1 February 7-March 24
XXIX. These are the things to be done during the first of the seasons so enumerated: All kinds of nurseries should be set out, the vines should be first pruned, then dug, and the roots which have protruded from the ground should be cut out, the meadows should be cleaned, willows planted and the corn hoed. We call that corn land (seges) which has been ploughed and sowed as distinguished from plough land (arva) which has been ploughed but not yet sowed, while that land which was formerly sowed and lies awaiting a new ploughing is called stubble (novalis). When land is ploughed for the first time it is said to be broken up (proscindere), and at the second ploughing to be broken down (offringere) because at the first ploughing large clods are turned up and at the second ploughing these are reduced. The third cultivation, after the seed has been sown, is called ridging (lirare), that is, when by fastening mould boards on the plough, the sown seed is covered up in ridges45 and at the same time furrows are cut by means of which the surface water may drain off. Some farmers who cultivate small farms, as in Apulia, are wont to harrow their land after it is ridged, if perchance any large clods have been left in the seed bed. The hollow channel left by the share of the plough is called the furrow, the raised land between two furrows is called the ridge (porca,) because there the seed is as it were laid upon an altar (porricere) to secure a crop, for when the entrails are offered to the gods this word porricere is used to describe the oblation.
2 March 24-May 7
XXX. These are the things to be done during the second season between the vernal equinox and the rising of the Pleiades. Weed the corn land, break up old sod, cut the willows, close the pastures (to the stock) and complete any thing left undone in the preceding season. Plant trees before the buds shoot and they begin to blossom, for deciduous trees are not fit to transplant after they put forth leaves. Plant and prune your olives.
3 May 7-June 24
XXXI. These are the things to be done during the third season between the rising of the Pleiades and the summer solstice. Dig the young vines or plough them, and afterwards put the land in good order; that is to say, fine the soil so that no clods shall remain. This is called fining the soil (occare) because it breaks down (occidare) the clods. Thin out the vines, but let it be done by one who knows how, for this operation which is considered of great importance is performed only on vines and not on the orchard. To thin a vine is to select and reserve the one, two and some times even three best new tendrils sprung from the stem of the vine, cutting off all the others, lest the stem may be unable to furnish nourishment for those which have been reserved. So in a nursery it is the custom to cut it back at first so that the vine may grow with a stronger stem and may have greater strength to produce fruitful tendrils: for a stem which grows slender like a rush is sterile through weakness and cannot throw out tendrils. Thus it is the custom to call a weak stem a flag, and a strong stem, which bears grapes, a palm. The name flagellum, indicating something as unstable as a breeze, is derived from flatus, by the change of a letter, just as in the case of the word flabellum, which means fly fan. The name palma, which is given to those vine shoots which are fruitful in grapes, was it seems, at first, parilema, derived from parire (to produce), whence by a change of letters, such as we find in many instances, it came to be called palma.
From another part of the vine springs the capreolus, which is a little spiral tendril, like a curled hair, by means of which the vine holds on while it creeps towards the place of which it would take possession, from which quality of taking hold of things (capere) it is called capreolus.
All forage crops should be saved at this season; first, basil, then mixed fodder (farrago)46 and vetch, and last of all the hay. Our name for basil is ocinum, which is derived from the Greek word [Greek: ocheos] and signifies that it comes quickly, like the pot herb of the same name. It has this name also because it quickens the action of the bowels of cattle and so is fed to them as a purgative. It is cut green from a bean field before the pods are formed. On the other hand that forage which is cut with a sickle from a field in which barley and vetch and other legumes have been sown in mixture for forage, is called farrago from the instrument (ferro) with which it is cut, or perhaps because it was first sown in the stubble of a field of corn (far). It is fed to horses and other cattle in the spring to purge and to fatten them.
Vetch (vicia) is so called from its quality of conquering (vincire) because this plant, like the vine, has tendrils by means of which it creeps twisting upward on the stalks of lupines or other plants where it clings until it over-tops its host.
If you have irrigated meadows, proceed to water them at this season, as soon as you have saved the hay.
During droughts water your grafted fruit trees every evening. They probably derive their name, (poma), from their appetite for drink (potus).
4 June 24-July 21
XXXII. During the fourth season between the summer solstice and the rising of the Dog Star most farmers make their harvest, because it is claimed that to mature properly corn should be allowed fifteen days to germinate and shoot, fifteen days to bloom and fifteen days to ripen.
Finish your ploughing: it will be more profitable in proportion as the earth is ploughed warm, when the land is broken up, fine it, that is, work it again in order that all the clods may be reduced, for at the first ploughing large clods are always turned up. This is the time also to sow vetch, lentils, the small variety of chick peas, pulse (ervilia) and the other things which we call legumes, but which others, as for example the Gauls, call legarica, both of which names come from the practice of picking their fruit (legere) because they are not cut but gathered.
Work the old vines a second time and the young ones thrice, especially if there are any clods left.
