prepared and is transplanted from them and set out so that the plants
are a foot and a half apart, also cuttings are taken from the stronger
plants and set out like those which were raised from seed.

_Of seeding grain_

XLIV. The quantity of seed required for one _jugerum_ is, of beans,
four modii, of wheat five modii, of barley six modii, and of spelt ten
modii: in some places a little more or a little less; if the soil is
rich, more; if it is thin, less. Wherefore you should observe how much
it is the custom to sow in your locality in order that you may do what
the region and the quality of the soil demands, which is the more
necessary as the same amount of seed will yield in some localities ten
for one, and in others fifteen for one, as in Etruria. In Italy also,
in the region of Sybaris it is said that seed yields as much as one
hundred for one, and as much is claimed for the soil of Syria at
Gadara, and in Africa at Byzacium.[95]

It is also important to consider whether you will sow in land which
is cropped every year which we call _restibilis_, or in fallow land
(_vervactum_), which is [ploughed in the spring and so] allowed an
interval of rest."

"In Olynthia," said Agrius, "they are said to crop the land every year
but to get a greater yield every third year."

"A field ought to lie fallow every other year," said Stolo, "or at
least be planted with some crop which makes less demand upon the
soil."

3 deg. CULTIVATING TIME

"Tell us," said Agrius, "about the third operation which relates to
the cultivation and the nourishment of the crops."

_Of the conditions of plant growth_

"All things which germinate in the soil," replied Licinius, "in the
soil also are nourished, come to maturity, conceive, are pregnant and
in due time bear fruit or ear, so each fruit after its kind yields
seed similar to that from which it is sprung. Thus if you pluck a
blossom or a green pear from a pear tree, or the like from any other
tree, nothing will grow again in that place during the same year,
because a tree cannot have two periods of fruition in the same season.
They produce only as women bear children, when their time has come."

XLV. Barley usually sprouts in seven days after it has been sowed, and
wheat not much later, while the legumes almost always sprout in four
or five days, except the bean, which is somewhat later. Millet and
sesame and the other similar grains sprout in the same time unless
so