metuit sumptum; ubi multa e propinqua villa, non valde. Primum genus quod dixi maxime quaerit salicta, secundum harundineta, tertium iunceta aut eius generis rem aliquam, quartum arbusta, ubi traduces possint fieri vitium, ut Mediolanenses faciunt in arboribus, quas vocant opulos, Canusini in hardulatione in ficis.

Two species of yoking (trellising), one straight/upright, as in the Canusine countryside, the other compluviate, yoked in length and breadth, as in most parts of Italy. When these are produced at home, the vineyard does not fear expense; where many come from a nearby villa, not greatly. The first kind which I mentioned chiefly requires willow-beds, the second reed-beds, the third rush-beds or some thing of that genus, the fourth tree-plantations, where layers (traduces) of vines can be made, as the Mediolanenses do on trees which they call opuli, and the Canusines by hardulatio on fig-trees.

Pedamentum item fere quattuor generum: unum robustum, quod optimum solet afferri in vineam e querco ac iunipiro et vocatur ridica; alterum palus e pertica, meliore dura, quo diuturnior; quem cum infimum terra solvit, puter evertitur et fit solum summum: tertium, quod horum inopiae subsidio misit harundinetum. Inde enim aliquot colligatas libris demittunt in tubulos fictiles cum fundo pertuso, quas cuspides appellant, qua umor adventicius transire possit. Quartum est pedamentum nativum eius generis, ubi ex arboribus in arbores traductis vitibus vinea fit, quos traduces quidam rumpos appellant.

The pedamentum likewise is almost of four kinds: one robust, which is usually best brought into the vineyard from oak and juniper and is called ridica; another, a stake from a pole, the better being hard, whereby it is more long-lasting; which, when the earth loosens its lowest part, being rotten it is overturned and becomes the topsoil: the third, which the reed-bed has sent as a relief for the lack of these. From there indeed they let down several tied with withes into fictile little tubes with a pierced bottom, which they call “spikes” (cuspides), by which adventitious moisture may be able to pass through. The fourth is a native support of this kind, where a vineyard is made with vines led across from trees to trees, which “transfers” some call rumpos.

Vineae altitudinis modus longitudo hominis, intervalla pedamentorum, qua boves iuncti arare possint. Ea minus sumptuosa vinea, quae sine iugo ministrat acratophoro vinum. Huius genera duo: unum, in quo terra cubilia praebet uvis, ut in Asia multis locis, quae saepe vulpibus et hominibus fit communis.

The measure of a vineyard’s height is the length of a man; the intervals of the supports such that yoked oxen can plough. That vineyard is less costly which, without a yoke, supplies wine to the acratophore (unmixed-wine vessel). Of this there are two kinds: one in which the earth provides couches for the grapes, as in many places in Asia, which often becomes common to foxes and to humans.

Nec non si parit humus mures, minor fit vindemia, nisi totas vineas oppleris muscipulis, quod in insula Pandateria faciunt. Alterum genus vineti, ubi ea modo removetur a terra vitis, quae ostendit se adferre uvam. Sub eam, ubi nascitur uva, subiciuntur circiter bipedales e surculis furcillae, ne vindemia facta denique discat pendere in palma aut funiculo aut vinctu, quod antiqui vocabant cestum.

And likewise, if the soil breeds mice, the vintage becomes smaller, unless you cram the whole vineyards with mousetraps, which they do on the island Pandateria. A second kind of vineyard is that in which only that vine is removed from the ground which shows itself to be bringing a grape. Under it, where the grape is born, there are placed little forks about two feet long, made from shoots, lest, when the vintage is done at last, it should learn to hang by a palm-strip or a cord or a binding, which the ancients called a cestus.

Ibi dominus simul ac vidit occipitium vindemiatoris, furcillas reducit hibernatum in tecta, ut sine sumptu harum opera altero anno uti possit. Hac consuetudine in Italia utuntur Reatini. Haec ideo varietas maxime, quod terra cuius modi sit refert.

There the master, as soon as he sees the occiput of the vintager, brings the little forks back to winter under roofs, so that he may be able to use their service the following year without expense. The Reatines in Italy use this custom. This variation, therefore, especially for this reason: because it matters what sort the soil is.

Ubi enim natura umida, ibi altius vitis tollenda, quod in partu et alimonio vinum non ut in calice quaerit aquam, sed solem. Itaque ideo, ut arbitror, primum e vinea in arbores escendit vitis.

For wherever the nature is humid, there the vine must be lifted higher, because in parturition and aliment the wine does not seek water as in a chalice, but the sun. And so for that reason, as I judge, the vine first climbed from the vineyard into trees.

IX.

Terra, inquam, cuius modi sit refert et ad quam rem bona aut non bona sit. Ea tribus modis dicitur, communi et proprio et mixto. Communi, ut cum dicimus orbem terrae et terram Italiam aut quam aliam.

The earth, I say, of what kind it is matters, and for what purpose it is good or not good. It is spoken of in three modes: common, proper, and mixed. In the common, as when we say the orb of the earth and the land Italy, or some other.

In ea enim et lapis et harena et cetera eius generis sunt in nominando comprensa. Altero modo dicitur terra proprio nomine, quae nullo alio vocabulo neque cognomine adiecto appellatur. Tertio modo dicitur terra, quae est mixta, in qua seri potest quid et nasci, ut argillosa aut lapidosa, sic aliae, cum in hac species non minus sint multae quam in illa communi propter admixtiones.

For in it both stone and sand and the rest of that kind are comprehended in the naming. In a second way earth is spoken of by its proper name, which is called with no other vocable nor added cognomen. In a third way earth is spoken of which is mixed, in which something can be sown and be born, as argillaceous or lapidose, so others, since in this the species are no fewer than in that common one on account of admixtures.

In illa enim cum sint dissimili vi ac potestate partes permultae, in quis lapis, marmor, rudus, harena, sabulo, argilla, rubrica, pulvis, creta, cinis, carbunculus, id est quae sole perferve ita fit, ut radices satorum comburat, ab iis quae proprio nomine dicitur terra, cum est admixta ex iis generibus aliqua re, dicitur aut cretosa * * * sic ab aliis generum discriminibus mixta. Horum varietatis ita genera haec, ut praeterea subtiliora sint alia, minimum in singula facie terna, quod alia terra est valde lapidosa, alia mediocriter, alia prope pura. Sic de aliis generibus reliquis admixtae terrae tres gradus ascendunt eosdem.

For in that [common earth], since there are very many parts with dissimilar force and power, among which are stone, marble, rubble, sand, gritty sand, argil (clay), red ochre, dust, chalk, ash, carbuncle—that is, that which, when the sun overheats it, becomes such as to burn the roots of the sown—apart from these, that which in the proper name is called earth, when it is admixed with something from these kinds, is called either chalky * * * so, mixed according to other discriminations of kinds. Thus the genera of this variety are these, that besides there are others more subtle, at a minimum three in each aspect, because one soil is very stony, another moderately so, another almost pure. So too in the other remaining genera the same three degrees of admixed earth obtain.

Praeterea hae ipsae ternae species ternas in se habent alias, quod partim sunt umidiores, partim aridiores, partim mediocres. Neque non haec discrimina pertinent ad fructus vehementer. Itaque periti in loco umidiore far adoreum potius serunt quam triticum, contra in aridiore hordeum potius quam far, in mediocri utrumque.

Moreover, these very three kinds themselves have three others within them, because some are wetter, some drier, some moderate. Nor do these distinctions fail to pertain very strongly to the yields. Thus the skilled, in a wetter place, sow spelt (adoreum) rather than wheat (triticum); conversely, in a drier place, barley (hordeum) rather than spelt; in a moderate one, either both.

Praeterea etiam discrimina omnium horum generum subtiliora alia, ut in sabulosa terra, quod ibi refert sabulo albus sit an rubicundus, quod subalbus ad serendos surculos alienus, contra rubicundior appositus. Sic magna tria discrimina terrae, quod refert utrum sit macra an pinguis an mediocris, quod ad culturam pinguis fecundior ad multa, macra contra. Itaque in tenui, ut in Pupinia, neque arbores prolixae neque vites feraces, neque stramenta videre crassa possis neque ficum mariscam et arbores plerasque ac prata retorrida muscosa.

Moreover there are also more subtle distinctions of all these kinds, as in sandy soil, in that there it matters whether the sand be white or rubicund, since a whitish one is alien to the sowing of slips, whereas a more rubicund is apposite. Thus there are three great distinctions of earth: whether it be lean or fat or middling; as to cultivation, the fat is more fecund for many things, the lean the contrary. Accordingly, in thin soil, as in Pupinia, you can see neither tall trees nor fruitful vines, nor thick straw, nor the Mariscan fig, and most trees, and meadows scorched and mossy.

Contra in agro pingui, ut in Etruria, licet videre et segetes fructuosas ac restibilis et arbores prolixas et omnia sine musco. In mediocri autem terra, ut in Tiburti, quo propius accedit ut non sit macra, quam ut sit ieiuna, eo ad omnes res commodior, quam si inclinabit ad illud quod deterius. Stolo, Non male, inquit, quae sit idonea terra ad colendum aut non, Diophanes Bithynos scribit signa sumi posse aut ex ipsa aut quae nascuntur ex iis: ex ipsa, si sit terra alba, si nigra, si levis, quae cum fodiatur, facile frietur, natura quae non sit cineracia neve vehementer densa: ex iis autem quae enata sunt fera, si sunt prolixa atque quae ex iis nasci debent earum rerum feracia.

On the contrary, in a fat field, as in Etruria, one may see both fruitful crops and second-growth-bearing ones, and trees luxuriant, and everything without moss. But in a middling soil, as in the Tiburtine, the nearer it comes to being not lean rather than to being fasting-barren, by so much is it more commodious for all things, than if it inclines toward that which is worse. Stolo says, “Not badly,” quoth he, “as to which soil is suitable for cultivating or not, Diophanes the Bithynian writes that signs can be taken either from the soil itself or from the things which are born from it: from the soil itself, if the earth be white, if black, if light, which, when it is dug, will easily crumble, of a nature which is not ashy nor vehemently dense; but from those things which have sprung up wild, if they are luxuriant, and if, from them, the things that ought to be born are feracious in those kinds.”

Sed quod sequitur, tertium illut de modis dic.

But as to what follows, say that third one about the modes.

10.

Ille, Modos, quibus metirentur rura, alius alios constituit. Nam in Hispania ulteriore metiuntur iugis, in Campania versibus, apud nos in agro Romano ac Latino iugeris. Iugum vocant, quod iuncti boves uno die exarare possint.

He established the Modes by which fields were measured—one man some, another others. For in Further Spain they measure by yokes, in Campania by furrow-rows (versus), among us in the Roman and Latin countryside by iugera. They call a yoke that which a pair of yoked oxen can plough in one day.

Versum dicunt centum pedes quoquo versum quadratum. Iugerum, quod quadratos duos actus habeat. Actus quadratus, qui et latus est pedes CXX et longus totidem: is modus acnua latine appellatur.

They call a versus a square of 100 feet each way. A iugerum is that which has two square actūs. A square actus, which is 120 feet broad and the same in length: this measure is called in Latin acnua.

Iugeri pars minima dicitur scripulum, id est decem pedes et longitudine et latitudine quadratum. Ab hoc principio mensores non numquam dicunt in subsicivum esse unciam agri aut sextantem, sic quid aliud, cum ad iugerum pervenerunt, quod habet iugerum scripula CCLXXXVIII, quantum as antiquos noster ante bellum punicum pendebat. Bina iugera quod a Romulo primum divisa dicebantur viritim, quae heredem sequerentur, heredium appellarunt.

The smallest part of the iugerum is called a scripulum, that is, a square of ten feet in both length and breadth. From this starting point surveyors sometimes say that in the subsicivum there is an uncia of land or a sextans, and so something else, when they have come to the iugerum, for the iugerum has 288 scripula, as much as our as used to weigh among the ancients before the Punic War. Two iugera, because they were said to have been first allotted by Romulus viritim (man-by-man), to follow to an heir, they called a heredium.

Haec postea centum centuria. Centuria est quadrata, in omnes quattuor partes ut habeat latera longa pedum **CD. Hae porro quattuor, centuriae coniunctae ut sint in utramque partem binae, appellantur in agris divisis viritim publice saltus.

Next, a hundred of these: a centuria. A centuria is square, so that on all four sides it has sides long of **400 feet. Moreover, these four—centuriae joined so that they are two in each direction—are called, in fields divided man-by-man publicly, saltus.

XI.

11.

In modo fundi non animadverso lapsi multi, quod alii villam minus magnam fecerunt, quam modus postulavit, alii maiorem, cum utrumque sit contra rem familiarem ac fructum. Maiora enim tecta et aedificamus pluris et tuemur sumptu maiore. Minora cum sunt, quam postulat fundus, fructus solent disperire.

With the measure of the farm not being observed, many have slipped, because some made the villa less great than the measure demanded, others greater, since either is against the household estate and the fruits. For larger buildings we both construct at a higher price and maintain at greater expense. When they are smaller than the farm requires, the fruits are wont to perish.

Dubium enim non est quin cella vinaria maior sit facienda in eo agro, ubi vineta sint, ampliora ut horrea, si frumentarius ager est. Villa aedificanda potissimum ut intra saepta villae habeat aquam, si non, quam proxime: primum quae ibi sit nata, secundum quae influat perennis. Si omnino aqua non est viva, cisternae faciendae sub tectis et lacus sub dio, ex altero loco ut homines, ex altero ut pecus uti possit.

For there is no doubt that the wine-cellar should be made larger in that land where there are vineyards, and the granaries more ample if it is a grain-bearing field. The villa is to be built preferably so that it has water within the enclosures of the villa; if not, as near as possible: first, water which is born there (a spring), second, water which flows in perennial fashion. If there is absolutely no living water, cisterns must be made under roofs and tanks under the open sky, so that from the one place people may use it, and from the other the cattle may do so.

XII.

12.

Danda opera ut potissimum sub radicibus montis silvestris villam ponat, ubi pastiones sint laxae, item ut contra ventos, qui saluberrimi in agro flabunt. Quae posita est ad exortos aequinoctiales, aptissima, quod aestate habet umbram, hieme solem. Sin cogare secundum flumen aedificare, curandum ne adversum eam ponas; hieme enim fiet vehementer frigida et aestate non salubris.

Care must be taken that, preferably, he place the villa under the roots (at the foot) of a wooded mountain, where the pastures are roomy, and likewise so that it faces the winds which will blow most salubriously in the field. That which is set toward the equinoctial risings is most apt, because in summer it has shade, in winter sun. But if you are compelled to build along a river, you must take care not to set it facing it; for in winter it will become vehemently cold and in summer not salubrious.

Advertendum etiam, siqua erunt loca palustria, et propter easdem causas, et quod crescunt animalia quaedam minuta, quae non possunt oculi consequi, et per aera intus in corpus per os ac nares perveniunt atque efficiunt difficilis morbos. Fundanius, Quid potero, inquit, facere, si istius modi mi fundus hereditati obvenerit, quo minus pestilentia noceat? Istuc vel ego possum respondere, inquit Agrius; vendas, quot assibus possis, aut si nequeas, relinquas.

It must also be noted, if there are any marshy places, both for the same reasons, and because certain minute animals grow, which the eyes cannot follow, and through the air they penetrate within into the body by the mouth and nostrils and produce hard-to-cure diseases. Fundanius, “What can I do,” he says, “if an estate of this sort should fall to me by inheritance, so that the pestilence may do less harm?” “That I can answer myself,” says Agrius; “sell it, for as many asses as you can, or if you cannot, abandon it.”

At Scrofa, Vitandum, inquit, ne in eas partes spectet villa, e quibus ventus gravior afflare soleat, neve in convalli cava et ut potius in sublimi loco aedifices, qui quod perflatur, siquid est quod adversarium inferatur, facilius discutitur. Praeterea quod a sole toto die inlustratur, salubrior est, quod et bestiolae, siquae prope nascuntur et inferuntur, aut efflantur aut aritudine cito pereunt. Nimbi repentini ac torrentes fluvii periculosi illis, qui in humilibus ac cavis locis aedificia habent, et repentinae praedonum manus quod improvisos facilius opprimere possunt, ab hac utraque re superiora loca tutiora.

But Scrofa said, “One must avoid letting the villa face toward those quarters from which a heavier wind is wont to blow, and not in a hollow valley, and rather that you build on a lofty site, which, because it is blown through, if anything adverse is brought against it, is more easily dispelled. Moreover, because it is illuminated by the sun the whole day, it is more salubrious, since the little beasts, if any are born nearby and carried in, are either blown out or by aridity quickly perish. Sudden storm-clouds and torrential rivers are dangerous to those who have buildings in low and hollow places, and sudden bands of robbers, because they can more easily overwhelm men taken unawares; from both of these, higher places are safer.”

XIII.

13.

In villa facienda stabula ita, ut bubilia sint ibi, hieme quae possint esse caldiora. Fructus, ut est vinum et oleum, loco plano in cellis, item vasa vinaria et olearia potius faciendum; aridus, ut est faba et faenum, in tabulatis. Familia ubi versetur providendum, si fessi opere aut frigore aut calore, ubi commodissime possint se quiete reciperare.

In constructing the villa, the stables should be arranged so that there are ox-stalls there, which in winter can be warmer. The produce, as is wine and oil, should be in cellars on level ground; likewise the wine- and oil-vessels are rather to be made there. Dry goods, as are bean and hay, on boarded floors. Provision must be made for where the household is to be active, so that, if wearied by work or by cold or by heat, they may most conveniently recover themselves with quiet.

Vilici proximum ianuam cellam esse oportet eumque scire, qui introeat aut exeat noctu quidve ferat, praesertim si ostiarius est nemo. In primis culina videnda ut sit admota, quod ibi hieme antelucanis temporibus aliquot res conficiuntur, cibus paratur ac capitur. Faciundum etiam plaustris ac cetero instrumento omni in cohorte ut satis magna sint tecta, quibus caelum pluvium inimicum.

