gainst this interpretation. --
IRRIGATIONES etc.: the plurals denote more prominently than singulars would
the repetition of the actions expressed by these words. -- REPASTINATIONES:
'repeated hoeings'. The _pastinum_ was a kind of pitchfork, used for
turning over the ground round about the vines, particularly when the young
plants were being put in. -- MULTO TERRA FECUNDIOR: see n. on 3 _parum ...
auctoritatis_.

54. IN EO LIBRO: see Introd. -- DOCTUS: often used of poets, not only by
Cicero but by most other Latin writers, more particularly by the elegiac
poets; see also n. on 13. -- HESIODUS: the oldest Greek poet after Homer.
The poem referred to here is the [Greek: Erga kai Hemerai] which we still
possess, along with the Theogony and the Shield of Heracles. -- CUM:
concessive. -- SAECULIS: 'generations', as in 24. -- FUIT: = _vixit_. --
LAERTEN: the passage referred to is no doubt the touching scene in Odyss.
24, 226, where Odysseus, after killing the suitors, finds his unhappy old
father toiling in his garden. In that passage nothing is said of
_manuring_. -- LENIENTEM: see n. on 11 _dividenti_. -- COLENTEM etc.: the
introduction of another participle to explain _lenientem_ is far from
elegant. _Cultione agri_ or something of the kind might have been expected.
The collocation of _appetentem_ with _occupatum_ in 56 is no less awkward.
-- FACIT: n. on 3 _facimus_. -- RES RUSTICAE LAETAE SUNT: 'the farmer's
life is gladdened'. -- APIUM: this form is oftener found in the best MSS.,
of prose writers at least, than the other form _apum_, which probably was
not used by Cic. -- OMNIUM: = _omnis generis_. -- CONSITIONES ...
INSITIONES: 'planting ... grafting'. On the varieties of grafting and the
skill required for it see Verg. Georg. 2, 73 _seq._

55. POSSUM: see n. on 24. -- IGNOSCETIS: 'you will excuse (me)'. --
PROVECTUS SUM: 'I have been carried away'. Cicero often uses _prolabi_ in
the same sense. -- IN HAC ... CONSUMPSIT: Cic. probably never, as later
writers did, used _consumere_ with a simple ablative. -- CURIUS: see n. on
15. -- A ME: = _a mea villa;_ cf. n. on 3 _apud quem_. -- ADMIRARI SATIS
NON POSSUM: a favorite form of expression with Cicero; _e.g._ De Or. 1,
165. -- DISCIPLINAM: 'morals'; literally 'teaching'.

56. CURIO: Plutarch, Cat. 2, says the ambassadors found him cooking a
dinner of herbs, and that Curius sent them away with the remark that a man
who dined in that way had no need of gold. The presen