To thee his joys the jolly Autumn owes,
When the fermenting juice the vat o'erflows.
Come, strip with me, my god, come drench all o'er
Thy limbs in must of wine, and drink at every pore.

ORIGIN OF VARIOUS TREES; SPONTANEOUS; FROM SEEDS;
OAK, ELM, CHERRY, BAYS.

Some trees their birth to bounteous nature owe; For some without the pains of planting grow. With osiers thus the banks of brooks abound, Sprung from the watery genius of the ground: From the same principle gray willows come; Herculean poplar, and the tender broom. But some from seeds enclosed in earth arise; For thus the mastful chestnut mates the skies. Hence rise the branching beech and vocal oak, Where Jove of old oraculously spoke. Some from the root a rising wood disclose; Thus elms and thus the savage cherry grows : Thus the green bay, that binds the poet's brows, Shoots, and is sheltered by the mother's boughs.

MODES OF PROPAGATING PLANTS AND TREES.

These ways of planting Nature did ordain, For trees and shrubs, and all the sylvan reign. Others there are, by late experience found: Some cut the shoots, and plant in furrowed ground: Some cover rooted stalks in deeper mould: Some cloven stakes, and (wondrous to behold) Their sharpened ends in earth their footing place, And the dry poles produce a living race. Some bow their vines, which, buried in the plain, Their tops in distant arches rise again. Others no root require, the lab'rer cuts Young slips, and in the soil securely puts. Even stumps of olives, bared of leaves, and dead, Revive, and oft redeem their withered head. "T is usual now an inmate graff to see With insolence invade a foreign tree : Thus pears and quinces from the crab-tree come; And thus the ruddy cornel bears the plum.

ADVANTAGES OF BOTANICAL KNOWledge.

Then let the learned gardener mark with care The kinds of stocks, and what those kinds will bear; Explore the nature of each several tree; And known, improve with artful industry; And let no spot of idle earth be found, But cultivate the genius of the ground. For open Ismarus will Bacchus please; Taburnus loves the shade of olive-trees.

ADDRESS TO MECENAS, VIRGIL'S PATRON. The virtues of the several soils I sing, Mæcenas, now thy needful succor bring! O, thou! the better part of my renown, Inspire thy poet, and thy poem crown; Embark with me while I new tracks explore, With flying sails and breezes from the shore: Not that my song, in such a scanty space, So large a subject fully can embrace : Not though I were supplied with iron lungs, A hundred mouths, filled with as many tongues :

But steer my vessel with a steady hand,
And coast along the shore in sight of land.
Nor will I tire thy patience with a train
Of preface, or what ancient poets feign.

SPONTANEOUS TREES TO BE CORRECTED BY CULTURE; GRAFT-
ING TRANSPLANTING; WILD SEEDLINGS.
The trees which of themselves advance in air
Are barren kinds, but strongly built and fair :
Because the vigor of the native earth
Maintains the plant, and makes a manly birth.
Yet these, receiving grafts of other kind,
Or thence transplanted, change their savage mind;
Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part,
Obey the rules and discipline of art.

The same do trees, that, sprung from barren roots
In open fields, transplanted bear their fruits.
For where they grow, the native energy
Turns all into the substance of the tree,
Starves and destroys the fruit, is only made
For brawny bulk, and for a barren shade.
The plant that shoots from seed a sullen tree
At leisure grows, for late posterity;
The generous flavor lost, the fruits decay,
And savage grapes are made the birds' ignoble prey.
CULTURE OF TREES; THE OLIVE, VINE, HÁZEL, ASH,
ARBUTE, ETC.

Much labor is required in trees, to tame
Their wild disorder, and in ranks reclaim.
Well must the ground be digged, and better dressed,
New soil to make, and meliorate the rest.
Old stakes of olive-trees in plants revive;
By the same methods Paphian myrtles live:
But nobler vines by propagation thrive.
From roots hard hazels, and from scions rise
Tall ash and taller oak that mates the skies;
Palm, poplar, fir, descending from the steep
Of hills, to try the dangers of the deep.
The thin-leaved arbute hazel-graffs receives,
And planes huge apples bear, that bore but leaves.
Thus mastful beech the bristly chestnut bears,
And the wild ash is white with blooming pears;
And greedy swine from grafted elms are fed
With falling acorns, that on oaks are bred.