The steward’s room ought to be next to the door, and he should know who goes in or goes out at night and what he carries, especially if there is no doorkeeper. First of all the kitchen should be set close by, because there in winter, in the before-dawn hours, several tasks are completed: food is prepared and taken. It must also be provided in the courtyard that there be roofs large enough for the wagons and all other equipment, for which the rainy sky is unfriendly.

Haec enim si intra clausum in consaepto et sub dio, furem modo non metuunt, adversus tempestatem nocentem non resistunt. Cohortes in fundo magno duae aptiores: una ut interdius conpluvium habeat lacum, ubi aqua saliat, qui intra stylobatas, cum velit, sit semipiscina. Boves enim ex arvo aestate reducti hic bibunt, hic perfunduntur, nec minus e pabulo cum redierunt anseres, sues, porci.

For if these things are inside an enclosure in a penned yard and under the open sky, they do not fear only the thief; they do not withstand harmful weather. Two courtyards are more suitable on a large farm: one such that by day it has a compluvium, a pool where the water may leap, which, within the stylobates, when one wishes, may be a semi-piscina. For the oxen led back from the ploughed field in summer drink here, here they are drenched, and no less, when they have returned from pasture, the geese, the sows, the piglets.

In cohorte exteriore lacum esse oportet, ubi maceretur lupinum, item alia quae demissa in aquam ad usum aptiora fiunt. Cohors exterior crebro operta stramentis ac palea occulcata pedibus pecudum fit ministra fundo, ex ea quod evehatur. Secundum villam duo habere oportet stercilina aut unum bifariam divisum.

In the outer courtyard there ought to be a pool, where lupine is soaked, likewise other things which, when let down into water, become more apt for use. The outer courtyard, frequently covered with straw and with chaff trodden by the feet of the cattle, becomes a ministrant to the farm, from it what is carted out. Next to the villa one ought to have two dung-heaps, or one divided in two parts.

Alteram enim partem fieri oportet novam, alteram veterem tolli in agrum, quod enim quam recens quod confracuit melius. Nec non stercilinum melius illud, cuius latera et summum virgis ac fronde vindicatum a sole. Non enim sucum, quem quaerit terra, solem ante exugere oportet.

For one part ought to be made new, the other, the old one, to be carried into the field; for what has crumbled is better than what is fresh. And likewise that dung-heap is better whose sides and top are protected from the sun by rods and foliage. For the sun ought not to suck out beforehand the juice which the earth seeks.

Itaque periti, qui possunt, ut eo aqua influat eo nomine faciunt (sic enim maxime retinetur sucus) in eoque quidam sellas familiaricas ponunt. Aedificium facere oportet, sub quod tectum totam fundi subicere possis messem, quod vocant quidam nubilarium. Id secundum aream faciendum, ubi triturus sis frumentum, magnitudine pro modo fundi, ex una parti apertum, et id ab area, quo et in tritura proruere facile possis et, si nubilare coepit, inde ut rursus celeriter reicere.

Therefore the skilled, who can, make it so that water flows into it for that very purpose (for thus the juice is most retained), and in it some set up household privy-seats. One ought to make a building under whose roof you can place the whole harvest of the estate, which some call a nubilarium. It should be made next to the threshing-floor, where you are going to thresh grain, in size according to the measure of the estate, open on one side, and with that side from the threshing-floor, so that both during the threshing you can easily tumble it in, and, if it begins to cloud over, from there you can quickly throw it back in again.

Fenestras habere oportet ex ea parti, unde commodissime perflari possit. Fundanius, Fructuosior, inquit, est certe fundus propter aedificia, si potius ad anticorum diligentiam quam ad horum luxuriam derigas aedificationem. Illi enim faciebant ad fructum rationem, hi faciunt ad libidines indomitas.

Windows ought to be on that side from which it can most conveniently be aired through. Fundanius: “More profitable,” says he, “is surely the farm on account of the buildings, if you direct the construction rather to the diligence of the ancients than to the luxury of these men. For those made their plan with a view to fruit/profit, these make it to indomitable lusts.”

Itaque illorum villae rusticae erant maioris preti quam urbanae, quae nunc sunt pleraque contra. Illic laudabatur villa, si habebat culinam rusticam bonam, praesepis laxas, cellam vinariam et oleariam ad modum agri aptam et pavimento proclivi in lacum, quod saepe, ubi conditum novum vinum, orcae in Hispania fervore musti ruptae neque non dolea in Italia. Item cetera ut essent in villa huiusce modi, quae cultura quaereret, providebant.

Therefore their rustic villas were of greater price than the urban ones, whereas now for the most part it is the reverse. There a villa was praised if it had a good rustic kitchen, roomy stalls, a wine-cellar and an oil-cellar proportioned to the scale of the field, and with a pavement sloping into a cistern—because often, when new wine had been stored, the orcae in Spain were burst by the heat of the must, and likewise the casks in Italy. Likewise they provided that the other things in the villa should be of this sort, which cultivation required.

Nunc contra villam urbanam quam maximam ac politissimam habeant dant operam ac cum Metelli ac Luculli villis pessimo publico aedificatis certant. Quo hi laborant ut spectent sua aestiva triclinaria ad frigus orientis, hiberna ad solem occidentem, potius quam, ut antiqui, in quam partem cella vinaria aut olearia fenestras haberet, cum fructus in ea vinarius quaerat ad dolia aera frigidiorem, item olearia calidiorem. Item videre oportet, si est collis, nisi quid impedit, ut ibi potissimum ponatur villa.

Now, contrariwise, they take pains to have as great and as most polished an urban villa as possible, and they rival the villas of the Metelli and the Luculli, built to the worst detriment of the public. Wherein they labor that their summer dining-rooms (triclinia) should face the cool of the east, the winter ones the sun of the west, rather than, as the ancients, to which quarter the wine-cellar or oil-cellar should have windows, since the vinous produce in it requires a cooler air for the vats, and the oil-cellar a warmer. Likewise it ought to be considered that, if there is a hill, unless something hinders, the villa be placed there most of all.

XIV.

14.

Nunc de saeptis, quae tutandi causa fundi aut partis fiant, dicam. Earum tutelarum genera IIII, unum naturale, alterum agreste, tertium militare, quartum fabrile. Horum unum quodque species habet plures.

Now I will speak about enclosures, which are made for the sake of protecting the estate or a part. Of these protections there are 4 kinds: one natural, another agrestic, a third military, a fourth fabrile. Each of these has several species.

Primum naturale saepimentum, quod opseri solet virgultis aut spinis, quod habet radices ac vivit, praetereuntis lascivi non metuet facem ardentem. Secunda saeps est agrestis e ligno, sed non vivit: fit aut palis statutis crebris et virgultis implicatis aut latis perforatis et per ea foramina traiectis longuris fere binis aut ternis aut ex arboribus truncis demissis in terram deinceps constitutis. Tertium militare saepimentum est fossa et terreus agger.

First is the natural enclosure, which is wont to be fenced with brushwood or thorns, which has roots and lives; it will not fear the burning torch of a wanton passer-by. The second hedge is rustic, of wood, but it does not live: it is made either with stakes set thickly and brushwood intertwined, or with boards perforated and, through those holes, long poles passed, generally in twos or threes, or from tree-trunks let down into the ground and set in succession. The third, a military enclosure, is a fosse and an earthen rampart.

Sed fossa ita idonea, si omnem aquam, quae e caelo venit, recipere potest aut fastigium habet, ut exeat e fundo. Agger is bonus, qui intrinsecus iunctus fossa aut ita arduus, ut eum transcendere non sit facile. Hoc genus saepes fieri secundum vias publicas solent et secundum amnes.

But a fosse is suitable in this way, if it can receive all the water that comes from the sky, or has a slope so that it may go out from the estate. An agger is good if it is joined on the inside to the fosse, or is so steep that it is not easy to surmount it. This kind of fence is wont to be made along public roads and along rivers.

Ad viam Salariam in agro Crustumino videre licet locis aliquot coniunctos aggeres cum fossis, ne flumen agris noceat. Aggeres faciunt sine fossa: eos quidam vocant muros, ut in agro Retino. Quartum fabrile saepimentum est novissimum, maceria.

Along the Via Salaria in the Crustuminian countryside it is possible to see in several places aggers joined with fosses, so that the river may not harm the fields. They make aggers without a fosse: some call them walls, as in the Retine countryside. The fourth crafted fence is the newest, the maceria.

Huius fere species quattuor, quod fiunt e lapide, ut in agro Tusculano, quod e lateribus coctilibus, ut in agro Gallico, quod e lateribus crudis, ut in agro Sabino, quod ex terra et lapillis compositis in formis, ut in Hispania et agro Tarentino.

There are roughly four kinds of this: those which are made of stone, as in the Tusculan field, those from baked bricks, as in the Gallic field, those from raw bricks, as in the Sabine field, those from earth and little stones composed in forms, as in Spain and in the Tarentine field.

XV.

15.

Praeterea sine saeptis fines praedi satione arborum tutiores fiunt, ne familiae rixent[ur] cum vicinis ac limites ex litibus iudicem quaerant. Serunt alii circum pinos, ut habet uxor in Sabinis, alii cupressos, ut ego habui in Vesuvio, alii ulmos, ut multi habent in Crustumino: ubi id pote, ut ibi, quod est campus, nulla potior serenda, quod maxime fructuosa, quod et sustinet saepe ac cogit aliquot corbulas uvarum et frondem iucundissimam ministrat ovibus ac bubus ac virgas praebet saepibus et foco ac furno. Scrofa, Igitur primum haec, quae dixi, quattuor videnda agricolae, de fundi forma, de terrae natura, de modo agri, de finibus tuendis.

Moreover, without enclosures the boundaries of the estate are made safer by the planting of trees, lest the farm-staff quarrel with the neighbors and, over the boundary-lines, seek a judge from lawsuits. Some plant pines around, as my wife has in the Sabine country; others cypresses, as I had at Vesuvius; others elms, as many have in the Crustuminian district: where that is possible, as there, since it is open field, nothing is better to be planted than the elm, because it is most fruitful; for it both supports and often yields several little baskets of grapes, and it supplies most pleasant foliage to sheep and oxen, and it furnishes rods for hedges and for the hearth and the oven. Scrofa, therefore, first the farmer must look to these four things which I have said: about the form of the estate, about the nature of the soil, about the measure of the field, about defending the boundaries.

XVI.

16.

Relinquitur altera pars, quae est extra fundum, cuius appendices et vehementer pertinent ad culturam propter adfinitatem. Eius species totidem: si vicina regio est infesta; si quo neque fructus nostros exportare expediat neque inde quae opus sunt adportare; tertium, si viae aut fluvii, qua portetur, aut non sunt aut idonei non sunt; quartum, siquid ita est in confinibus fundis, ut nostris agris prosit aut noceat. E quis quattuor quod est primum, refert infesta regio sit necne.

What remains is the other part, which is outside the farm, whose appurtenances also pertain very strongly to cultivation because of adjacency. Its kinds are just as many: if the neighboring region is hostile; if there is nowhere whither it is expedient to export our produce nor from there to bring in the things that are needed; third, if the roads or rivers, by which it is to be carried, either are not or are not suitable; fourth, if there is anything on the bordering farms such that it benefits or harms our fields. Of these four, as to the first, it matters whether the region is hostile or not.

Multos enim agros egregios colere non expedit propter latrocinia vicinorum, ut in Sardinia quosdam, qui sunt prope Oeliem, et in Hispania prope Lusitaniam. Quae vicinitatis invectos habent idoneos, quae ibi nascuntur ubi vendant, et illinc invectos opportunos quae in fundo opus sunt, propter ea fructuosa. Multi enim habent, in praediis quibus frumentum aut vinum aliudve quid desit, importandum; contra non pauci, quibus aliquid sit exportandum.

For it is not expedient to cultivate many excellent fields because of the brigandage of neighbors, as in Sardinia some that are near Oeliem, and in Spain near Lusitania. Those are profitable which have, from the vicinity, suitable imports—the things which are produced there where they may sell—and from there seasonable imports of the things that are needed on the estate, on account of these things profitable. For many have, on estates where grain or wine or something else is lacking, things to be imported; conversely, not a few have something to be exported.

Itaque sub urbe colere hortos late expedit, sic violaria ac rosaria, item multa quae urps recipit, cum eadem in longinquo praedio, ubi non sit quo deferri possit venale, non expediat colere. Item si ea oppida aut vici in vicinia aut etiam divitum copiosi agri ac villae, unde non care emere possis quae opus sunt in fundum, quibus quae supersint venire possint, ut quibusdam pedamenta aut perticae aut harundo, fructuosior fit fundus, quam si longe sint importanda, non numquam etiam, quam si colendo in tuo ea parare possis. Itaque in hoc genus coloni potius anniversarios habent vicinos, quibus imperent, medicos, fullones, fabros, quam in villa suos habeant, quorum non numquam unius artificis mors tollit fundi fructum.

Therefore it is advantageous to cultivate gardens extensively near the city, likewise violet-beds and rose-gardens, and also many things which the city takes in, since the same on a distant estate, where there is nowhere they can be carried to be sold, it is not expedient to cultivate. Likewise, if there are in the neighborhood towns or villages, or even the plentiful fields and villas of the rich, whence you can buy at no dear price the things needed for the farm, and to whom the things that are surplus can be sold—for example, for some people vine-props (pedamenta) or poles (perticae) or reed (harundo)—the farm becomes more fruitful than if such things have to be brought from far away, and sometimes even more than if by cultivating you could provide them on your own place. Therefore, in this kind, farmers rather have neighbors under yearly contracts, whom they can command—physicians, fullers, smiths—than have their own in the villa, the death of a single artisan sometimes taking away the farm’s yield.

Quam partem lati fundi divites domesticae copiae mandare solent. Si enim a fundo longius absunt oppida aut vici, fabros parant, quos habeant in villa, sic ceteros necessarios artifices, ne de fundo familia ab opere discedat ac profestis diebus ambulet feriata potius, quam opere faciendo agrum fructuosiorem reddat. Itaque ideo Sasernae liber praecipit, nequis de fundo exeat praeter vilicum et promum et unum, quem vilicus legat; siquis contra exierit, ne impune abeat; si abierit, ut in vilicum animadvertatur.

That part of a broad estate the wealthy are accustomed to entrust to household resources. For if towns or villages are farther from the estate, they provide craftsmen to have at the villa, and likewise the other necessary artisans, lest the household-staff depart from work off the estate and, on non-festal days, stroll about idling rather than by doing work make the field more fruitful. And so for this reason Saserna’s book prescribes that no one go out from the estate except the bailiff and the storekeeper and one whom the bailiff selects; if anyone goes out contrary to this, let him not go unpunished; if he has gone out, let punishment be exacted upon the bailiff.

Quod potius ita praecipiendum fuit, nequis iniussu vilici exierit, neque vilicus iniussu domini longius, quam ut eodem die rediret, neque id crebrius, quam opus esset fundo. Eundem fundum fructuosiorem faciunt vecturae, si viae sunt, qua plaustra agi facile possint, aut flumina propinqua, qua navigari possit, quibus utrisque rebus evehi atque invehi ad multa praedia scimus. Refert etiam ad fundi fructus, quem ad modum vicinus in confinio consitum agrum habeat.

Which rather ought to have been prescribed thus: that no one should go out without the bailiff’s order, nor the bailiff without the master’s order farther than that he would return the same day, nor more frequently than the farm had need. The same farm is made more fruitful by haulage, if there are roads by which wagons can easily be driven, or nearby rivers by which one may navigate; by both of which means we know that to many estates things are carried out and carried in. It also bears upon the farm’s profits in what manner a neighbor has his field planted on the boundary (confine).

Si enim ad limitem querquetum habet, non possis recte secundum eam silvam serere oleam, quod usque eo est contrarium natura, ut arbores non solum minus ferant, sed etiam fugiant, ut introrsum in fundum se reclinent, ut vitis adsita ad holus facere solet. Ut quercus, sic iugulandes magnae et crebrae finitimae fundi oram faciunt sterilem.

If indeed he has an oak-grove along the boundary line, you cannot rightly plant the olive next to that woodland, because it is so contrary by nature that the trees not only bear less, but even flee, so that they lean inward into the farm, as the vine planted beside greens is wont to do. As the oak does, so too great and frequent walnut-trees make the border of a neighboring farm sterile.

XVII.

17.

De fundi quattuor partibus, quae cum solo haerent, et alteris quattuor, quae extra fundum sunt et ad culturam pertinent, dixi. Nunc dicam, agri quibus rebus colantur. Quas res alii dividunt in duas partes, in homines et adminicula hominum, sine quibus rebus colere non possunt; alii in tres partes, instrumenti genus vocale et semivocale et mutum, vocale, in quo sunt servi, semivocale, in quo sunt boves, mutum, in quo sunt plaustra.

Of the four parts of an estate, which adhere with the soil, and the other four, which are outside the farm and pertain to cultivation, I have spoken. Now I will say by what things fields are cultivated. Some divide these things into two parts, into men and the adminicles of men, without which things they cannot cultivate; others into three parts, a kind of instrument: vocal, semivocal, and mute, the vocal, in which are slaves, the semivocal, in which are oxen, the mute, in which are wagons.

Omnes agri coluntur hominibus servis aut liberis aut utrisque: liberis, aut cum ipsi colunt, ut plerique pauperculi cum sua progenie, aut mercennariis, cum conducticiis liberorum operis res maiores, ut vindemias ac faenisicia, administrant, iique quos obaerarios nostri vocitarunt et etiam nunc sunt in Asia atque Aegypto et in Illyrico complures. De quibus universis hoc dico, gravia loca utilius esse mercennariis colere quam servis, et in salubribus quoque locis opera rustica maiora, ut sunt in condendis fructibus vindemiae aut messis. De iis, cuius modi esse oporteat, Cassius scribit haec: operarios parandos esse, qui laborem ferre possint, ne minores annorum XXII et ad agri culturam dociles.

