creeps with manifold and wandering course,
the skill of the husbandmen pruning with the knife, restrains from
running into a forest of twigs, and spreading too far in all
directions.

Accordingly, in the beginning of spring, in those twigs which are
left, there rises up as it were at the joints of the branches that
which is called a bud, from which the nascent grape shows itself,
which, increasing in size by the moisture of the earth and the heat of
the sun, is at first very acid to the taste, and then as it ripens
grows sweet, and being clothed with its large leaves does not want
moderate warmth, and yet keeps off the excessive heat of the sun; than
which what can be in fruit on the one hand more rich, or on the other
hand more beautiful in appearance? Of which not only the advantage, as
I said before, but also the cultivation and the nature itself delight
me; the rows of props, the joining of the heads, the tying up and
propagation of vines, and the pruning of some twigs, and the grafting
of others, which I have mentioned. Why should I allude to irrigations,
why to the diggings of the ground, why to the trenching by which the
ground is made much more productive? Why should I speak of the
advantage of manuring? I have treated of it in that book which I wrote
respecting rural affairs, concerning which the learned Hesiod has not
said a single word, tho he has written about the cultivation of the
land. But Homer, who, as appears to me, lived many ages before,
introduces Laertes soothing the regret which he felt for his son by
tilling the land and manuring it. Nor indeed is rural life delightful
by reason of corn-fields only and meadows and vineyards and groves,
but also for its gardens and orchards; also for the feeding of cattle,
the swarms of bees, and the variety of all kinds of flowers. Nor do
plantings only give me delight, but also graftings, than which
agriculture has invented nothing more ingenious....

Was then their old age to be pitied who amused themselves in the
cultivation of land? In my opinion, indeed, I know not whether any
other can be more happy; and not only in the discharge of duty,
because to the whole race of mankind the cultivation of the land is
beneficial; but also from the amusement, which I have mentioned, and
that fulness and abundance of all things which are connected with the
food of men, and also with the worship of the gods; so that, since
some have a desire for these things, we may aga