BUDDING, GRAFTING, INOCULATION, ETC. But various are the ways to change the state Of plants, to bud, to graff, t' inoculate. For where the tender rinds of trees disclose Their shooting gems, a swelling knot there grows; Just in that space a narrow slit we make, Then other buds from bearing trees we take : Inserted thus, the wounded rind we close, In whose moist womb th' admitted infant grows. But when the smoother bole from knots is free, We make a deep incision in the tree; And in the solid wood the slip enclose, The battening bastard shoots again and grows; And in short space the laden boughs arise, With happy fruit advancing to the skies. The mother-plant admires the leaves unknown, Of alien trees, and apples not her own.

VARIETIES OF WILLOWS, ELMS, OLIVES, APPLE-TREES, etc.

Of vegetable woods are various kinds,
And the same species are of sev'ral minds.
Lotes, willows, elms, have different forms allowed,
So funeral cypress, rising like a shroud.
Fat olive-trees of sundry sorts appear,
Of sundry shapes their unctuous berries bear.
Radii long olives, Orchites round produce,
And bitter Pausia, pounded for the juice.
Alcinous' orchard various apples bears:
Unlike are bergamots and pounder pears.

VARIETIES OF THE VINE; ITALIAN, LESBIAN, THASIAN, MA-
REOTIC, PSYTHIAN, LAGÆAN, RÆTHEAN, FALERNIAN, AMI-
NEAN, LYDIAN, CHIAN, ARGITIS, RHODIAN, BUMASTUS.
Nor our Italian vines produce the shape,

Or taste, or flavor, of the Lesbian grape.
The Thasian vines in richer soils abound;
The Mareotic grow in barren ground.

The Psythian grape we dry: Lagæan juice [duce.
Will stamm'ring tongues and stagg'ring feet pro-
Rath ripe are some, and some of later kind,
Of golden some, and some of purple rind.
How shall I praise the Ræthean grape divine,
Which yet contends not with Falernian wine!
The Aminean many a consulship survives,
And longer than the Lydian vintage lives,
Or [of Phanæus high] of Chian growth:
But for large quantities and lasting both
The less Argitis bears the prize away.
The Rhodian, sacred to the solemn day,
In second services is poured to Jove;
And best accepted by the gods above.
Nor must Bumastus his old honors lose,
In length and largeness like the dugs of cows.
I pass the rest, whose every race and name,
And kinds, are less material to my theme.
Which who would learn, as soon may tell the sands,
Driven by the western wind on Libyan lands;
Or number, when the blust'ring Eurus roars,
The billows beating on Ionian shores.

EACH PLANT HAS ITS PROPER SOIL, HABITAT, AND COUNTRY;
EBON, BALM, ETC. SILK, TALL TREES; USE OF CITRONS.

Nor every plant on every soil will grow :
The sallow loves the watery ground, and low;
The marshes, alders; Nature seems t' ordain
The rocky cliff for the wild ash's reign;
The baleful yew to northern blasts assigns;
To shores the myrtles, and to mounts the vines.
Regard th' extremest cultivated coast,
From hot Arabia to the Scythian frost :
All sorts of trees their several countries know;
Black ebon only will in India grow:

And od'rous frankincense on the Sabæan bough.
Balm slowly trickles through the bleeding veins
Of happy shrubs in Idumæan plains.
The green Egyptian thorn, for med'cine good,
With Ethiop's hoary trees and woolly wood,
Let others tell; and how the Seres spin
Their fleecy forests in a slender twine.
With mighty trunks of trees on Indian shores,

Whose height above the feathered arrow soars,
Shot from the toughest bow, and by the brawn
Of expert archers with vast vigor drawn.
Sharp-tasted citrons Median climes produce:
Bitter the rind, but generous is the juice:
A cordial fruit, a present antidote
Against the direful stepdame's deadly draught:
Who mixing wicked weeds with words impure,
The fate of envied orphans would procure.
Large is the plant, and like a laurel grows,
And, did it not a different scent disclose,
A laurel were the fragrant flowers contemn
The stormy winds, tenacious of their stem.
With this the Medes to laboring age bequeath
New lungs, and cure the sourness of the breath.

ITALY; ITS CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS PREFERRED.