All fields are cultivated by men, by slaves or by free men or by both: by free men, either when they themselves till, as most rather poor folk do with their own progeny, or by hirelings, when with contracted labor of free men they administer the greater operations, such as vintages and hay-makings; and likewise those whom our people used to call obaerarii (debt-bondsmen), and even now there are many of them in Asia, Egypt, and Illyricum. Concerning all of these in general I say this: that difficult places are more profitably cultivated by wage-earners than by slaves, and that even in salubrious places the greater rustic works, such as in storing the produce—vintages or harvest—are so as well. About these, of what sort they ought to be, Cassius writes as follows: workers must be procured who can bear toil, not younger than 22 years, and teachable for agriculture.

Eam coniecturam fieri posse ex aliarum rerum imperatis, et in eo eorum e noviciis requisitione, ad priorem dominum quid factitarint.

Such a conjecture can be made from the orders given for other tasks, and therein by questioning them, as new hands, what they used to do for their former master.

Mancipia esse oportere neque formidulosa neque animosa. Qui praesint esse oportere, qui litteris atque aliqua sint humanitate imbuti, frugi, aetate maiore quam operarios, quos dixi. Facilius enim iis quam qui minore natu sunt dicto audientes.

Slaves ought to be neither timorous nor high‑spirited. Those who are to preside ought to be imbued with letters and with some humanity, frugal, and greater in age than the laborers whom I mentioned. For they are more easily obedient to a command than those who are younger in age.

Praeterea potissimum eos praeesse oportere, qui periti sint rerum rusticarum. Non solum enim debere imperare, sed etiam facere, ut facientem imitetur et ut animadvertat eum cum causa sibi praeesse, quod scientia praestet. Neque illis concedendum ita imperare, ut verberibus coerceant potius quam verbis, si modo idem efficere possis.

Moreover, above all, those ought to preside who are skilled in rustic matters. For they ought not only to command, but also to do, so that the one working may imitate the one doing, and may take note that he is set over him with cause, in that he excels by knowledge. Nor should it be conceded to them to command in such a way as to coerce with blows rather than with words, provided you can effect the same.

Neque eiusdem nationis plures parandos esse: ex eo enim potissimum solere offensiones domesticas fieri. Praefectos alacriores faciendum praemiis dandaque opera ut habeant peculium et coniunctas conservas, e quibus habeant filios. Eo enim fiunt firmiores ac coniunctiores fundo.

Nor should more of the same nation be procured; for from this especially domestic quarrels are wont to arise. The overseers must be made more eager by rewards, and effort must be made to ensure that they have a peculium (private savings) and joined female fellow-slaves, from whom they may have children. By this they become more steadfast and more closely bound to the estate.

Itaque propter has cognationes Epiroticae familiae sunt inlustriores ac cariores. Inliciendam voluntatem praefectorum honore aliquo habendo, et de operariis qui praestabunt alios, communicandum quoque cum his, quae facienda sint opera, quod, ita cum fit, minus se putant despici atque aliquo numero haberi a domino. Studiosiores ad opus fieri liberalius tractando aut cibariis aut vestitu largiore aut remissione operis concessioneve, ut peculiare aliquid in fundo pascere liceat, huiusce modi rerum aliis, ut quibus quid gravius sit imperatum aut animadversum qui, consolando eorum restituat voluntatem ac benevolentiam in dominum.

And so, on account of these cognations, Epirotic families are more illustrious and dearer. The goodwill of the prefects is to be enticed by holding them in some honor, and, among the laborers, those who will excel the others—one must also communicate with these about the works that must be done, because, when it is done thus, they think themselves less despised and held of some account by the master. Let them be made more zealous for the work by treating them more liberally, either with victuals or with more generous vesture, or by a remission of work or a concession, that it be permitted to pasture some peculium on the estate, and other things of this kind; and for those upon whom something rather severe has been commanded or punishment inflicted, let there be one who, by consoling them, restores their will and benevolence toward the master.

XVIII.

18.

De familia Cato derigit ad duas metas, ad certum modum agri et genus sationis, scribens de olivetis et vineis ut duas formulas: unam, in qua praecipit, quo modo olivetum agri iugera CCXL instruere oporteat. Dicit enim in eo modo haec mancipia XIII habenda, vilicum, vilicam, operarios V, bubulcos III, asinarium I, subulcum I, opilionem I. Alteram formulam scribit de vinearum iugeribus C, ut dicat haberi oportere haec XV mancipia, vilicum, vilicam, operarios X, bubulcum, asinarium, subulcum. Saserna scribit satis esse ad iugera VIII hominem unum: ea debere eum confodere diebus XLV tametsi quaternis operis singula iugera possit; sed relinquere se operas XIII valetudini, tempestati, inertiae, indiligentiae.

Cato directs his household to two goals, to a fixed mode of field and a kind of sowing, writing about olive-groves and vineyards as two formulas: one, in which he prescribes how it is proper to equip an olive-grove of 240 iugera of land. For he says that in that plan these 13 slaves are to be had: a bailiff, a bailiff’s wife, 5 laborers, 3 oxherds, 1 donkey-driver, 1 swineherd, 1 shepherd. He writes another formula for 100 iugera of vineyards, to the effect that these 15 slaves ought to be had: a bailiff, a bailiff’s wife, 10 laborers, an oxherd, a donkey-driver, a swineherd. Saserna writes that for 8 iugera one man is enough: that he ought to dig them over in 45 days, although he can manage single iugera with four work-days; but that he leaves 13 work-days to allowance for health, weather, sluggishness, and lack of diligence.

Horum neuter satis dilucide modulos reliquit nobis, quod Cato si voluit, debuit sic, ut pro portione ad maiorem fundum et minorem adderemus et demeremus. Praeterea extra familiam debuit dicere vilicum et vilicam. Neque enim, si minus CCXL iugera oliveti colas, non possis minus uno vilico habere, nec, si bis tanto ampliorem fundum aut eo plus colas, ideo duo vilici aut tres habendi.

Neither of these left us the modules sufficiently lucid; for Cato, if he wished, ought to have done so thus, that in proportion we might add and subtract for a larger estate and for a smaller. Besides, outside the familia he ought to have specified the vilicus and the vilica. For neither, if you cultivate less than 240 iugera of olive-grove, can you have fewer than one vilicus, nor, if you cultivate a farm twice as large or even more, on that account must two or three vilici be had.

Fere operarii modo et bubulci pro portione addendi ad maioris modos fundorum, ii quoque, si similis est ager. Sin est ita dissimilis, ut arari non possit, quod sit confragosus atque arduis clivis, minus multi opus sunt boves et bubulci. Mitto illut, quod modum neque unum nec modicum proposuit CCXL iugerum (modicus enim centuria, et ea CC iugerum), e quo quom sexta pars sit ea XL, quae de CCXL demuntur, non video quem ad modum ex eius praecepto demam sextam partem et de XIII mancipiis, nihilo magis, si vilicum et vilicam removero, quem ad modum ex XI sextam partem demam.

Generally only the operatives and the oxherds are to be added in proportion for larger scales of estates—those too, if the land is similar. But if it is so dissimilar that it cannot be plowed, because it is rugged and with steep slopes, fewer oxen and oxherds are needed. I pass over this point, that he proposed for 240 iugera a standard neither single nor moderate (for a moderate one is a centuria, and that is 200 iugera); from which, since the sixth part is that 40 which are deducted from 240, I do not see how, by his precept, I am to subtract a sixth part also from the 13 slaves (mancipia)—no more, if I remove the bailiff (vilicus) and the bailiff’s wife (vilica), do I see how I am to subtract a sixth part from 11.

Quod autem ait in C iugeribus vinearum opus esse XV mancipia, siquis habebit centuriam, quae dimidium vineti, dimidium oliveti, sequetur ut duo vilicos et duas vilicas habeat, quod est deridiculum. Quare alia ratione modus mancipiorum generatim est animadvertendus et magis in hoc Saserna probandus, qui ait singula iugera quaternis operis uno operario ad conficiendum satis esse. Sed si hoc in Sasernae fundo in Gallia satis fuit, non continuo idem in agro Ligusco montano.

But as for his saying that on 100 iugera of vineyards there is need of 15 slaves, if someone should have a centuria (100 iugera), half vineyard and half olive-grove, it would follow that he must have two stewards and two stewardesses—which is laughable. Therefore, by another method the measure of slaves must be observed in general, and in this Saserna is rather to be approved, who says that each iugerum is sufficiently completed by four opera (work-days) of one workman. But if this was sufficient on Saserna’s farm in Gaul, the same is not straightaway so in the mountainous Ligurian land.

Itaque de familiae magnitudine et reliquo instrumento commodissime scies quantam pares, si tria animadverteris diligenter: in vicinitate praedia cuius modi sint et quanta, et quot quaeque hominibus colantur, et quot additis operis aut demptis melius aut deterius habeas cultum. Bivium nobis enim ad culturam dedit natura, experientiam et imitationem. Antiquissimi agricolae temptando pleraque constituerunt, liberi eorum magnam partem imitando.

Therefore, concerning the magnitude of the household and the remaining equipment, you will most conveniently know how many you should provide, if you carefully observe three things: in the neighborhood what sort and how large the estates are, and with how many men each is cultivated, and by how many workers, added or removed, you would have the cultivation better or worse. For nature has given us a twofold way toward culture: experience and imitation. The most ancient farmers established most things by experimenting; their children, for the most part, by imitating.

Nos utrumque facere debemus, et imitari alios et aliter ut faciamus experientia temptare quaedam, sequentes non aleam, sed rationem aliquam: ut si altius repastinaverimus aut minus quam alii, quod momentum ea res habeat, ut fecerunt ii in sariendo iterum et tertio, et qui insitiones ficulnas ex verno tempore in aestivum contulerunt.

We ought to do both: both imitate others and, so that we may do things otherwise, try certain matters by experience, following not alea (chance), but some ratio (reason): for example, if we have repastinated deeper or less deep than others, what momentum (weight) that matter has—just as men did in hoeing a second and a third time, and as those who shifted fig graftings from the spring season into the summer.

XIX.

19.

De reliqua parte instrumenti, quod semivocale appellavi, Saserna ad iugera CC arvi boum iuga duo satis esse scribit, Cato in olivetis CCXL iugeris boves trinos. Ita fit ut, si Saserna dicit verum, ad C iugera iugum opus sit, si Cato, ad octogena. Sed ego neutrum modum horum omnem ad agrum convenire puto et utrumque ad aliquem.

Concerning the remaining part of the equipment, which I have called semi-vocal, Saserna writes that for 200 iugera of arable land two yokes of oxen are enough, Cato in olive-groves of 240 iugera three yokes of oxen. Thus it comes about that, if Saserna speaks true, for 100 iugera a yoke is needed; if Cato, for eighty. But I do not think that either of these measures fits every field, and that each fits some.

Alia enim terra facilior aut difficilior est: aliam terram boves proscindere nisi magnis viribus non possunt et saepe fracta bura relinquunt vomerem in arvo. Quo sequendum nobis in singulis fundis, dum sumus novicii, triplici regula, superioris domini instituto et vicinorum et experientia quadam. Quod addit asinos qui stercus vectent tres, asinum molarium, in vinea iugerum C iugum boum, asinorum iugum, asinum molendarium: in hoc genere semivocalium adiciendum de pecore ea sola quae agri colendi causa erunt et quae solent esse peculiaria pauca habenda, quo facilius mancipia se tueri et assidua esse possint.

For one soil is easier and another more difficult: there is soil which oxen cannot plough up without great force, and often, the plough-beams broken, they leave the share in the field. Wherefore, on individual farms, while we are novices, we must be guided by a threefold rule: the institution/practice of the former master, that of the neighbors, and a certain experience. As for what he adds—three asses to carry manure, a mill-ass; in a vineyard of 100 iugera, a yoke of oxen, a yoke of asses, a mill-ass—in this class of “semi-vocals” there should be added from the herd only those which are for the sake of cultivating the field, and a few that are customary for a peculium, so that the slaves may more easily support themselves and be assiduous.

In eo numero non modo qui prata habent, ut potius oves quam sues habeant curant, sed etiam qui non solum pratorum causa habent, propter stercus. De canibus vero utique, quod villa sine iis parum tuta.

Among that number, not only those who have meadows take care that they have sheep rather than swine, but also those who keep them not only for the sake of meadows, but also on account of manure. As for dogs, assuredly, because a villa without them is not very safe.

XX.

20.

Igitur de omnibus quadripedibus prima est probatio, qui idonei sint boves, qui arandi causa emuntur. Quos rudis neque minoris trimos neque maioris quadrimos parandum: ut viribus magnis sint ac pares, ne in opere firmior inbecilliorem conficiat: amplis cornibus et nigris potius quam aliter ut sint, lata fronte, naribus simis, lato pectore, crassis coxendicibus. Hos veteranos ex campestribus locis non emendum in dura ac montana, nec non contra si incidit, ut sit vitandum.

Therefore, concerning all quadrupeds the first examination is which oxen are suitable, those who are bought for the sake of plowing. Such as are unbroken should be procured neither younger than three years nor older than four: that they may be great in strength and matched, lest in work the stronger wear out the weaker; with ample horns and black rather than otherwise, broad of forehead, with snub nostrils, a wide chest, and thick haunches. These veterans from campestral places are not to be bought for hard and mountainous regions, and likewise the contrary, if it occurs, is to be avoided.

Novellos cum quis emerit iuvencos, si eorum colla in furcas destitutas incluserit ac dederit cibum, diebus paucis erunt mansueti et ad domandum proni. Tum ita subigendum, ut minutatim adsuefaciant et ut tironem cum veterano adiungant (imitando enim facilius domatur), et primum in aequo loco et sine aratro, tum eo levi, principio per harenam aut molliorem terram. Quos ad vecturas, item instituendum ut inania primum ducant plaustra et, si possis, per vicum aut oppidum: creber crepitus ac varietas rerum consuetudine celeberrima ad utilitatem adducit.

When someone has bought young bullocks, if he encloses their necks in set-up forks and gives them food, in a few days they will be tame and prone to taming. Then they must be subjugated thus: that they accustom them little by little, and that they join a tyro with a veteran (for by imitating he is more easily tamed), and first on level ground and without a plough, then with a light one, to begin with through sand or softer earth. Those intended for haulage likewise must be trained to draw empty wagons first, and, if you can, through a village or a town: frequent clatter and a variety of things, by a most constant custom, brings them to utility.

Neque pertinaciter, quem feceris dextrum, in eo manendum, quod, si alternis fit sinister, fit laboranti in alterutra parte requies. Ubi terra levis, ut in Campania, ibi non bubus gravibus, sed vaccis aut asinis quod arant, eo facilius ad aratrum leve adduci possunt, ad molas et ad ea, siquae sunt, quae in fundo convehuntur. In qua re alii asellis, alii vaccis ac mulis utuntur, exinde ut pabuli facultas est; Nam facilius asellus quam vacca alitur, sed fructuosior haec.

Nor pertinaciously must one insist that the one you have made right-hand remain there, because, if alternately he is made left-hand, there is a rest for the laborer on either side. Where the soil is light, as in Campania, there they plow not with heavy oxen, but with cows or asses, which all the more easily can be brought to the light plow, to the millstones, and to those things, if there are any, which are conveyed on the estate. In this matter some use little asses, others cows and mules, according as the faculty of fodder allows; for a donkey is more easily nourished than a cow, but the latter is more fruitful.

In eo agricolae hoc spectandum, quo fastigio sit fundus. In confragoso enim haec ac difficili valentiora parandum et potius ea quae per se fructum reddere possint, cum idem operis faciant.

In this matter farmers must look to this, of what pitch the estate is. For on rugged and difficult ground, more robust kinds are to be provided, and rather those which can render fruit/profit of themselves, since they do the same work.

XXI.

21.

Canes potius cum dignitate et acres paucos habendum quam multos, quos consuefacias potius noctu vigilare et interdiu clausos dormire. De indomitis quadripedibus ac pecore faciendum: si prata sunt in fundo neque pecus habet, danda opera ut pabulo vendito alienum pecus in suo fundo pascat ac stabulet.

Dogs: rather have a few, dignified and keen, than many—whom you should accustom rather to keep vigil by night and, shut in by day, to sleep. As to untamed quadrupeds and cattle, this should be done: if there are meadows on the estate and he has no herd, effort must be given to arrange that, by selling fodder, he pasture and stable another man’s herd on his own estate.

XXII.

22.

De reliquo instrumento muto, in quo sunt corbulae, dolia, sic alia, haec praecipienda. Quae nasci in fundo ac fieri a domesticis poterunt, eorum nequid ematur, ut fere sunt quae ex viminibus et materia rustica fiunt, ut corbes, fiscinae, tribula, valli, rastelli; sic quae fiunt de cannabi, lino, iunco, palma, scirpo, ut funes, restes, tegetes. Quae e fundo sumi non poterunt, ea si empta erunt potius ad utilitatem quam ob speciem, sumptu fructum non extenuabunt; eo magis, si inde empta erunt potissimum, ubi ea et bona et proxime et vilissimo emi poterunt.

Concerning the remaining inanimate instrument, in which are little baskets, large jars, and so other things, these points are to be prescribed. Whatever can arise on the estate and be made by the domestics, let none of that be bought; such are, for the most part, the things made from withes and rustic material, as baskets, panniers, threshing-sledges, stakes, rakes; likewise those which are made of hemp, flax, rush, palm, bulrush, such as ropes, cables, mats. Those which cannot be taken from the estate—if they are bought rather for utility than for appearance—the expense will not thin the profit; all the more if they are bought especially from wherever they can be procured both good, nearby, and at the very cheapest.