5 July 21-September 26
XXXIII. During the fifth season between the rising of the Dog Star and the autumn equinox thresh your straw and rick it, continue the harrowing of your fallow land, prune your fruit trees, and mow your irrigated meadow the second time.
6 September 26-October 28
XXXIV. The authorities advise you to begin to sow at the commencement of the sixth season immediately after the autumn equinox and to keep it up for the following 91 days, but not to attempt to sow any thing after the winter solstice, unless it is absolutely necessary, because seed sown before the winter solstice germinates in seven days, while that sown later hardly ever sprouts for 40 days.
In like manner the authorities say that you should not begin your sowing before the equinox, lest continued rains cause the seed to rot in the ground. The best time to plant beans is at the setting of the Pleiades, but gather the grapes and make the vintage between the equinox and the setting of the Pleiades. Immediately afterward begin to prune the vines, to propagate them and plant fruit trees, but in those regions where the frost comes early it is better to postpone these operations until the following spring.
7 October 28-December 24.
XXXV. These are the things to do during the seventh season between the setting of the Pleiades and the winter solstice. Plant lilies and crocuses and propagate roses, which may be done by making cuttings about three inches in length from a stem already rooted, set these out and later, after they have formed their own roots, transplant them. The cultivation of violets has no place on a farm because they require elevated beds for which the soil is scraped up and these are damaged or even washed away by heavy rains, thus wasting the fertility of the land. At any time of the year between the rising of the west wind and the rising of Arcturus (February-September) it is proper to transplant from the seed beds thyme, an herb, which owes its name, serpyllum, to its creeping habit (quod serpit). This is the season also to dig new ditches, clean the old ones, and to prune the trees in the arbustum and the vines which are married to them, but be careful that you suspend most of your work during the fifteen days before and after the winter solstice: it is fitting, however, to set out some trees during this period, as, for example, elms.
8 D
ecember 24-February 7
XXXVI. These are the things to do during the eighth season between the winter solstice and the rising of the west wind. Drain the fields, if any water is standing on them, but if they are dry and the land is friable, harrow them. Prune the vines and the orchard. When it is not fitting to work in the fields then those things should be done which can be done under cover during the winter twilight.
All these rules should be written out and posted in the farmstead and the overseer especially should have them at the tip of his tongue.
Of the influence of the moon on agriculture
XXXVII. The lunar seasons also must be considered. They are divided into two terms, that from the new moon to the full, and that from the full moon to the next moon, or until that day which we call intermenstruus, or the last and the first of a moon, whence at Athens this day is called [Greek: henae kai nea] (the old and the new), though the other Greeks call it [Greek: triakas] the thirtieth day. Some agricultural operations may be undertaken with more advantage during the increase of the moon, others during the decrease,47 as, for example, the harvest or cutting of wood.”
“I observe a practice which I learned from my father,” said Agrasius, “not only never to shear my sheep, but not even to have my own hair cut on the decrease of the moon, for fear that I might become bald.”
“What are the quarters of the moon,” said Agrius, “and what bearing have they on agriculture?”
“Have you never heard in the country,” said Tremelius, “the lore about the influence of Jana (Diana) on the eighth day before her waxing, and again on the eighth day before her waning; how certain things which ought to be done during the increase can be done to better advantage in the second quarter than the first, and that what ever is fitting to do on the wane of the moon can be better done when her light is less? This is all I know about the effect of the four quarters of the moon upon agriculture.”
ANOTHER CALENDAR OF SIX AGRICULTURAL SEASONS
“There is another division of the year,” said Stolo, “which takes account of both the sun and the moon, namely: into six seasons, because almost all the cultivated fruits of the earth come to maturity and reach the vat or the granary after five successive agricultural operations and are put to use by a sixth, and these are, first, the preparing (praeparandum); second, the planting (serendum); third, the cultivating of the growing crop (nutricandum); fourth, the ingathering (legendum); fifth, the storing (condendum), and sixth, the consuming (promendum).”
1 PREPARING TIME
Of tillage
In the matter of preparation there are different things to be done for different crops, as, if you wish to make an orchard or an arbustum, you trench and grub and plough; if you plant grain, you plough and harrow; while, if you cultivate trees, you mulch their roots by breaking the earth with a mattock, more or less according to the nature of the tree, for some trees, like the cypress, have a small, and others like the plane tree have a large, root system (for example, that in the Lyceum at Athens described by Theophastus, which, when it was still a young tree, had a spread of roots to the extent of 33 cubits). If you break the ground with a plough and cattle, it is well to work the land a second time before you sow your seed. So, if you are making a meadow the preparation is to close it to the stock, and this is usually done when the pear tree is in bloom: if it is an irrigated meadow the preparation is to turn in the water at the proper time.