But neither Median woods (a plenteous land),
Fair Ganges, Hermus rolling golden sand,
Nor Bactria, nor the richer Indian fields,
Nor all the gummy stores Arabia yields;
Nor any foreign earth of greater name,
Can with sweet Italy contend in fame.
No bulls, whose nostrils breathe a living flame,
Have turned our turf, no teeth of serpents here
Were sown, an armed host and iron crop to bear.
But fruitful vines, and the fat olives' freight,
And harvests heavy with their fruitful weight,
Adorn our fields; and on the cheerful green
The grazing flocks and lowing herds are seen.
The warrior horse here bred is taught to train :
There flows Clitumnus through the flowery plain;
Whose waves, for triumphs after prosperous war,
The victim ox, and snowy sheep, prepare.
Perpetual spring our happy climate sees;
Twice breed the cattle, and twice bear the trees;
And summer suns recede by slow degrees.

Our land is from the rage of tigers freed,
Nor nourishes the lion's angry seed;
No poisonous aconite is here produced,
Or grows unknown, or is, when known, refused.
Nor in so vast a length our serpents glide,
Or raised on such a spiry volume ride.

THE CITIES, SEAS, LAKES, AND MINES OF ITALY LAUDED;
LAKES COMO, GARDA, LUCRINUS, AVERNUS; PORT JULIUS.
Next add our cities of illustrious name,
Their costly labor and stupendous frame :
Our forts on steepy hills, that far below
See wanton streams in winding valleys flow.
Our two-fold seas, that, washing either side,
A rich recruit of foreign stores provide.
Our spacious lakes: thee, Larius, first; and next
Benacus, with tempestuous billows vext.
Or shall I praise thy ports, or mention make
Of the vast mound that binds the Lucrine lake:
Or the disdainful sea, that, shut from thence,
Roars round the structure, and invades the fence.
There, where secure the Julian waters glide,
Or where Avernus' jaws admit the Tyrrhene tide.
Our quarries, deep in earth, were famed of old
For veins of silver, and for ore of gold.

THE VARIOUS RACES OF ITALY; MARSI, SABELLI, LIGURES, VOLSCI, DECII, MARII; SCIPIO, CÆSAR.

The inhabitants themselves their country grace; Hence rose the Marsian and Sabellian race: Strong-limbed and stout, and to the wars inclined. And hard Ligurians, a laborious kind, And Volscians, armed with iron-headed darts. Besides an offspring of undaunted hearts, The Decii, Marii; great Camillus came From hence, and greater Scipio's double name: And mighty Cæsar, whose victorious arms To furthest Asia carry fierce alarms; Avert unwarlike Indians from his Rome; Triumph abroad, secure our peace at home.

APOSTROPHE TO ITALY.

Hail, sweet Saturnian soil! of fruitful grain
Great parent, greater of illustrious men.
For thee my tuneful accents will I raise,
And treat of arts disclosed in ancient days:
Once more unlock for thee the sacred spring,
And old Ascræan verse in Roman cities sing.
NATURE OF SOILS; THE SOILS FOR OLIVES; FOR GRAPES.
The nature of their several soils now see,
Their strength, their color, their fertility:
And first for heath, and barren hilly ground,
Where meagre clay and flinty stones abound;
Where the poor soil all succor seems to want,
Yet this suffices the Palladian plant.
Undoubted signs of such a soil are found,
For here wild olive shoots o'erspread the ground,
And heaps of berries strew the fields around.
But where the soil, with fattening moisture filled,
Is clothed with grass, and fruitful to be tilled:
Such as in cheerful vales we view from high;
Which dripping rocks with rolling streams supply,
And feed with ooze; where rising hillocks run
In length, and open to the southern sun;
Where fern succeeds, ungrateful to the plough,
That gentle ground to generous grapes allow.
Strong stocks of vines it will in time produce,
And overflow the vats with friendly juice;
Such as our priests in golden goblets pour
To gods, the givers of the cheerful hour,
Then when the bloated Thuscan blows his horn,
And reeking entrails are in chargers borne.

BEST GROUNDS FOR SHEEP AND GOATS; TARENTUM; MANTUA.
If herds, or fleecy flocks, be more thy care,
Or goats that graze the field, and burn it bare;
Then seek Tarentum's lawns, and furthest coast,
Or such a field as hapless Mantua lost :
Where silver swans sail down the watery road,
And graze the floating herbage of the flood.
There crystal streams perpetual tenor keep,
Nor food nor springs are wanting to thy sheep.
For what the day devours, the nightly dew
Shall to the morn in pearly drops renew.