Cuius instrumenti varia discrimina ac multitudo agri magnitudine finitur, quod plura opus sunt, si fines distant late. Itaque, Stolo inquit, proposita magnitudine fundi de eo genere Cato scribit, oliveti iugera CCXL qui coleret, eum instruere ita oportere, ut faceret vasa olearia iuga quinque, quae membratim enumerat, ut ex aere ahenea, urceos, nassiternam, item alia: sic e ligno et ferro, ut plostra maiora tria, aratra cum vomeribus sex, crates stercorarias quattuor, item alia; sic de ferramentis quae sint et qua opus multitudine, ut ferreas octo, sarcula totidem, dimidio minus palas, item alia. Item alteram formulam instrumenti fundi vinarii fecit, in qua scribit, si sit C iugerum, habere oportere vasa torcularia instructa trina, dolia cum operculis culleorum octingentorum, acinaria viginti, frumentaria viginti, item eius modi alia.

The varied distinctions and the multitude of this instrument are bounded by the magnitude of the field, since more things are needed if the boundaries are widely distant. And so, says Stolo, with the magnitude of the estate set forth, Cato writes on that category that he who would cultivate 240 iugera of olive-grove ought to equip it thus: that he should make oil-vessels for five yokes, which he enumerates part by part, such as, from bronze, bronze vessels, pitchers, a nasiterna, likewise others; likewise from wood and iron, such as three larger wagons, ploughs with six plowshares, four manure-frames, likewise others; likewise concerning the iron-tools, what they are and in what multitude there is need—eight iron implements, the same number of mattocks, half as many spades, likewise others. Likewise he made another formula of the equipment of a wine-estate, in which he writes that, if it be 100 iugera, it ought to have three press-vessels equipped, dolia with covers of 800 cullei [in capacity], twenty grape-bins, twenty grain-bins, likewise other things of that sort.

Quae minus multa quidem alii, sed tantum numerum culleorum scripsisse puto, ne cogeretur quotannis vendere vinum. Vetera enim quam nova et eadem alio tempore quam alio pluris. Item sic de ferramentorum varietate scribit permulta, et genere et multitudine qua sint, ut falces, palas, rastros, sic alia, quorum non nulla genera species habent plures, ut falces.

Others indeed [prescribed] fewer of these things, but I think he wrote down so great a number of cullei, lest he be compelled to sell wine every year. For old wines are more valuable than new, and the same [wine] at one time than at another is of higher price. Likewise he writes very many things about the variety of iron tools, both as to their genus and their multitude, such as sickles, shovels, rakes, and the like; of which some genera have several species, as sickles.

Nam dicuntur ab eodem scriptore vineaticae opus esse XL, sirpiculae V, silvaticae V, arborariae III, rustariae X. Hic haec. At Scrofa, Instrumentum et supellectilem rusticam omnem oportet habere scriptam in urbe et rure dominum, vilicum contra ea ruri omnia certo suo quoque loco ad villam esse posita; quae non possunt esse sub clavi, quam maxime facere ut sint in conspectu oportet, eo magis ea quae in rariore sunt usu, ut quibus in vindemia utuntur et corbulae, et sic alia. Quae enim res cotidie videntur, minus metuunt furem.

For they are said by the same writer to need vineyard sickles 40, sirpiculae 5, woodland sickles 5, arboreal [sickles] 3, rustic [sickles] 10. So much for these. But Scrofa [says]: the owner ought to have all the equipment and rustic furnishings written down both in the city and in the countryside; the bailiff, conversely, ought to have all those items in the country set at the villa, each also in its own fixed place; those things which cannot be under lock and key, one ought to contrive as much as possible to be in plain sight, all the more those which are in rarer use, such as the things they use at the vintage and the little baskets, and so others. For the things that are seen every day fear the thief less.

XXIII.

23.

Suscipit Agrasius, Et quoniam habemus illa duo prima ex divisione quadripertita, de fundo et de instrumento, quo coli solet, de tertia parte expecto. Scrofa, Quoniam fructum, inquit, arbitror esse fundi eum qui ex eo satus nascitur utilis ad aliquam rem, duo consideranda, quae et quo quidque loco maxime expediat serere. Alia enim loca adposita sunt ad faenum, alia ad frumentum, alia ad vinum, alia ad oleum, sic ad pabulum quae pertinent, in quo est ocinum, farrago, vicia, medica, cytiscum, lupinum.

Agrasius takes it up, And since we have those two first parts from the quadripartite division, about the farm and about the instrument by which it is wont to be cultivated, I await the third part. Scrofa, Since, says he, I judge the fruit of the farm to be that which, sown from it, is born useful for some purpose, two things are to be considered: what, and in what place, it is most expedient to sow each. For some places are apt for hay, others for grain, others for wine, others for oil; so too for what pertains to fodder, in which are ocinum, farrago, vetch, medick, cytisus, lupine.

Neque in pingui terra omnia seruntur recte neque in macra nihil. Rectius enim in tenuiore terra ea quae non multo indigent suco, ut cytisum et legumina praeter cicer; hoc enim quoque legumen, ut cetera quae velluntur e terra, non subsecantur, quae, quod ita leguntur, legumina dicta. In pingui rectius quae cibi sunt maioris, ut holus, triticum, siligo, linum.

Nor in fat soil are all things rightly sown, nor in lean is nothing. Rather, in thinner soil those are better which do not need much sap, such as cytisus and legumes, except the chickpea; for this too is a legume, like the others which are pulled up from the ground and not cut beneath—whence, because they are gathered thus, they are called “legumes.” In fat soil, more rightly, those which are of greater food value are sown, such as vegetables, wheat, siligo, and flax.

Quaedam etiam serenda non tam propter praesentem fructum quam in annum prospicientem, quod ibi subsecta atque relicta terram faciunt meliorem. Itaque lupinum, cum minus siliculam cepit, et non numquam fabalia, si ad siliquas non ita pervenit, ut fabam legere expediat, si ager macrior est, pro stercore inarare solent. Nec minus ea discriminanda in conserendo quae sunt fructuosa, propter voluptatem, ut quae pomaria ac floralia appellantur, item illa quae ad hominum victum ac sensum delectationemque non pertinent neque ab agri utilitate sunt diiuncta.

Certain things also are to be sown not so much for present fruit as looking forward to the coming year, because there, when cut down and left, they make the earth better. And so lupine, when it has scarcely taken on a little pod, and sometimes the bean-crop, if it has not quite come to pods so that it is expedient to gather the bean, if the field is leaner, they are wont to plow in as manure. No less must those things that are fruitful be discriminated in planting on account of pleasure, such as those that are called orchards and floral plantings, likewise those which do not pertain to men’s victual and sense and delight, nor are disjoined from the farm’s utility.

Idoneus locus eligendus, ubi facias salictum et harundinetum, sic alia quae umidum locum quaerunt, contra ubi segetes frumentarias, ubi fabam potissimum seras, item alia quae arida loca secuntur: sic ut umbrosis locis alia seras, ut corrudam, quod ita petit asparagus; aprica, ut ibi seras violam et hortos facias, quod ea sole nutricantur, sic alia. Et alio loco virgulta serenda, ut habeas vimina, unde viendo quid facias, ut sirpeas, vallus, crates; alio loco ut seras ac colas silvam caeduam, alio ubi aucupere, sic ubi cannabim, linum, iuncum, spartum, unde nectas bubus soleas, lineas, restis, funes. Quaedam loca eadem alia ad serendum idonea.

A suitable place must be chosen, where you may make a willow-plot and a reed-bed, likewise others that seek a humid place; conversely, where the grain-crops, where you would most especially sow the bean, likewise others that follow arid places: so too that in shady places you sow other things, such as corruda, for asparagus thus seeks it; in sunny places, that there you sow the violet and make gardens, because these are nourished by the sun, and so others. And in another place shrubs must be planted, that you may have withies, whence by weaving you may make something, such as wicker-baskets, wattles, hurdles; in another place that you sow and tend a coppice-wood, in another where to go fowling; so too where hemp, flax, rush, esparto, whence you may plait ox-shoes, lines, ropes, cables. Certain places are likewise suitable for sowing other things.

Nam et in recentibus pomariis dissitis seminibus in ordinemque arbusculis positis primis annis, antequam radices longius procedere possint, alii conserunt hortos, alii quid aliud, neque cum convaluerunt arbores, idem faciunt, ne violent radices.

For even in newly made orchards, with seeds set at intervals and little trees placed in a row, in the first years, before the roots can proceed farther, some plant gardens, others something else; nor, when the trees have grown strong, do they do the same, lest they violate the roots.

XXIV.

24.

Stolo, Quod ad haec pertinet, Cato non male, quod scribit de sationibus, ager crassus et laetus si sit sine arboribus, eum agrum frumentarium fieri oportere; idem ager si nebulosus sit, rapa, raphanos, milium, panicum; in agro crasso et calido oleam conditaneam, radium maiorem, Sallentinam, orcitem, poseam, Sergianam, Colminiam, albicerem, quam earum in iis locis optimam dicant esse, eam maxime serere. Agrum oliveto conserendo, nisi qui in ventum favonium spectet et soli ostentus sit, alium bonum nullum esse. Qui ager frigidior et macrior sit, ibi oleam licinianam seri oportere.

Stolo, As regards these matters, Cato speaks not amiss, when he writes about sowings: if a field be thick and glad (fertile) and without trees, that that field ought to be made grain-bearing; the same field, if it be misty, turnips, radishes, millet, panic; in a thick and warm field, the olive Conditanean, the greater Radius, the Sallentine, the Orcites, the Posea, the Sergiana, the Colminia, the Albicera—whichever of these in those places they say is best, that one most of all to plant. In planting a field with an olive-grove, unless it look out toward the Favonian wind and be exposed to the sun, there is no other good. A field which is colder and leaner, there the Licinian olive ought to be planted.

Si in loco crasso aut calido posueris, hostum nequam fieri et ferendo arborem perire et muscum rubrum molestum esse. Hostum vocant quod ex uno facto olei reficitur. Factum dicunt quod uno tempore conficiunt, quem alii CLX aiunt esse modiorum, alii ita minus magnum, ut ad CXX descendat, exinde ut vasa olearia quot et quanta habeant, quibus conficiunt illut.

If you set it in a thick or warm place, the hostum becomes worthless, and by bearing the tree perishes, and red moss is troublesome. They call hostum what is remade from a single “batch” (factum) of oil. They call “batch” what they complete at one time, which some say is 160 modii, others so much less that it descends to 120, according as how many and how large the oil-vessels they have, with which they complete that.

Quod Cato ait circum fundum ulmos et populos, unde frons ovibus et bubus sit et materies, seri oportere (sed hoc neque in omnibus fundis opus est neque, in quibus est opus, propter frondem maxime), sine detrimento ponuntur a septemtrionali parte, quod non officiunt soli.

As to what Cato says, that around the farm elms and poplars, from which there may be leaf-fodder for sheep and oxen and building material, ought to be planted (but this is not necessary on all farms, nor, in those where it is necessary, chiefly on account of the foliage), they are set without detriment on the northern side, because they do not obstruct the sun.

Ille adicit ab eodem scriptore, si locus umectus sit, ibi cacumina populorum serenda et harundinetum. Id prius bipalio verti, ibi oculos harundinis pedes ternos alium ab alio seri, * * * aptam esse utrique eandem fere culturam. Salicem Graecam circum harundinetum seri oportere, uti sit qui vitis alligari possit.

He adds from the same writer, if the place is moist, there the tops of poplars should be planted and a reed-bed. That should first be turned with a two-spade; there the “eyes” of reeds are to be sown three feet one from another, * * * that nearly the same cultivation is apt for each. The Greek willow ought to be planted around the reed-bed, so that there may be something to which the vine can be tied.

XXV.

25.

Vinea quo in agro serenda sit, sic observandum. Qui locus optimus vino sit et ostentus soli, Aminneum minusculum et geminum eugeneum, helvium minusculum seri oportere. Qui locus crassior sit aut nebulosus, ibi Aminneum maius aut Murgentinum, Apicium, Lucanum seri.

As to where in a field a vineyard should be planted, this must be observed thus. Where a place is best for wine and exposed to the sun, it is proper to plant the smaller aminneum and the twin eugeneum, and the smaller helvium. Where a place is heavier or nebulous, there the larger aminneum or the murgentinum, apicium, lucanum should be planted.

Ceteras vites, et de iis miscellas maxime, in omne genus agri convenire.

The other vines, and of these the mixed varieties especially, suit every kind of land.

XXVI.

26.

In omni vinea diligenter observant ut ridica vitis ad septemtrionem versus tegatur; et si cupressos vivas, pro ridicis quas inserunt, alternos ordines inponunt neque eos crescere altius quam ridicas patiuntur, neque propter eos ut adserant vites, quod inter se haec inimica.

In every vineyard they diligently observe that the vine-stake, turned toward the north, be set to give shelter; and if, in place of the stakes which they insert, they put in living cypresses, they impose them in alternate rows and neither allow them to grow higher than the stakes, nor, on account of them, do they prop up the vines upon them, because these are mutually inimical.

Agrius Fundanio, Vereor, inquit, ne ante aeditumus veniat huc, quam hic ad quartum actum. Vindemiam enim expecto. Bono animo es, inquit Scrofa, ac fiscinas expedi et urnam.

Agrius to Fundanius, “I fear,” he says, “lest the aeditumus come here before this gets to the fourth act. For I am expecting the vintage.” “Be of good cheer,” says Scrofa, “and get the wicker-baskets and the urn ready.”

XXVII.

27.

Et quoniam tempora duorum generum sunt, unum annale, quod sol circuitu suo finit, alterum menstruum, quod luna circumiens comprendit, prius dicam de sole. Eius cursus annalis primum fere circiter ternis mensibus ad fructus est divisus in IIII partis, et idem subtilius sesquimensibus in IIX, in IIII, quod dividitur in ver et aestatem et autumnum et hiemem. Vere sationes quae fiunt, terram rudem proscindere oportet, quae sunt ex ea enata, priusquam ex iis quid seminis cadat, ut sint exradicata; et simul glaebis ab sole percalefactis aptiores facere ad accipiendum imbrem et ad opus faciliores relaxatas; neque eam minus binis arandum, ter melius.

And since the seasons are of two kinds, one annual, which the sun by its circuit completes, the other monthly, which the moon in its circling comprises, I will first speak about the sun. His annual course is at first, roughly, for the sake of produce, divided by sets of three months into 4 parts; and the same, more finely, by month‑and‑a‑half (sesqui‑month) intervals into 8; into 4, which is divided into spring and summer and autumn and winter. In spring, for the sowings that are done, it is proper to plow up the rough earth, the things that have sprung from it, before any seed falls from them, so that they may be uprooted; and at the same time, with the clods thoroughly warmed by the sun, to make them fitter for receiving rain and, being loosened, easier for work; nor should it be plowed less than twice, better thrice.

Aestate fieri messes oportere, autumno siccis tempestatibus vindemias, ac silvas excoli commodissime tunc, praecidi arbores oportere secundum terram: radices autem primoribus imbribus ut effodiantur, nequid ex iis nasci possit. Hieme putari arbores dumtaxat his temporibus, cum gelu cortices ex imbribus careant et glacie.

In summer it is proper that the harvests be done, in autumn, in dry weathers, the vintages; and woodlands are most conveniently tended then, it being proper that trees be cut close to the ground: the roots, however, at the first rains should be dug out, lest anything be able to sprout from them. In winter trees are to be pruned only at those times when, under frost, the bark is free from rains and from ice.

XXVIII.

28.

Dies primus est veris in aquario, aestatis in tauro, autumni in leone, hiemis in scorpione. Cum unius cuiusque horum IIII signorum dies tertius et vicesimus IIII temporum sit primus et efficiat ut ver dies habeat XCI, aestas XCIV, autumnus XCI, hiems XXCIX, quae redacta ad dies civiles nostros, qui nunc sunt, primi verni temporis ex a. d. VII id. Febr., aestivi ex a. d. VII id. Mai., autumnalis ex a. d. III id. Sextil., hiberni ex a. d. IV id. Nov., suptilius descriptis temporibus observanda quaedam sunt, eaque in partes VIII dividuntur: primum a favonio ad aequinoctium vernum dies XLV, hinc ad vergiliarum exortum dies XLIV, ab hoc ad solstitium dies XLIIX, inde ad caniculae signum dies XXVII, dein ad aequinoctium autumnale dies LXVII, exin ad vergiliarum occasum dies XXXII, ab hoc ad brumam dies LVII, inde ad favonium dies XLV.

The first day of spring is in Aquarius, of summer in Taurus, of autumn in Leo, of winter in Scorpio. Since the 23rd day of each of these 4 signs is the first of the 4 seasons and brings it about that spring has 91 days, summer 94, autumn 91, winter 99, which, reduced to our civil days, which now are, the first of the spring season from the 7th day before the Ides of February, of summer from the 7th day before the Ides of May, of autumn from the 3rd day before the Ides of August, of winter from the 4th day before the Ides of November, with the times more finely described certain things are to be observed, and these are divided into 8 parts: first from Favonius (the West Wind) to the vernal equinox 45 days, hence to the rising of the Vergiliae (Pleiades) 44 days, from this to the solstice 48 days, thence to the sign of Canicula (the Dog-star) 27 days, then to the autumnal equinox 67 days, next to the setting of the Vergiliae 32 days, from this to midwinter (bruma) 57 days, thence to Favonius 45.

XXIX.

29.

Primo intervallo inter favonium et aequinoctium vernum haec fieri oportet. Seminaria omne genus ut serantur, putari arbusta, stercorari in pratis, circum vites ablacuari, radices quae in summa terra sunt praecidi, prata purgari, salicta seri, segetes sariri. Seges dicitur quod aratum satum est, arvum quod aratum necdum satum est, novalis, ubi satum fuit, antequam secunda aratione novatur rursus.

In the first interval between the Favonius and the vernal equinox, these things ought to be done: nurseries of every kind to be sown, the arbusta to be pruned, manuring to be done in the meadows, around the vines to be trenched, the roots which are on the top of the soil to be cut back, the meadows to be cleansed, willow-beds to be planted, the crops (segetes) to be hoed. A “seges” is called that which has been plowed and sown; “arvum,” that which has been plowed and not yet sown; “novalis,” where it had been sown, before it is renewed again by a second plowing.