Of manuring
XXXVIII. As part of this same operation should be considered what places in a field need manure and what kind of manure you can use to the greatest advantage, for the several kinds have different qualities. Cassius says that the best manure is that of birds, except swamp and sea birds,48 but the best of all is, he claims, the manure of pigeons because it is the hottest and causes the land to ferment. This ought to be sown on the land like seed, not distributed in heaps like the dung of cattle. I myself think the best manure is that from aviaries in which thrushes and blackbirds are kept, because it is not only good for the land but serves as a fattening food for cattle and hogs: for which reason those who farm aviaries pay less rent when the owner stipulates that the manure is to be used on the farm, than those to whom it is a perquisite. Cassius advises that the manure next in value to that of doves is human feces, and third that of goats and sheep and asses. The manure of horses is of the least value on corn land, but on meadows it is the best, because, like the manure of other draught animals fed on barley, it brings a heavy stand of grass. The manure pit should be near the barn in order that it may be available with the least labour. If you plant a stake of oak wood in the manure pit it will not harbour serpents.
2 PLANTING TIME
Of the four methods of propagating plants
XXXIX. The second operation, namely that of propagating, must be considered in relation to the proper time for sowing each kind of seed, for this concerns the aspect of the field you are to sow and the season fitting for what you are to plant. Do we not see some things grow best in the spring, others in summer, some in autumn, and others again in winter? For each plant is sowed or propagated or harvested in season according to its nature: so while most trees are grafted most successfully in spring, rather than the autumn, yet figs may be grafted at the summer solstice, and cherries even in winter.
And since there are four methods of propagation of plants, by nature and by the several processes of art, namely: transplanting from one place to another, as is done in layering vines, what is called cuttage or propagating quick sets cut from trees, and graftage, which consists in transferring scions from one tree to another, let us consider at what season and in what locality you should do each of these things.
a. Seeding, and here of seed selection
XL. In the first place, the seed, which is the principle of all germination, is of two kinds, that which is not appreciable by our senses and that which is. Seed is hidden from us when it is disseminated in the air, as the physicist Anaxagoras holds, or is distributed over the land by the surface water, as Theophrastus maintains. The seeds which the farmer can see should be studied with the greatest care. There are some varieties, like that of the cypress, which are so small as to be almost invisible, for those nuts which the cypress bears, that look like little balls covered with bark, are not the seed but contain it. Nature gave the principle of germination to seed, the rest of agriculture was left for the experience of man to discover, for in the beginning before the interference of man plants were generated before they were sown, afterwards those seeds which were collected by man from the original plants did not generate until after they had been sown.
Seed should be examined to ascertain that it is not sterile by age, that it is clean, particularly that it is not adulterated with other varieties of similar appearances: for age has such effect upon seed as in some respects to change its very nature, thus it is said that rape will grow from old cabbage seed, and vice versa.49
b. Transplanting
In respect of transplanting, care should be taken that it is done neither too soon nor too late. The fit time, according to Theophrastus, is spring and autumn and midsummer, but the same rule will not apply in all places and to all kinds of plants: for in dry and thin clay soil, which has little natural moisture, the wet spring is the time, but in a rich and fat soil it is safe to transplant in autumn. Some limit the practice of transplanting to a period of thirty days.
c. Cuttage
In respect of cuttage, which consists in planting in the ground a live cutting from a tree, it behooves you especially to see that this is done at the proper time, which is before the tree has begun to bud or bloom: that you take off the cutting carefully rather than break it from the parent tree, because the cutting will be more firmly established in proportion as it has a broad footing which can readily put out roots: and that it is planted promptly before the sap dries out of it.
In propagating olives select a truncheon of new grown wood about a foot in length and the same size at each end: some call the
se clavolae and others call them taleae.
d. Graftage
In respect of graftage, which consists in transferring growing wood from one tree to another, care must be taken in selecting the tree from which the scion is taken, the tree on which it is grafted, and the time and the manner in which it is done: for the pear cannot be grafted on an oak, even though it may upon the apple. In this operation many men who have great faith in the sayings of the soothsayers give heed to their warning that as many kinds of grafts there may be on a tree so many bolts of lightning will strike it, because a bolt of lightning is generated by each graft (ictu).50
If you graft a cultivated pear upon a wild pear tree no matter how good it may be, the result will not be as fortunate as if you had grafted on another cultivated pear. Having regard for the result, on what ever kind of tree you graft, if it is of exactly the same kind, as, for instance, apple on apple, you should take care that the scion comes from a better tree than that on which it is grafted.
e. A “new” method — inarching
There is another operation recently suggested,51 for propagating one tree from another, when the trees are neighbours. From the tree from which you wish to take a scion a branch is trained to that on which you wish to make the graft and the scion is bound upon an incision in a branch of the stock. The place of contact of both scion and stock is cut away with a knife so that the bark of one joins evenly with the bark of the other at the point of exposure to the weather. Care should be taken that the growing top of the scion is pointed straight upwards. The following year when the graft has knitted, the scion may be cut from its parent tree.
Delphi Complete Works of Varro Page 21