Terram cum primum arant, proscindere appellant, cum iterum, offringere dicunt, quod prima aratione glaebae grandes solent excitari; cum iteratur, offringere vocant. Tertio cum arant iacto semine, boves lirare dicuntur, id est cum tabellis additis ad vomerem simul et satum frumentum operiunt in porcis et sulcant fossas, quo pluvia aqua delabatur. Non nulli postea, qui segetes non tam latas habent, ut in Apulia et id genus praediis, per sartores occare solent, siquae in porcis relictae grandiores sunt glaebae.

When they first plough the ground, they call it to break the soil; when they do it a second time, they say to offringere, because at the first ploughing large clods are wont to be thrown up; when it is repeated, they call it offringere. The third time, when they plough with the seed cast, the oxen are said to ridge (lirare), that is, with little boards added to the ploughshare they cover the sown grain at the same time on the ridges (porcae) and score furrows, so that the rain-water may run off. Not a few afterwards, who have crops not so broad, as in Apulia and on estates of that kind, are wont to have the hoers harrow (occare), if any larger clods have been left on the ridges (in porcis).

Qua aratrum vomere lacunam striam fecit, sulcus vocatur. Quod est inter duos sulcos elata terra dicitur porca, quod ea seges frumentum porricit. Sic quoque exta deis cum dabant, porricere dicebant.

Where the plow with the ploughshare has made a hollow groove, it is called a furrow. The earth raised between two furrows is called a “porca,” because that crop proffers the grain. Thus also, when they gave the entrails to the gods, they used to say “porricere.”

XXX.

30.

Secundo intervallo inter vernum aequinoctium et vergiliarum exortum haec fieri. Segetes runcari, id est herbam e segetibus expurgari, boves terram proscindere, salicem caedi, prata defendi. Quae superiore tempore fieri oportuerit et non sunt absoluta, antequam gemmas agant ac florescere incipiant, fieri, quod, si quae folia amittere solent ante frondere inceperunt, statim ad serendum idonea non sunt.

In the second interval between the vernal equinox and the rising of the Vergiliae (Pleiads), these things are to be done: the crops are to be weeded (that is, the grass is to be cleansed out from the crops), oxen are to break up the ground, willow is to be cut, meadows are to be protected. Those things which ought to have been done in the earlier season and are not completed should be done before they put forth buds and begin to flower; because, if those which are accustomed to lose their leaves have already begun to leaf out beforehand, they are immediately not suitable for planting.

Oleam seri interputarique oportet.

The olive ought to be planted and inter-pruned.

XXXI.

31.

Tertio intervallo inter vergiliarum exortum et solstitium haec fieri debent. Vineas novellas fodere aut arare et postea occare, id est comminuere, ne sit glaeba. Quod ita occidunt, occare dictum.

In the third interval between the rising of the Pleiades and the solstice these things ought to be done. Dig or plough the young vineyards, and afterwards harrow, that is, comminute, lest it be a clod. Because they thus “strike it down” (occidunt), it is called “to occare.”

Vites pampinari, sed a sciente (nam id quam putare maius), neque in arbusto, sed in vinea fieri. Pampinare est e sarmento coles qui nati sunt, de iis, qui plurimum valent, primum ac secundum, non numquam etiam tertium, relinquere, reliquos decerpere, ne relictis colibus sarmentum nequeat ministrare sucum. Ideo in vitiario primitus cum exit vitis, tota resicari solet, ut firmiore sarmento e terra exeat atque in pariendis colibus vires habeat maiores.

Vines are to be pampinated, but by a knowledgeable man (for that is more important than to prune), and not on an arbustum, but to be done in a vineyard. To pampinate is, from the cane, to take the shoots that have sprung forth, and of those which are strongest to leave the first and the second, sometimes even the third, and to pluck off the rest, lest, if too many shoots are left, the cane be unable to minister sap to them. Therefore, in the vine-nursery, at first when the vine comes up, it is accustomed to be cut back entirely, so that a sturdier cane may come up from the ground and have greater strength for producing shoots.

Eiuncidum enim sarmentum propter infirmitatem sterile neque ex se potest eicere vitem, quam vocant minorem flagellum, maiorem et iam unde uvae nascuntur palmam. Prior littera una mutata declinata a venti flatu, similiter ac flabellum flagellum. Posterior, quod ea vitis immittitur ad uvas pariendas, dicta primo videtur a pariendo parilema: exin mutatis litteris, ut in multis, dici coepta palma.

For the eiuncidum shoot, on account of infirmity, is sterile and cannot of itself throw out the vine-shoot, which they call, when smaller, a flagellum, and, when larger and now the part whence grapes are born, a palma. The former, with one letter changed, is declined from the blowing of the wind (venti flatus), similarly as flabellum to flagellum. The latter, because by it the vine is sent in to beget grapes, seems at first to have been called from “bearing” (pariendus) parilema; then, with letters altered, as in many cases, it began to be called palma.

Ex altera parte parit capreolum. Is est coliculus viteus intortus, ut cincinnus. hi sunt enim vitis quibus teneat id quo serpit ad locum capiendum, a quo capiendo capreolus dictus.

On the other side it bears a capreolus. This is a little vine-stalk, twisted like a curl. For these are what the vine uses to hold fast to that along which it creeps, for the taking of a place; and from this taking (capere) it is called a “capreolus.”

Omne pabulum, primum ocinum farraginem viciam, novissime faenum, secari. Ocinum dictum a graeco verbo, okeos quod valet cito, similiter quod ocimum in horto. Hoc amplius dictum ocinum, quod citat alvom bubus et ideo iis datur, ut purgentur.

All fodder—first ocinum, farrago, vetch, and, last of all, hay—should be cut. Ocinum is said from the Greek word “okeos,” which is worth “quick(ly),” similarly as “ocimum” in the garden. Moreover it is called ocinum because it hastens the bowels for oxen, and therefore it is given to them, that they may be purged.

Id est ex fabali segete viride sectum, antequam genat siliquas. Farrago contra ex segete ubi sata admixta hordeum et vicia et legumina pabuli causa viride aut quod ferro caesa ferrago dicta, aut inde, quod primum in farracia segete seri coepta. Eo equi et iumenta cetera verno tempore purgantur ac saginantur.

That is, cut green from a bean-field, before it puts forth pods. Farrago, on the contrary, [comes] from a field where, for the sake of fodder, barley and vetch and legumes are sown mixed, green; either it is called “ferrago” because it is cut with iron, or else from the fact that it first began to be sown in a spelt-field. Therewith horses and the other draught-animals in the springtime are purged and fattened.

Vicia dicta a vinciendo, quod item capreolos habet, ut vitis, quibus, cum susum versus serpit, ad scapum lupini aliumve quem ut haereat, id solet vincire. Si prata inrigua habebis, simulac faenum sustuleris, inrigare. In poma, quae insita erunt, siccitatibus aquam addi cotidie vesperi.

Vetch is said to be named from binding, because likewise it has capreoles (tendrils), as the vine does, with which, when it creeps upward, it is accustomed to bind itself to the scape of the lupine or some other one, so that it may cling. If you have irrigable meadows, as soon as you have carried off the hay, irrigate. For fruit-trees that will have been grafted, in droughts let water be added daily in the evening.

A quo, quod indigent potu, poma dicta esse possunt.

Whence, because they are indigent of drink, pomes can be said to be so called.

XXXII.

32.

Quarto intervallo inter solstitium et caniculam plerique messem faciunt, quod frumentum dicunt quindecim diebus esse in vaginis, quindecim florere, quindecim exarescere, cum sit maturum. Arationes absolvi, quae eo fructuosiores fiunt, quo caldiore terra aratur. Si proscideris, offringi oportet, id est iterare, ut frangantur glaebae; prima enim aratione grandes glaebae ex terra scinduntur.

In the fourth interval, between the solstice and the Dog-star (Canicula), most people make the harvest, because they say the grain is for fifteen days in the sheaths, fifteen flowering, fifteen drying out, when it is mature. The plowings should be completed, which become the more fruitful, the warmer the earth is plowed. If you have pre-plowed, it ought to be “offringi,” that is, to iterate, so that the clods may be broken; for at the first plowing large clods are cut from the earth.

Serendum viciam, lentem, cicerculam, ervilam ceteraque, quae alii legumina, alii, ut Gallicani quidam, legarica appellant, utraque dicta a legendo, quod ea non secantur, sed vellendo leguntur. Vineas veteres iterum occare, novellas etiam tertio, si sunt etiam tum glaebae.

Sow vetch, lentil, chickling vetch, bitter vetch, and the rest, which some call “legumina,” others, as certain Gallic folk, “legarica,” both so named from legere (“to gather”), because they are not cut, but are gathered by plucking. Harrow the old vineyards again, the new ones even a third time, if there are still clods.

XXXIII.

33.

Quinto intervallo inter caniculam et aequinoctium autumnale oportet stramenta desecari et acervos constitui, arata offringi, frondem caedi, prata inrigua iterum secari.

In the fifth interval, between the Dog-star and the autumnal equinox, it is proper that the straw be cut and the heaps be set up, the ploughed lands be clod-broken, the foliage be cut, the irrigated meadows be cut again.

XXXIV.

34.

Sexto intervallo ab aequinoctio autumnali incipere scribunt oportere serere usque ad diem nonagensimum unum. Post brumam, nisi quae necessaria causa coegerit, non serere, quod tantum intersit, ut ante brumam sata quae septimo die, post brumam sata quadragesimo die vix existant. Neque ante aequinoctium incipi oportere putant, quod, si minus idoneae tempestates sint consecutae, putescere semina soleant.

At the sixth interval from the autumnal equinox, they write that one ought to begin to sow up to the ninety-first day. After the bruma (winter solstice), do not sow unless some necessary cause compels, because the difference is so great that what is sown before the bruma comes up on the seventh day, whereas what is sown after the bruma scarcely comes up on the fortieth day. Nor do they think one ought to begin before the equinox, because, if less idoneous weather should follow, the seeds are wont to rot.

Fabam optime seri in vergiliarum occasu: uvas autem legere et vindemiam facere inter aequinoctium autumnale et vergiliarum occasum; dein vites putare incipere et propagare et serere poma. Haec aliquot regionibus, ubi maturius frigora fiunt asperiora, melius verno tempore.

It is best to sow the fava-bean at the setting of the Vergiliae (Pleiades); but to gather the grapes and make the vintage between the autumnal equinox and the setting of the Vergiliae; then to begin to prune the vines, to propagate, and to plant fruit-trees. In some regions, where the cold becomes harsher earlier, these things are better done in the springtime.

XXXV.

35.

Septimo intervallo inter vergiliarum occasum et brumam haec fieri oportere dicunt: Serere lilium et crocum. Quae iam egit radicem rosa, ea conciditur radicitus in virgulas palmares et obruitur, haec eadem postea transfertur facta viviradix. Violaria in fundo facere non est utile, ideo quod necesse est terra adruenda pulvinos fieri, quos inrigationes et pluviae tempestates abluunt et agrum faciunt macriorem.

They say that in the seventh interval between the setting of the Vergiliae (Pleiades) and the solstice these things ought to be done: to sow lily and crocus. The rose which has already put forth a root is cut down to the root into palm-length little wands and is covered over; this same is later transplanted, having been made a live-root (stock). To make violet-beds on the ground is not useful, for it is necessary that, with the soil drawn up, cushions be made, which irrigations and rainy storms wash away and make the field more meager.

A favonio usque ad arcturi exortum recte serpillum e seminario transferri, quod dictum ab eo, quod serpit. Fossas novas fodere, veteres tergere, vineas arbustumque putare, dum in XV diebus ante et post brumam, ut pleraque, ne facias. Nec non tum aliquid recte seritur, ut ulmi.

From Favonius up to the rising of Arcturus, it is proper to transplant creeping thyme (serpyllum) from the nursery, so called from the fact that it creeps. Dig new ditches, clean the old, prune the vineyards and the arbustum (tree-trained vines), provided that for the 15 days before and after the winter solstice, as with most things, you do not do these. And likewise at that time some things are rightly sown, such as elms.

XXXVI.

36.

Octavo intervallo inter brumam et favonium haec fieri oportet. De segetibus, siqua est aqua, deduci; sin siccitates sunt et terra teneritudinem habet, sarire. Vineas arbustaque putare.

In the eighth interval between the winter solstice and the Favonius, these things ought to be done. As for the crops, if there is any water, to be drained; but if there are droughts and the soil has softness, to hoe. To prune the vines and the vine-trees.

Cum in agris opus fieri non potest, quae sub tecto possunt tunc conficienda antelucano tempore hiberno. Quae dixi scripta et proposita habere in villa oportet, maxime ut vilicus norit.

When work cannot be done in the fields, those things that can be done under a roof should then be completed at the antelucan time in winter. What I have said ought to be kept written and posted in the villa, especially so that the vilicus may know it.

XXXVII.

37.

Dies lunares quoque observandi, qui quodam modo bipertiti, quod a nova luna crescit ad plenam et inde rursus ad novam lunam decrescit, quaad veniat ad intermenstruum, quo die dicitur luna esse extrema et prima; a quo eum diem Athenis appellant enhn kai nean, triakada alii. Quaedam facienda in agris potius crescente luna quam senescente, quaedam contra quae metas, ut frumenta et caeduas silvas. Ego istaec, inquit Agrasius, non solum in ovibus tondendis, sed in meo capillo a patre acceptum servo, ni crescente luna tondens calvos fiam.

Lunar days too must be observed, which are in a certain way bipartite, since from the new moon it waxes to the full and thence again to the new moon it wanes, until it comes to the intermenstruum, on which day the moon is said to be last and first; and so that day at Athens they call “enhn kai nean,” others “triakada.” Certain things are to be done in the fields rather with the moon waxing than waning, certain things contrariwise—the kind you reap, such as grains and coppice-woods. “I,” says Agrasius, “keep these practices not only in the shearing of sheep, but in my own hair, a tradition received from my father, lest, cutting during the moon’s waxing, I become bald.”

Agrius, Quem ad modum, inquit, luna quadripertita? Et quid ea divisio ad agros pollet? Tremelius, Numquam rure audisti, inquit, octavo Ianam lunam et crescentem et contra senescentem, et quae crescente luna fieri oporteret, [et] tamen quaedam melius fieri post octavo Ianam lunam quam ante?

Agrius, “In what way,” he said, “is the moon quadripartite? And what does that division avail for the fields?” Tremelius, “Have you never in the countryside heard,” he said, “of the moon already in its eighth [day], both crescent and, contrariwise, senescent, and what ought to be done with the moon waxing, and yet that certain things are better done after the eighth-day moon than before?”

Et siquae senescente fieri conveniret, melius, quanto minus haberet ignis id astrum? Dixi de quadripertita forma in cultura agri.

And if there were any things that it were fitting to do while it is waning, all the better, the less fire that star would have? I have spoken about the quadripartite form in the cultivation of the field.

Stolo, Est altera, inquit, temporum divisio coniuncta quodam modo cum sole et luna sexpertita, quod omnis fere fructus quinto denique gradu pervenit ad perfectum ac videt in villa dolium ac modium, unde sexto prodit ad usum. Primo praeparandum, secundo serendum, tertio nutricandum, quarto legendum, quinto condendum, sexto promendum. Ad alia in praeparando faciendi scrobes aut repastinandum aut sulcandum, ut si arbustum aut pomarium facere velis; ad alia arandum aut fodiendum, ut si segetes instituas; ad quaedam bipalio vertenda terra plus aut minus.

Stolo, There is, he says, another division of times, joined in a certain way with the sun and the moon, six-partite, because almost every fruit, in the fifth stage at last, arrives at the perfect and “sees” in the villa the dolium (cask) and the modius (measure), whence in the sixth it comes forth to use. First, it must be prepared; second, sown; third, nourished; fourth, gathered; fifth, stored; sixth, brought forth. For some things, in the preparing, pits are to be made or it must be re-grubbed or furrowed, as if you wished to make a plantation or an orchard; for other things, there must be plowing or digging, as if you establish grain-crops; for certain tasks, the earth is to be turned with the bipalium (two-pronged mattock) more or less.

Aliae enim radices angustius diffundunt, ut cupressi, aliae latius, ut platani, usque eo ut Theophrastus scribat Athenis in Lyceo, cum etiam nunc platanus novella esset, radices trium et triginta cubitorum egisse. Quaedam si bubus et aratro proscideris, et iterandum, antequam semen iacias. Item praeparatio siquae fit in pratis, id est ut defendantur a pastione, quod fere observant a piro florente; si inrigua sunt, ut tempestive inrigentur.

For some roots spread more narrowly, as cypresses, others more broadly, as plane-trees, to such a point that Theophrastus writes at Athens in the Lyceum that, when the plane-tree was still young, its roots had driven out to thirty-three cubits. In certain cases, if you have cut the ground with oxen and plow, it must be gone over again before you cast the seed. Likewise, if any preparation is done in meadows—that is, that they be defended from pasturing, which they generally observe from the pear-tree’s flowering—if they are irrigable, that they be irrigated in due time.

XXXVIII.

38.

Quae loca in agro stercoranda, videndum, et qui et quo genere potissimum facias: nam discrimina eius aliquot. Stercus optimum scribit esse Cassius volucrium praeter palustrium ac nantium. De hisce praestare columbinum, quod sit calidissimum ac fermentare possit terram.

One must consider which places in the field are to be manured, and how and with what kind you should most advantageously do it; for there are several distinctions of it. Cassius writes that the best dung is avian, except that of palustrine and swimming birds. Of these, pigeon-dung excels, since it is the hottest and can ferment the soil.

Id ut semen aspargi oportere in agro, non ut de pecore acervatim poni. Ego arbitror praestare ex aviariis turdorum ac merularum, quod non solum ad agrum utile, sed etiam ad cibum ita bubus ac subus, ut fiant pingues. Itaque qui aviaria conducunt, si cavet dominus stercus ut in fundo maneat, minoris conducunt, quam ii quibus id accedit.

That should be scattered in the field like seed, not set down in heaps as from livestock. I judge that what is best is from the aviaries of thrushes and blackbirds, because it is not only useful for the field, but also for food for oxen and swine, so that they become fat. And so those who lease aviaries, if the owner stipulates that the dung is to remain on the estate, lease for a lower price than those to whom that benefit is added.

Cassius secundum columbinum scribit esse hominis, tertio caprinum et ovillum et asininum, minime bonum equinum, sed in segetes; in prata enim vel optimum, ut ceterarum veterinarum, quae hordeo pascuntur, quod multam facit herbam. Stercilinum secundum villam facere oportet, ut quam paucissimis operis egeratur. In eo, si in medio robusta aliqua materia sit depacta, negant serpentem nasci.

Cassius writes that next after pigeon is human, in the third place goat and sheep and ass, the least good is horse—except for sown fields; for in meadows it is indeed even the best, like that of the other stable-animals which are fed on barley, because it makes much grass. A manure-heap ought to be made next to the villa, so that it may be carted off with as few labors as possible. In it, if in the middle some robust material has been driven down, they say a serpent does not arise.

XXXIX.

39.

Sationis autem gradus, secundus, hanc habet curam: naturam ad quod tempus cuiusque seminis apta sit ad serendum. Nam refert in agro ad quam partem caeli quisque locus spectet, sic ad quod tempus quaeque res facillime crescat. Nonne videmus alia florere verno tempore, alia aestivo, neque eadem autumnali, quae hiberno?

But the second stage of sowing has this care: to discern at what time nature is apt for the sowing of each seed. For it matters in the field to which quarter of the sky each place faces, and likewise at what time each thing grows most easily. Do we not see some things flower in the vernal season, others in the estival, and not the same in the autumnal as in the hibernal?

Itaque alia seruntur atque inseruntur et metuntur ante aut post quam alia; et cum pleraque vere quam autumno inserantur, circiter solstitium inseri ficos nec non brumalibus diebus cerasos. Quare cum semina sint fere quattuor generum, quae natura dedit, quae transferuntur e terra in terram viva radice, quae ex arboribus dempta demittuntur in humum, quae inseruntur ex arboribus in arbores, de singulis rebus videndum, quae quoque tempore locoque facias.

Accordingly, some things are sown and grafted and reaped before or after others; and although most are grafted in spring rather than in autumn, figs are grafted about the solstice, and cherries on brumal days as well. Therefore, since “seeds” are nearly of four kinds—those which nature gave; those which are transferred from soil to soil with a living root; those which, taken from trees, are demitted into the ground; and those which are inserted from trees into trees—it must be considered, for each particular, what you should do at which time and in which place.

XL.

40.

Primum semen, quod est principium genendi, id duplex, unum quod latet nostrum sensum, alterum quod apertum. Latet, si sunt semina in aere, ut ait physicos Anaxagoras, et si aqua, quae influit in agrum, inferre solet, ut scribit Theophrastus. Illud quod apparet ad agricolas, id videndum diligenter.

First, seed, which is the principle of generation, is twofold: one that lies hidden from our sense, the other that is open. It is hidden, if there are seeds in the air, as the natural philosopher Anaxagoras says, and if the water which flows into the field is wont to bring them in, as Theophrastus writes. That which is apparent to farmers must be observed diligently.

Quaedam enim ad genendum propensa usque adeo parva, ut sint obscura, ut cupressi. Non enim galbuli qui nascuntur, id est tamquam pilae parvae corticiae, id semen, sed in iis intus. Primigenia semina dedit natura, reliqua invenit experientia coloni.

For certain things apt for begetting are so very small as to be obscure, as in the cypress. For the galbuli that are produced—that is, as it were little cortical balls—are not the seed, but the seed is within them. Nature gave the primigenial seeds; the rest the experience of the farmer discovered.

Prima quae sine colono, priusquam sata, nata; secunda quae ex iis collecta neque, priusquam sata, nata. Prima semina videre oportet ne vetustate sint exsucta aut ne sint admixta aut ne propter similitudinem sint adulterina. Semen vetus tantum valet in quibusdam rebus, ut naturam commutet.

The first are those which, without a farmer, before being sown, have sprung up; the second are those collected from these and not sprung up before they are sown. The primary seeds ought to be inspected, lest they be sucked dry by age, or lest they be admixed, or lest on account of likeness they be adulterine. Old seed has such power in certain matters that it changes the nature.

Nam ex semine brassicae vetere sato nasci aiunt rapa et contra ex raporum brassicam. Secunda semina videre oportet ne, unde tollas, nimium cito aut tarde tollas. Tempus enim idoneum, quod scribit Theophrastus, vere et autumno et caniculae exortu, neque omnibus locis ac generibus idem.

For they say that, when the seed of old cabbage is sown, turnips are born, and conversely, from turnips, cabbage. One must inspect the second seeds, lest you take them, from the place whence you gather them, too early or too late. For the suitable time, as Theophrastus writes, is in spring and in autumn and at the rising of the Dog-Star, nor is it the same in all places and genera.

In sicco et macro loco et argilloso vernum tempus idoneum, quo minus habet umoris: in terra bona ac pingui autumno, quod vere multus umor, quam sationem quidam metiuntur fere diebus XXX. Tertium genus seminis, quod ex arbore per surclos defertur in terram, si in humum demittitur, in quibusdam est videndum ut eo tempore sit deplantatum, quo oportet (id fit tum, antequam gemmare aut florere quid incipit); et quae de arbore transferas ut ea deplantes potius quam defringas, quod plantae solum stabilius, quo latius aut radices facilius mittit. Ea celeriter, antequam sucus exarescat, in terram demittunt.

In a dry and lean place and an argillaceous one, the vernal time is suitable, because it has less moisture; in good and rich soil, in autumn, because in spring there is much moisture, which sowing some measure at about 30 days. A third kind of seed, which is conveyed from a tree into the earth by surcles, if it is let down into the soil, in some cases it must be seen to it that it be transplanted at the time it ought (this happens then, before anything begins to geminate or to flower); and as to what you transfer from a tree, plant these out as transplants rather than break them off, because the plant’s clod is more stable, whereby it sends out roots more widely or more easily. These they let down into the ground quickly, before the sap dries out.

In oleagineis seminibus videndum ut sit de tenero ramo ex utraque parte aequabiliter praecisum, quas alii clavolas, alii taleas appellant ac faciunt circiter pedales. Quartum genus seminis, quod transit ex arbore in aliam, videndum qua ex arbore in quam transferatur et quo tempore et quem ad modum obligetur. Non enim pirum recipit quercus, neque enim si malus pirum.

In oleaginous propagules one must see to it that it is cut from a tender branch, trimmed equably from both sides—these some call clavolae, others taleae—and they make them about a foot long. The fourth kind of “seed,” which passes from one tree into another, requires consideration from which tree into which it is transferred, at what time, and in what manner it should be bound. For an oak does not receive a pear, nor indeed does an apple(-tree) a pear.

Hoc secuntur multi, qui haruspices audiunt multum, a quibus proditum, in singulis arboribus quot genera insita sint, uno ictu tot fulmina fieri illut quod fulmen concepit. Si in pirum silvaticam inserueris pirum quamvis bonam, non fore tam iucundam, quam si in eam quae silvestris non sit. In quamcumque arborem inseras, si eiusdem generis est, dumtaxat ut sit utraque malus, ita inserere oportet referentem ad fructum, meliore genere ut sit surculus, quam est quo veniat arbor.

Many follow this, who listen much to the haruspices, by whom it has been handed down that, in individual trees, as many kinds as are grafted in, by a single stroke so many lightning-bolts are made—against that which has conceived the lightning. If you graft a pear, however good, into a wild (sylvan) pear, it will not be so pleasant as if into one that is not wild. Into whatever tree you graft, if it is of the same genus—provided that both be apple-trees—thus it ought to be grafted with reference to the fruit, so that the scion be of a better kind than the tree into which it is to come.

Est altera species ex arbore in arborem inserendi nuper animadversa in arboribus propinquis. Ex arbore, qua vult habere surculum, in eam quam inserere vult ramulum traducit et in eius ramo praeciso ac diffisso implicat, eum locum qui contingit, ex utraque parte quod intro est falce extenuatum, ita ut ex una parti quod caelum visurum est corticem cum cortice exaequatum habeat. Eius ramuli, quem inseret, cacumen ut derectum sit ad caelum curat.

There is another kind of inserting from tree into tree, lately noticed among neighboring trees. From the tree from which he wishes to have a shoot, he draws across a little branch into that tree into which he wishes to graft, and into its branch, cut off and split, he fits in the place that makes contact, the part that is inside on both sides having been thinned with a knife, in such a way that on the one side which will see the sky it may have bark leveled with bark. He takes care that the tip of the little branch which he will insert be straight toward the sky.

Postero anno, cum comprendit, unde propagatum est, ab altera arbore praecidit.

In the following year, when he comprehends whence it has been propagated, he cuts it off from the other tree.

XLI.

41.

Quo tempore quaeque transferas, haec in primis videnda, quae prius verno tempore inserebantur, nunc etiam solstitiali, ut ficus, quod densa materia non est et ideo sequitur caldorem. A quo fit ut in locis frigidis ficeta fieri non possint. Aqua recenti insito inimica: tenellum enim cito facit putre.

At what time you should transplant each, these matters are first to be looked to: those which previously were grafted in the springtime, now even at the solstitial season, as the fig, because it is not of dense material and therefore follows the heat. Whence it comes about that in frigid places fig-orchards cannot be made. Fresh water is inimical to the graft: for it quickly makes the tender thing putrid.

Itaque caniculae signo commodissime existimatur ea inseri. Quae autem natura minus sunt mollia, vas aliquod supra alligant, unde stillet lente aqua, ne prius exarescat surculus, quam colescat. Cuius surculi corticem integrum servandum et eum sic exacuendum, ut non denudes medullam.

Therefore it is considered most suitable to graft it at the sign of the Dog-star. But for those which are by nature less soft, they tie some vessel above, whence water may drip slowly, lest the scion dry out before it coalesces (takes). Of this scion the bark must be kept intact, and it must be sharpened thus, so that you do not denude the medulla (pith).

Ne extrinsecus imbres noceant aut nimius calor, argilla oblinendum ac libro obligandum. Itaque vitem triduo antequam inserant desecant, ut qui in ea nimius est umor defluat, antequam inseratur; aut in quam inserunt, in ea paulo infra, quam insitum est, incidunt, qua umor adventicius effluere possit. Contra in fico et malo punica, et siquae etiam horum natura aridiora, continuo.

So that rains from without may not harm, nor excessive heat, it must be smeared with clay and bound with bark. Therefore they cut back the vine three days before they graft, so that the moisture which is excessive in it may flow off before it is inserted; or, in that into which they insert, they cut a little below where the graft is, by which adventitious moisture may be able to flow out. Conversely, in the fig and the pomegranate, and if there are any of these by nature drier, immediately.

In aliis translationibus videndum ut quod transferat cacumen habeat gemmam, ut in ficis.

In other graftings, one must see to it that the scion which one transfers has a bud at the tip, as in figs.

De his primis quattuor generibus seminum quaedam quod tardiora, surculis potius utendum, ut in ficetis faciunt. Fici enim semen naturale intus in ea fico, quam edimus, quae sunt minuta grana; e quibus parvis quod enasci coliculi vix queunt — omnia enim minuta et arida ad crescendum tarda, ea quae laxiora, et fecundiora, ut femina quam mas et pro portione in virgultis item; itaque ficus, malus punica et vitis propter femineam mollitiam ad crescendum prona, contra palma et cupressus et olea in crescendo tarda: in hoc enim umidiora quam aridiora — quare ex terra potius in seminariis surculos de ficeto quam grana de fico expedit obruere, praeter si aliter nequeas, ut siquando quis trans mare semina mittere aut inde petere vult. Tum enim resticulam per ficos, quas edimus, maturas perserunt et eas, cum inaruerunt, complicant ac quo volunt mittunt, ubi obrutae in seminario pariant.

Of these first four kinds of seeds, for certain ones, because they are slower, it is better to use cuttings, as they do in fig-orchards. For the fig’s natural seed is inside that fig which we eat, which are minute grains; from these small ones little shootlets can scarcely be born — for all things minute and dry are slow for growing, whereas those which are looser and more fecund, as the female than the male, and in proportion likewise in the young shoots — and so the fig, the pomegranate tree, and the vine, on account of feminine softness, are prone to grow, whereas the palm, cypress, and olive are slow in growing: for in this matter the moister rather than the drier [natures thrive] — wherefore it is expedient in nurseries to bury in the soil cuttings from the fig-orchard rather than grains from the fig, except if you are unable otherwise, as whenever someone wishes to send seeds across the sea or to seek them from there. Then indeed they pass a little cord through the ripe figs which we eat, and when they have dried they fold them up and send them where they wish, where, once buried in the nursery, they may bring forth.

Sic genera ficorum, Chiae ac Chalcidicae et Lydiae et Africanae, item cetera transmarina in Italiam perlata. Simili de causa, oleae semen cum sit nuculeus, quod ex eo tardius enascebatur colis quam ex aliis, ideo potius in seminariis taleas, quas dixi, serimus.

Thus the kinds of figs—the Chian and the Chalcidic and the Lydian and the African—likewise the other transmarine varieties, were brought into Italy. For a similar reason, since the seed of the olive is a nuculeus (a kernel), and from it seedlings sprang more slowly than from others, therefore we rather sow in nurseries the slips (taleae) which I mentioned.

XLII.

42.

In primis observes ne in terram nimium aridam aut variam, sed temperatam, semen demittas. In iugerum unum, si est natura temperata terra, scribunt opus esse medicae sesquimodium. Id seritur ita, ut semen iaciatur, quem ad modum cum pabulum et frumentum seritur.

In the first place, observe that you do not let down the seed into soil too arid or variable, but temperate. On one iugerum, if the soil is by nature temperate, they write that there is need of a sesqui-modius (one and a half modius) of medick (alfalfa). It is sown thus, that the seed is cast, in the same manner as when fodder and grain are sown.

XLIII.

43.

Cytisum seritur in terra bene subacta tamquam semen brassicae. Inde differtur et in sesquipedem ponitur, aut etiam de cytiso duriore virgulae deplantantur, et ita pangitur in serendo.

Cytisus is sown in well-worked earth like cabbage seed. Then it is spread and set at a foot and a half, or even little rods are transplanted from the tougher cytisus, and so it is planted in the sowing.

XLIV.

44.

Seruntur fabae modii IIII in iugero, tritici V, hordei VI, farris X, sed non nullis locis paulo amplius aut minus. Si enim locus crassus, plus; si macer, minus. Quare observabis, quantum in ea regione consuetudo erit serendi, ut tantum facias, quod tantum valet regio ac genus terrae, ut ex eodem semine aliubi cum decimo redeat, aliubi cum quinto decimo, ut in Etruria locis aliquot.

Beans are sown, 4 modii to the iugerum; of wheat, 5; of barley, 6; of spelt, 10; yet in not a few places a little more or less. For if the place is thick-rich (heavy), more; if lean, less. Therefore you will observe what the custom of sowing is in that region, so that you do as much as the region and the kind of soil avails, so that from the same seed in one place it yields tenfold, in another fifteenfold, as in several places in Etruria.

In Italia in Subaritano dicunt etiam cum centesimo redire solitum, in Syria ad Gadara et in Africa ad Byzacium item ex modio nasci centum. Illut quoque multum interest, in rudi terra, an in ea seras, quae quotannis obsita sit, quae vocatur restibilis, an in vervacto quae interdum requierit. Cui Agrius, In Olynthia quotannis restibilia esse dicunt, sed ita ut tertio quoque anno uberiores ferant fructos.

In Italy, in the Sybaritan district, they say it was even wont to return a hundredfold; in Syria at Gadara and in Africa at Byzacium likewise a hundred are born from a modius. That also makes much difference, whether you sow in raw ground, or in that which has been planted every year, which is called “restibilis,” or in “vervactum,” which has at times taken a rest. To this Agrius, In Olynthus they say the fields are “restibilia” every year, but in such a way that every third year they bear more abundant fruits.

Licinius, Agrum alternis annis relinqui oportet paulo levioribus sationibus, id est quae minus sugunt terram.

Licinius, the field ought, in alternate years, to be left to somewhat lighter sowings, that is, those which suck the earth less.

Dicetur, inquit Agrius, de tertio gradu, de nutricationibus atque alimoniis eorum. Ille, Quae nata sunt, inquit, in fundo alescunt, adulta concipiunt, praegnatia, cum sunt matura, pariunt poma aut spicam, sic alia.A quo profectum, redit semen. Itaque si florem acerbumve pirum aliudve quid decerpseris, in eodem loco eodem anno nihil renascitur, quod praegnationis idem bis habere non potest.

It will be said, says Agrius, about the third grade, about their nutritions and alimonies. He, Those things which are born, he says, grow on the soil; when adult they conceive; being pregnant, when they are mature, they bring forth fruits or a spike, so do other things.From which it set out, the seed returns. And so, if you pluck a flower or an unripe pear or anything else, in the same place in the same year nothing is reborn, because the same cannot have pregnancy twice.

Ut enim mulieres habent ad partum dies certos, sic arbores ac fruges.

For just as women have fixed days for parturition, so too do trees and crops.

XLV.

45.

Primum plerumque e terra exit hordeum diebus VII, nec multo post triticum; legumina fere quadriduo aut quinque diebus, praeterquam faba: ea enim serius aliquanto prodit. Item milium et sesima et cetera similiter aequis fere diebus, praeterquam siquid regio aut tempestas viti attulit, quo minus ita fiat. Quae in seminario nata, si loca erunt frigidiora, quae molli natura sunt, per brumalia tempora tegere oportet fronde aut stramentis.

First, for the most part barley comes out of the earth in 7 days, and not much later wheat; legumes generally in 4 or 5 days, except the bean: for that indeed comes forth somewhat later. Likewise millet and sesame and the rest similarly in nearly equal days, unless the region or the weather has brought some defect, whereby it does not so come to pass. Those that have sprung up in the seedbed, if the places are colder, those of tender nature ought during the brumal times to be covered with foliage or straw.

Si erunt imbres secuti, videndum necubi aqua consistat; venenum enim gelum radicibus tenellis. Sub terra et supra virgulta non eodem tempore aeque crescunt; nam radices autumno aut hieme magis sub terra quam supra alescunt, quod tectae terrae tepore propagantur, supra terram aere frigidiore coguntur. Itaque ita esse docent silvestria, ad quae sator non accessit.

If rains have followed, one must see that water does not stand anywhere; for frost is venom to tender roots. Below ground and above, the shoots do not grow equally at the same time; for in autumn or in winter the roots increase more beneath the earth than above, because, being covered, they are propagated by the earth’s warmth, while above the earth they are constrained by the colder air. And that it is so the wild growths teach, to which the sower has not come.

Nam prius radices, quam ex iis quod solet nasci, crescunt. Neque radices longius procedunt, nisi quo tepor venit solis. Duplex causa radicium, quod et materiem aliam quam aliam longius proicit natura, et quod alia terra alia facilius viam dat.

For the roots grow first, before that which is wont to be born from them; nor do the roots advance farther except to where the warmth of the sun comes. The cause regarding the roots is twofold: both that nature projects one material farther than another, and that one earth gives the way more easily than another.

XLVI.

46.

Propter cuius modi res admiranda discrimina sunt naturae aliquot, ex quibusdam foliis propter eorum versuram, quod sit anni tempus, ut dici possit, ut olea et populus alba et salix. Horum enim folia cum converterunt se, solstitium dicitur fuisse. Nec minus admirandum quod fit in floribus, quos vocant heliotropia ab eo, quod ad solis ortum mane spectant et eius iter ita secuntur ad occasum, ut ad eum semper spectent.

On account of things of this kind there are several admirable discriminations of nature, from certain leaves, because of their turning, so that it can be said what the season of the year is, as with the olive and the white poplar and the willow. For when the leaves of these have turned themselves, it is said that the solstice has been. No less to be wondered at is what happens in flowers, which they call heliotropia from the fact that in the morning they look toward the rising of the sun and thus follow its course to the setting, so that they always look toward it.

XLVII.

47.

In seminario quae surculis consita et eorum molliora erunt natura cacumina, ut olea ac ficus, ea summa integenda binis tabellis dextra et sinistra deligatis herbaeque eligendae. Eae dum tenerae sunt, vellendae. Post enim aridae factae rixantur ac celerius rumpuntur, quam secuntur.

In the nursery, those which are planted by slips and whose tips will be softer by nature, like the olive and the fig, their very tops should be covered with two little boards fastened on the right and left, and grasses should be selected. These, while they are tender, should be plucked; for afterwards, once made dry, they snarl and break more quickly than they can be worked.

Contra herba in pratis ad spem faenisiciae nata non modo non evellenda in nutricatu, sed etiam non calcanda. Quo et pecus ab prato ablegandum et omne iumentum, etiam hominem. Solum enim hominis exitium herbae et semitae fundamentum.

On the contrary, the grass in meadows, sprung up with a view to the hope of haymaking, is not only not to be pulled up in its nurture, but also not to be trodden upon. Therefore both the herd is to be driven away from the meadow and every jument, even the human being. For man alone is the destruction of the grass and the foundation of a footpath.

XLVIII.

48.

In segetibus autem frumentum quo culmus extulit, spicam. Ea quae mutilata non est, in hordeo et tritico, tria habet continentia, granum, glumam, aristam et etiam, primitus spica cum oritur, vaginam. Granum dictum quod est intimum soldum; gluma qui est folliculus eius; arista quae ut acus tenuis longa eminet e gluma, proinde ut grani apex sit gluma et arista.

In the sown fields, the grain which the culm has put forth is the spike (ear). That which is not mutilated, in barley and in wheat, has three enclosures: the grain, the glume, the arista (awn); and also, at first, when the spike arises, a sheath. The grain is so called because it is the innermost solid core; the glume, which is its follicle; the arista, which, like a needle, thin and long, projects from the glume, so that the apex of the grain is the glume and the arista.

Arista et granum omnibus fere notum, gluma paucis. Itaque id apud Ennium solum scriptum scio esse in Euhemeri libris versis. Videtur vocabulum etymum habere a glubendo, quod eo folliculo deglubitur granum.

The awn and the grain are known to almost all, the glume to few. And so I know this to be written only by Ennius, in the translated books of Euhemerus. The vocable seems to have an etymon from glubendo (“peeling”), because by that follicle the grain is peeled off.

Itaque eodem vocabulo appellant fici eius, quam edimus, folliculum. Arista dicta, quod arescit prima. Granum a gerendo; id enim ut gerat spica, seritur frumentum, non ut glumam aut aristam gerat, ut vitis seritur, non ut pampinum ferat, sed ut uvam.

Therefore by the same word they call the follicle of the fig that we eat. The arista is so called because it is the first to dry. Grain (granum) is from “bearing”; for the grain is sown so that the spike (spica) may bear that, not so that it may bear the glume or the arista—just as the vine is planted, not to bear the vine-leaf (pampinus), but the grape.

Spica autem, quam rustici, ut acceperunt antiquitus, vocant specam, a spe videtur nominata; eam enim quod sperant fore, serunt. Spica mutila dicitur, quae non habet aristam; ea enim quasi cornua sunt spicarum. Quae primitus cum oriuntur neque plane apparent, qua sub latent herba, ea vocatur vagina, ut in qua latet conditum gladium.

But the ear, which the rustics, as they have received from of old, call “speca,” seems to be named from hope; for it is what they sow because they hope it will be. A maimed ear is so called which does not have an awn; for these are, as it were, the horns of ears. Those which at the first, when they arise and are not plainly apparent, lie hidden beneath the blade—this is called the sheath, as that in which a sword lies hidden, stowed away.

Illut autem summa in spica iam matura, quod est minus quam granum, vocatur frit; quod in infima spica ad culmum stramenti summum item minus quam granum est, appellatur urru.

That thing, however, at the top in the ear now ripe, which is less than a grain, is called frit; that which at the lowest of the ear, at the culm—the summit of the straw—likewise is less than a grain, is called urru.

XLIX.

49.

Cum conticuisset nec interrogaretur, de nutricatu credens nihil desiderari, Dicam, inquit, de fructibus maturis capiendis. Primum de pratis summissis herba, cum crescere desiit et aestu arescit, subsecari falcibus debet et, quaad perarescat, furcillis versari; cum peraruit, de his manipulos fieri ac vehi ad villam; tum de pratis stipulam rastellis eradi atque addere faenisiciae cumulum. Quo facto sicilienda prata, id est falcibus consectanda quae faenisices praeterierunt ac quasi herba tuberosum reliquerunt campum.

When he had fallen silent and was not being questioned, believing that nothing was lacking about the nurture, “I will speak,” he said, “about taking mature fruits.” First, as to the low meadows: when the grass has ceased to grow and dries with the heat, it ought to be cut down with sickles and, until it becomes thoroughly dry, to be turned with little forks; when it has fully dried, bundles are to be made from these and carried to the villa; then from the meadows the stubble is to be torn up with rakes and a heap added to the hayrick. When this has been done, the meadows must be sickled again, that is, followed up with sickles for what the haymakers have passed over and have left the field, as it were, tuberous with grass.

A qua sectione arbitror dictum sicilire pratum.

From which cutting I think the phrase “to sickle the meadow” is so called.

50.

Messis proprio nomine dicitur in iis quae metimur, maxime in frumento, et ab eo esse vocabulo declinata. Frumenti tria genera sunt messionis, unum, ut in Umbria, ubi falce secundum terram succidunt stramentum et manipulum, ut quemque subsicuerunt, ponunt in terra. Ubi eos fecerunt multos, iterum eos percensent ac de singulis secant inter spicas et stramentum.

Harvest is said by its proper name in those things which we reap, especially in grain, and it is derived from that vocable. There are three kinds of harvesting of grain: one, as in Umbria, where with a sickle they cut down close to the ground the straw and the sheaf, and as they have under-cut each, they place it on the ground. When they have made many of them, they go over them again and from each they cut between the ears and the straw.

Spicas coiciunt in corbem atque in aream mittunt, stramenta relincunt in segete, unde tollantur in acervum. Altero modo metunt, ut in Piceno, ubi ligneum habent incurvum bacillum, in quo sit extremo serrula ferrea. Haec cum comprendit fascem spicarum, desecat et stramenta stantia in segeti relinquit, ut postea subsecentur.

They throw the ears into a basket and send them to the threshing-floor, leaving the straw in the standing crop, whence it may be taken into a heap. In another way they reap, as in Picenum, where they have a little curved wooden rod, on the end of which there is a small iron saw. This, when it grasps the bundle of ears, cuts it off and leaves the straw standing in the crop, so that afterwards it may be cut down in a second pass.

Tertio modo metitur, ut sub urbe Roma et locis plerisque, ut stramentum medium subsicent, quod manu sinistra summum prendunt; a quo medio messem dictam puto. Infra manum stramentum cum terra haeret, postea subsecatur; contra quod cum spica stramentum haeret, corbibus in aream defertur. Ibi discedit in aperto loco palam: a quo potest nominata esse palea.

By a third method it is reaped, as near the city of Rome and in many places, namely that they cut the straw in the middle, the top of which they seize with the left hand; from this middle I think the harvest was called. Below the hand the straw clings to the earth, afterwards it is cut beneath; conversely, when the straw clings with the spike (ear), it is carried in baskets into the area (threshing-floor). There it separates in the open place, palam: from which the palea (chaff) may have been named.

Alii stramentum ab stando, ut st[r]amen, dictum putant; alii ab stratu, quod id substernatur pecori. Cum est matura seges, metendum, cum in ea [in] iugerum fere una opera propemodum in facili agro satis esse dicatur. Messas spicas corbibus in aream deferre debent.

Some think “straw” is called from “standing,” as st[r]amen; others from “stratum,” because it is spread beneath the herd. When the crop is ripe, it must be reaped, since in it per [in] iugerum generally a single day’s work is said to be pretty nearly sufficient on easy ground. They ought to carry the reaped ears in baskets into the threshing-floor.

LI.

51.

Aream esse oportet in agro sublimiori loco, quam perflare possit ventus; hanc esse modicam pro magnitudine segetis, potissimum rutundam et mediam paulo extumidam, ut, si pluerit, non consistat aqua et quam brevissimo itinere extra aream defluere possit; omne porro brevissimum in rutundo e medio ad extremum. Solida terra pavita, maxime si est argilla, ne, aestu peminosa si sit, in rimis eius grana oblitescant et recipiant aquam et ostia aperiant muribus ac formicis. Itaque amurca solent perfundere, ea enim herbarum et formicarum et talparum venenum.

The area ought to be in a higher place in the field, where the wind can blow through; this ought to be moderate in proportion to the size of the crop, preferably rotund and with the middle a little swollen, so that, if it rains, water does not stand and can, by the shortest course, flow off outside the area; moreover, in a rotund form the shortest course is from the middle to the edge. The ground should be solid and paved, especially if it is argil, lest, if it be crack‑prone in heat, grains become plastered in its cracks and take in water and open entrances for mice and ants. Therefore they are accustomed to drench it with amurca, for this is a poison to herbs, ants, and moles.

Quidam aream ut habeant soldam, muniunt lapide aut etiam faciunt pavimentum. Non nulli etiam tegunt areas, ut in Bagiennis, quod ibi saepe id temporis anni oriuntur nimbi. Ubi ea retecta et loca calda, prope aream faciundum umbracula, quo succedant homines in aestu tempore meridiano.

Some, in order that the threshing-floor be solid, strengthen it with stone or even make a pavement. Not a few also cover the areas, as among the Bagienni, because there at that season of the year storms often arise. Where these are uncovered and the places are hot, it is needful to make shade-shelters near the area, whither men may withdraw in the heat at the midday time.

LII.

52.

Quae seges grandissima atque optima fuerit, seorsum in aream secerni oportet spicas, ut semen optimum habeat; e spicis in area excuti grana. Quod fit apud alios iumentis iunctis ac tribulo. Id fit e tabula lapidibus aut ferro asperata, quae cum imposito auriga aut pondere grandi trahitur iumentis iunctis, discutit e spica grana; aut ex axibus dentatis cum orbiculis, quod vocant plostellum poenicum; in eo quis sedeat atque agitet quae trahant iumenta, ut in Hispania citeriore et aliis locis faciunt.

Whatever crop has been very abundant and best, one ought to set apart the ears separately on the threshing-floor, so that he may have the best seed; from the ears on the area let the grains be shaken out. This is done among some by yoked draught-animals and a tribulum (threshing-sledge). It is made from a board roughened with stones or iron, which, with the driver (auriga) set upon it or with a great weight placed on, is drawn by yoked beasts and shakes the grains out of the ear; or from toothed axles with little wheels, which they call the Punic little cart (plostellum Poenicum); on it someone may sit and urge on the beasts that draw, as they do in Hither Spain and in other places.

Apud alios exteritur grege iumentorum inacto et ibi agitato perticis, quod ungulis e spica exteruntur grana. Iis tritis oportet e terra subiectari vallis aut ventilabris, cum ventus spirat lenis. Ita fit ut quod levissimum est in eo atque appellatur acus ac palea evannatur foras extra aream ac frumentum, quod est ponderosum, purum veniat ad corbem.

Among others it is threshed by a herd of draft-animals not yoked, and there driven about with poles, because with their hooves the grains are scraped out of the ear. When these have been threshed, it ought to be tossed up from the ground with winnowing-shovels or ventilators, when a gentle wind blows. Thus it comes about that what is lightest in it, and is called the awn and the chaff, is winnowed out beyond the threshing-floor, and the grain, which is ponderous, comes clean to the basket.

LIII.

53.

Messi facta spicilegium venire oportet aut domi legere stipulam aut, si sunt spicae rarae et operae carae, compasci. Summa enim spectanda, ne in ea re sumptus fructum superet.

With the reaping done, the gleaning ought to be sold, or the stubble gathered at home; or, if the ears are rare and labor dear, let it be grazed down. For the total sum must be considered, lest in that matter the expense surpass the fruit.

LIV.

54.

In vinetis uva cum erit matura, vindemiam ita fieri oportet, ut videas, a quo genere uvarum et a quo loco vineti incipias legere. Nam et praecox et miscella, quam vocant nigram, multo ante coquitur, quo prior legenda, et quae pars arbusti ac vineae magis aprica, prius debet descendere de vite. In vindemia diligentis uva non solum legitur sed etiam eligitur; legitur ad bibendum, eligitur ad edendum.

In the vineyards, when the grape will be mature, the vintage ought to be carried out in such a way that you consider from what kind of grapes and from what place of the vineyard you should begin to pick. For both the precocious and the miscella, which they call “black,” ripens much earlier, wherefore it must be gathered first; and the part of the arbustum and the vineyard that is more sunlit ought to come down from the vine earlier. In the vintage of a diligent man the grape is not only gathered but also selected; it is gathered for drinking, selected for eating.

Itaque lecta defertur in forum vinarium, unde in dolium inane veniat; electa in secretam corbulam, unde in ollulas addatur et in dolia plena vinaciorum contrudatur, alia quae in piscinam in amphoram picatam descendat, alia quae in aream in carnarium escendat. Quae calcatae uvae erunt, earum scopi cum folliculis subiciendi sub prelum, ut, siquid reliqui habeant musti, exprimatur in eundem lacum. Cum desiit sub prelo fluere, quidam circumcidunt extrema et rursus premunt et, rursus cum expressum, circumcisicium appellant ac seorsum quod expressum est servant, quod resipit ferrum.

Accordingly, the gathered grapes are carried to the wine-floor (forum vinarium), whence they may come into an empty dolium; the selected ones into a separate little basket (corbula), whence they may be put into little pots (ollulae) and packed down into dolia full of press-lees (vinacia), others to go down from the vat (piscina) into a pitched amphora, others to go onto the threshing-floor (area) and up into the meat-rack (carnarium). The grapes that have been trodden—their stalks with the skins—are to be put under the press (prelum), so that, if they have any must remaining, it may be squeezed out into the same cistern (lacus). When it has stopped flowing under the press, some cut off the edges and press again, and, when pressed out again, they call it “circumcisicium” and keep what has been expressed separately, because it has a tang of iron.

Expressi acinorum folliculi in dolia coiciuntur, eoque aqua additur; ea vocatur lora, quod lota acina, ac pro vino operariis datur hieme.

The pressed husks of the grape-berries are cast into vats, and water is added to it; this is called lora, because the berries have been washed, and in place of wine it is given to the workmen in winter.

LV.

55.

De oliveto oleam, quam manu tangere possis e terra ac scalis, legere oportet potius quam quatere, quod ea quae vapulavit macescit nec dat tantum olei. Quae manu stricta, melior ea quae digitis nudis, quam illa quae cum digitabulis, durities enim eorum quod non solum stringit bacam, sed etiam ramos glubit ac relinquit ad gelicidium retectos. Quae manu tangi non poterunt, ita quati debent, ut harundine potius quam pertica feriantur; gravior enim plaga medicum quaerit.

From the olive-grove one ought to gather the olive, which you can touch by hand from the ground and from ladders, rather than to shake it; because that which has been beaten grows meager and does not give as much oil. That which is stripped by hand is better: better with bare fingers than with finger-stalls; for the hardness of these not only strips the berry, but also barks the branches and leaves them exposed to frostfall. Those which cannot be touched by hand must be shaken in such a way that they are struck with a reed rather than with a pole; for a heavier blow requires a physician.

Qui quatiet, ne adversam caedat; saepe enim ita percussa olea secum defert de ramulo plantam, quo facto fructum amittunt posteri anni. Nec haec non minima causa, quod oliveta dicant alternis annis non ferre fructus aut non aeque magnos. Olea ut uva per idem bivium redit in villam, alia ad cibum, alia ut eliquescat ac non solum corpus intus unguat sed etiam extrinsecus.

Let him who shakes not beat the opposite side; for often an olive, struck so, carries off with itself from a little twig a plant-slip, and, this done, the following years lose fruit. Nor is this no small cause why they say that olive-groves bear fruit in alternate years, or not ones equally great. The olive, as the grape, returns into the villa by the same twofold road: some for food, others so that it may be liquefied, and may anoint the body not only within but also without.

Itaque dominum et balneas et gymnasium sequitur. Haec, de qua fit oleum, congeri solet acervatim in dies singulos in tabulata, ut ibi mediocriter fracescat ac primus quisque acervos demittatur per serias ac vasa olearia ad trapetas, quae res molae oleariae ex duro et aspero lapide. Olea lecta si nimium diu fuit in acervis, caldore fracescit et oleum foetidum fit.

Therefore it attends the master, the baths, and the gymnasium. This, from which oil is made, is accustomed to be gathered in heaps day by day on boarded platforms, so that there it may moderately ferment, and each earliest pile is sent down through jars and olearian vessels to the trapeta, which are the oil-mills of hard and rough stone. If the picked olive has remained too long in heaps, it ferments with heat and the oil becomes fetid.

Itaque si nequeas mature conficere, in acervis iactando ventilare oportet. Ex olea fructus duplex: oleum, quod omnibus notum, et amurca, cuius utilitatem quod ignorant plerique, licet videre e torculis oleariis fluere in agros ac non solum denigrare terram, sed multitudine facere sterilem; cum is umor modicus cum ad multas res tum ad agri culturam pertineat vehementer, quod circum arborum radices infundi solet, maxime ad oleam, et ubicumque in agro herba nocet.

Therefore, if you cannot promptly complete the processing, you ought to ventilate by tossing it in heaps. From the olive the yield is twofold: oil, which is known to all, and amurca, whose usefulness, because most people are ignorant of it, one may see flowing from the olive-presses into the fields and not only blackening the soil, but by its abundance making it sterile; whereas that liquid, in moderate measure, pertains strongly both to many uses and to agriculture, since it is wont to be poured around the roots of trees, especially the olive, and wherever in a field herbage is harmful.

LVI.

56.

Agrius, Iamdudum, inquit, in villa sedens expecto cum clavi te, Stolo, dum fructus in villam referas. Ille, Em quin adsum, venio, inquit, ad limen, fores aperi. Primum faenisiciae conduntur melius sub tecto quam in acervis, quod ita fit iucundius pabulum.

Agrius, long since, he says, sitting in the villa I wait with the key for you, Stolo, until you carry back the produce into the villa. He, Look—why, I am here, I come, he says, to the threshold, open the doors. First, hay-stacks are stowed better under a roof than in heaps, because thus the fodder becomes more pleasant.

Ex eo intellegitur, quod pecus utroque posito libentius est.

From this it is understood, that the cattle, with both set out, are more willing.

LVII.

57.

Triticum condi oportet in granaria sublimia, quae perflentur vento ab exortu ac septemtrionum regione, ad quae nulla aura umida ex propinquis locis adspiret. Parietes et solum opere tectorio marmorato loricandi; si minus, ex argilla mixta acere e frumento et amurca, quod murem et vermem non patitur esse et grana facit solidiora ac firmiora. Quidam ipsum triticum conspargunt, cum addant in circiter mille modium quadrantal amurcae.

Wheat ought to be stored in elevated granaries, which are swept through by wind from the east and from the region of the North, and upon which no moist breeze from neighboring places should breathe. The walls and the floor are to be sheathed with marbled plasterwork; if not, with clay mixed with the souring from grain and with amurca, which does not allow mouse or worm to be and makes the grains more solid and firmer. Some sprinkle the wheat itself, when they add for about a thousand modii a quadrantal of amurca.

Item alius aliut adfriat aut aspargit, ut Chalcidicam aut Caricam cretam aut absenthium, item huius generis alia. Quidam granaria habent sub terris speluncas, quas vocant sirus, ut in Cappadocia ac Thracia; alii, ut in agro Carthaginiensi et Oscensi in Hispania citeriore, puteos. Horum solum paleis substernunt et curant ne umor aut aer tangere possit, nisi cum promitur ad usum; quo enim spiritus non pervenit, ibi non oritur curculio.

Likewise, one person rubs on or sprinkles one thing or another, such as Chalcidian or Carian chalk, or absinthe (wormwood), and other things of this kind as well. Certain people have underground caves for granaries, which they call sirus, as in Cappadocia and Thrace; others, as in the Carthaginian territory and the Oscensian in Nearer Spain, have pits. The floor of these they underlay with chaff, and they take care that neither moisture nor air can touch it, except when it is brought out for use; for where the breath (airflow) does not reach, there the weevil does not arise.

Sic conditum triticum manet vel annos L, milium vero plus annos C. Supra terram granaria in agro quidam sublimia faciunt, ut in Hispania citeriore et in Apulia quidam, quae non solum a lateribus per fenestras, sed etiam subtus a solo ventus refrigerare possit. Faba et legumina in oleariis vasis oblita cinere perdiu incolumia servantur.

Thus stored, wheat remains even for 50 years, while millet indeed for more than 100 years. Above ground, some make elevated granaries in the field, as some do in Nearer Spain and in Apulia, which the wind can cool not only from the sides through windows, but also below from the floor. Bean and legumes, in oil-jars overlaid with ash, are kept intact for a long time.

LVIII.

58.

Cato ait uvam Aminneam minusculam et maiorem et Apiciam in ollis commodissime condi; eadem in sapa et musto recte; quas suspendas opportunissimas esse duracinas et Aminneas.

Cato says that the Aminnean grape, both the smaller and the larger, and the Apician, are most conveniently preserved in pots; the same are properly preserved in sapa and must; for hanging, the most suitable are the duracinae and the Aminneae.

LIX.

59.

De pomis conditiva, mala struthea, cotonea, Scantiana, Scaudiana, orbiculata et quae antea mustea vocabant, nunc melimela appellant, haec omnia in loco arido et frigido supra paleas posita servari recte putant. Et ideo oporothecas qui faciunt, ad aquilonem ut fenestras habeant atque ut eae perflentur curant, neque tamen sine foriculis, ne, cum umorem amiserint, pertinaci vento vieta fiant; ideoque in iis camaras marmorato et parietes pavimentaque faciunt, quo frigidius sit. In quo etiam quidam triclinium sternere solent cenandi causa.

Concerning preservable fruits: Struthean apples, quinces, Scantian and Scaudian apples, the round ones, and those which earlier they used to call must-apples, now they call honey-apples (melimela)—they think all these are rightly kept in a dry and cold place, set above chaff. And therefore those who make oporothecae (fruit-stores) take care that they have windows to the north and that these be well ventilated, yet not without shutters, lest, when they have lost their moisture, they become warped by a persistent wind; and so in them they make the vaults with marble-stucco, and the walls and pavements as well, so that it may be colder. In which some are also accustomed to lay out a triclinium for the sake of dining.

Etenim in quibus luxuria concesserit ut in pinacothece faciant, quod spectaculum datur ab arte, cur non quod natura datum utantur in venustate disposita pomorum? Praesertim cum id non sit faciendum, quod quidam fecerunt, ut Romae coempta poma rus intulerint in oporothecen instruendam convivi causa. In oporotheca mala manere putant satis commode alii in tabulis in opere marmorato, alii substrata palea vel etiam floccis; mala punica demissis suis surculis in dolio harenae, mala cotonea struthea in pensilibus iunctis; contra in sapa condita manere pira Aniciana sementiva; sorba quidam dissecta et in sole macerata, ut pira; et sorba per se, ubicumque sint posita in arido, facile durare: servare rapa consecta in sinape, nuces iugulandis in harena.

For indeed, in those matters where luxury has conceded that they should make in a pinacotheca what spectacle is given by art, why do they not use what is given by nature in the gracefulness arranged of fruits? Especially since this ought not to be done, which certain men have done, namely that they brought fruits bought at Rome out to the country to set up a oporotheca for the sake of a banquet. In the oporotheca they think apples can remain quite conveniently—some on shelves in marble-work, others on a bedding of chaff or even of flocks of wool; pomegranates, with their own little shoots let down, in a jar of sand; quince apples and Struthean apples in joined hangings; conversely, Anician sowing-time pears to remain when preserved in sapa; some cut sorb-apples and macerate them in the sun, like pears; and sorb-apples by themselves, wherever they are placed in a dry spot, last easily: to preserve turnips chopped up in mustard, walnuts in sand.

Punica mala et in harena iam decerpta ac matura et etiam immatura, cum haereant in sua virga et demiseris in ollam sine fundo, eaque si coieceris in terram et obleris circum ramum, ne extrinsecus spiritus adflet, ea non modo integra eximi, sed etiam maiora, quam in arbore umquam pependerint.

Punic apples (pomegranates), both already plucked and ripe and even unripe, when they are clinging to their own twig and you lower them into a pot without a bottom, and if you have set this into the ground and plastered around the branch, so that air from outside does not blow upon it, are taken out not only intact, but even larger than they ever hung on the tree.

LX.

60.

De olivitate oleas esui optime condi scribit Cato orcites et puseas vel virides in muria vel in lentisco contusas. Orcites nigras aridas, sale si sint confriatae dies quinque et tum sale excusso biduum si in sole positae fuerint, manere idoneas solere: easdem sine sale in defrutum condi recte.

On olive-curing Cato writes that olives for eating are best seasoned thus: orcites and puseae, either green in brine or bruised with mastic. Black dried orcites, if they are rubbed with salt for five days and then, the salt shaken off, are set in the sun for two days, are wont to remain suitable; the same, without salt, are properly preserved in defrutum (reduced must).

LXI.

61.

Amurcam periti agricolae tam in doleis condunt quam oleum aut vinum. Eius conditio: cum expressa effluxit, quod statim de ea decoquuntur duae partes et refrigeratum conditur in vasa. Sunt item aliae conditiones, ut ea in qua adicitur mustum.

Skilled farmers store amurca in casks just as they do oil or wine. Its method of preservation is this: when, having been pressed out, it flows forth, then at once two parts are boiled off from it, and, once cooled, it is stored in vessels. There are also other preservations, such as the one in which must is added to it.

LXII.

62.

Quod nemo fructus condit, nisi ut promat, de eo quoque vel sexto gradu animadvertenda pauca. Promunt condita aut propterea quod sunt tuenda, aut quod utenda, aut quod vendunda. Ea quod dissimilia sunt inter se, aliut alio tempore tuendum et utendum.

Since no one stores produce except in order to bring it forth, on this too, even at the sixth stage, a few points are to be observed. They bring out stored things either because they must be tended, or because they must be used, or because they must be sold. Since these are dissimilar among themselves, one thing at one time is to be cared for and used, another at another time.

LXIII.

63.

Tuendi causa promendum id frumentum, quod curculiones exesse incipiunt. Id enim cum promptum est, in sole ponere oportet aquae catinos, quod eo conveniunt, ut ipsi se necent, curculiones. Sub terra qui habent frumentum in iis quos vocant sirus, quod cum periculo introitur recenti apertione, ita ut quibusdam sit interclusa anima, aliquanto post promere, quam aperueris, oportet.

For the sake of preservation, that grain ought to be brought forth which the weevils are beginning to eat away. For when it is brought out, one should set basins of water in the sun, because they gather there, so that the weevils kill themselves. Those who keep grain under the ground in what they call silos, which when freshly opened are entered with danger—so that in some cases the breath has been shut off—ought to bring it out some time after you have opened them.

Far, quod in spicis condideris per messem et ad usus cibatus expedire velis, promendum hieme, ut in pistrino pisetur ac torreatur.

Spelt, which you have stored in the ears at harvest and wish to make ready for food-uses, should be brought out in winter, so that at the bakehouse it may be ground and toasted.

LXIV.

64.

Amurca cum ex olea expressa, qui est umor aquatilis, ac retrimentum conditum in vas fictile. Id quidam sic solent tueri; diebus XV in eo quod est levissimum ac summum deflatum ut traiciant in alia vasa, et hoc isdem intervallis duodeciens sex mensibus proximis item faciant; cum id novissime, potissimum traiciant, cum senescit luna. Tum decocunt in ahenis leni igni, ad duas partes quaad redegerunt.

Amurca, when pressed out from the olive—which is a watery humor—and the sediment, is stored in an earthen vessel. Some are accustomed to preserve it thus: every 15 days they transfer into other vessels that which is the lightest and topmost, having blown it clear; and they do this likewise twelve times at the same intervals during the next six months; when they transfer it for the last time, they most preferably do so when the moon is waning. Then they boil it down in bronze kettles over a gentle fire, until they have reduced it to two parts.

Tum denique ad usum recte promitur.

Then at last it is properly drawn for use.

LXV.

65.

Quod mustum conditur in dolium, ut habeamus vinum, non promendum dum fervet, neque etiam cum processit ita, ut sit vinum factum. Si vetus bibere velis, quod non fit, antequam accesserit annus; anniculum prodit. Si est vero ex eo genere uvae, quod mature coacescat, ante vindemiam consumi aut venire oportet.

What must is stored in a dolium, so that we may have wine, is not to be drawn while it seethes/ferments, nor even when it has progressed so far that it has been made wine. If you wish to drink it “old,” which does not happen before a year has come, then a year‑old is brought forth. But if it is from that kind of grape which matures early, it ought to be consumed or to be sold (vended) before the vintage.

Genera sunt vini, in quo Falerna, quae quanto pluris annos condita habuerunt, tanto, cum prompta, sunt fructuosiora.

There are kinds of wine, among which Falernian; the more years they have been stored, the more fruitful they are when brought forth.

LXVI.

66.

Oleas albas quas condideris, novas si celeriter promas, propter amaritudinem respuit palatum; item nigras, nisi prius eas sale maceraris, ut libenter in os recipiantur.

White olives which you have preserved, if you produce them new swiftly, the palate rejects on account of bitterness; likewise the black ones, unless first you macerate them with salt, so that they may be received gladly into the mouth.

LXVII.

67.

Nucem iuglandem et palmulam et ficum Sabinam quanto citius promas, iucundiore utare, quod vetustate ficus fit pallidior, palmula cariosior, nux aridior.

The walnut and the date and the Sabine fig, the sooner you bring them out, the more pleasantly you will enjoy them, because with age the fig becomes paler, the date more carious, the nut drier.

LXVIII.

68.

Pensilia, ut uvae, mala et sorba, ipsa ostendunt, quando ad usum oporteat promi, quod colore mutato et contractu acinorum, si non dempseris ad edendum, ad abiciendum descensurum se minitantur. Sorbum maturum mite conditum citius promi oportet; acerbum enim suspensum lentius est, quod prius domi maturitatem adsequi vult, quam nequit in arbore, quam mitescat.

Things hung up, such as grapes, apples, and sorbs, themselves show when it ought to be brought out for use, because, with changed color and the contraction of the berries, if you do not take them down for eating, they threaten that they will descend to be thrown away. A ripe sorb, mellow when stored, ought to be brought out more quickly; for the unripe one, when hung up, is slower, because it wishes first to attain ripeness at home—which it cannot on the tree—before it grows mellow.

LXIX.

69.

Messum far promendum hieme in pistrino ad torrendum, quod ad cibatum expeditum esse velis; quod ad sationem, tum promendum, cum segetes maturae sunt ad accipiendum. Item quae pertinent ad sationem, suo quoque tempore promenda. Quae vendenda, videndum quae quoque tempore oporteat promi; alia enim, quae manere non possunt, antequam se commutent, ut celeriter promas ac vendas; alia, quae servari possunt, ut tum vendas, cum caritas est.

The harvested far (emmer) is to be brought forth in winter to the bakehouse for parching, that which you wish to be ready for eating; that which is for sowing, then to be brought forth when the crops are mature for receiving it. Likewise the things that pertain to sowing are also to be brought forth each at its own time. As for what is to be sold, you must see at what time each thing ought to be brought out; for some things, which cannot keep, before they alter, bring out quickly and sell; others, which can be kept, sell then when there is dearness.

Saepe enim diutius servata non modo usuram adiciunt, sed etiam fructum duplicant, si tempore promas.

For often, things kept longer not only add interest, but even double the profit, if you bring them out at the right time.

Cum haec diceret, venit libertus aeditumi ad nos flens et rogat ut ignoscamus, quod simus retenti, et ut ei in funus postridie prodeamus. Omnes consurgimus ac simul exclamamus, 'Quid? in funus?

While he was saying these things, the freedman of the sacristan came to us weeping and asks that we forgive, because we have been detained, and that we go out to the funeral for him on the next day. We all rise and at once exclaim, 'What? to a funeral?'

quod funus? quid est factum?' Ille flens narrat ab nescio quo percussum cultello concidisse, quem qui esset animadvertere in turba non potuisse, sed tantum modo exaudisse vocem, perperam fecisse. Ipse cum patronum domum sustulisset et pueros dimisisset, ut medicum requirerent ac mature adducerent, quod potius illut administrasset, quam ad nos venisset, aecum esse sibi ignosci.

"what funeral? what has happened?" He, weeping, relates that he had been struck by I-know-not-who with a little knife and had collapsed, that he could not notice in the crowd who it was, but had only overheard a voice, that he had done wrongly. He himself, after he had carried the patron home and had sent the boys to look for a physician and to bring him promptly, because he had rather administered that than come to us, said it was fair that he be forgiven.

Nec si eum servare non potuisset, quin non multo post animam efflaret, tamen putare se fecisse recte. Non moleste ferentes descendimus de aede et de casu humano magis querentes, quam admirantes id Romae factum, discedimus omnes.

Nor, even if he could not have saved him—since he would have breathed out his soul not much later—does he nonetheless think that he acted rightly. Not taking it ill, we go down from the temple and, lamenting the human mischance rather than marveling that this was done at Rome, we all depart.