BEST SOILS FOR TILLAGE DESCRIBED.

Fat crumbling earth is fitter for the plough, Putrid and loose above, and black below:

For ploughing is an imitative toil,
Resembling nature, in an easy soil.
No land for seed like this, no fields afford
So large an income to the village lord :
No toiling teams from harvest-labor come
So late at night, so heavy laden home.
The like of forest land is understood,
From whence the surly ploughman grubs the wood,
Which had for length of ages idle stood.
Then birds forsake the ruins of their seat, [forget.
And, flying from their nests, their callow young

POOR SOILS; GOOD SOILS DESCRIBED. CAMPANIA.

The coarse, lean gravel on the mountain sides Scarce dewy beverage for the bees provides : Nor chalk nor crumbling stones, the food of snakes, That work in hollow earth their winding tracks. The soil exhaling clouds of subtile dews, Imbibing moisture which with ease she spues : Which rusts not iron, and whose mould is clean, Well clothed with cheerful grass, and ever green, Is good for olives and aspiring vines ; Embracing husband elms, in amorous twines; Is fit for feeding cattle, fit to sow,

And equal to the pasture and the plough.

Such is the soil of fat Campanian fields, [yields, Such large increase the land that joins Vesuvius And such a country could Acerra boast, Till Clanius overflowed the unhappy coast.

USE OF LIGHT SOILS; OF HEAVY SOILS; HOW TO KNOW A
LIGHT SOIL.

I teach thee next the differing soils to know;
The light for vines, the heavier for the plough.
Choose first a place for such a purpose fit,
There dig the solid earth, and sink a pit :
Next fill the hole with its own earth again,
And trample with thy feet, and tread it in ;
Then if it rise not to the former height
Of superfice, conclude that soil is light:
A proper ground for pasturage and vines.
But if the sullen earth, so pressed, repines
Within its native mansion to retire,
And stays without, a heap of heavy mire;
"Tis good for arable, a glebe that asks
Tough teams of oxen, and laborious tasks.

SALINE EARTHS; HOW TESTED.

Salt earth and bitter are not fit to sow,
Nor will be tamed or mended by the plough.
Sweet grapes degen'rate there, and fruits declined
From their first flav'rous taste renounce their kind.
This truth by sure experiment is tried:
For first an osier colander provide

Of twigs thick wrought (such toiling peasants twine,
When thro' strait passages they strain their wine);
In this close vessel place that earth accursed,
But filled brimfull with wholesome water first:
Then run it through, the drops will rope around,
And by the bitter taste disclose the ground.

HOW TO KNOW SOILS; VARIOUS TESTS.

The fatter earth by handling we may find, With ease distinguished from the meagre kind :

Poor soil will crumble into dust, the rich
Will to the fingers cleave like clammy pitch:
Moist earth produces corn and grass, but both
Too rank and too luxuriant in their growth.
Let not my land so large a promise boast,
Lest the lank ears in length of stem be lost.
The heavier earth is by her weight betrayed,
The lighter in the poising hand is weighed :
'Tis easy to distinguish by the sight

The color of the soil, and black from white.
But the cold ground is difficult to know,

Yet this the plants that prosper there will show ;
Black ivy, pitch trees, and the baleful yew.

PREPARATION OF THE VINEYARD.

These rules considered well, with early care The vineyard destined for thy vines prepare : But long before the planting dig the ground With furrows deep, that cast a rising mound : The clods, exposed to winter winds, will bake; For putrid earth will best in vineyards take, And hoary frosts, after the painful toil Of delving hinds, will rot the mellow soil.

TRANSPLANTING.

Some peasants, not t' omit the nicest care,
Of the same soil their nursery prepare
With that of their plantation; lest the tree,
Translated, should not with the soil agree.
Beside, to plant it as it was, they mark
The heaven's four quarters on the tender bark;
And to the north or south restore the side
Which at their birth did heat or cold abide.
So strong is custom, such effects can use
In tender souls of pliant plants produce.

PROPER DISTANCE FOR VINE-STOCKS; COMPARED TO A
MARSHALLED ARMY.

Choose next a province for thy vineyard's reign, On hills above, or in the lowly plain : If fertile fields or valleys be thy choice, Plant thick, for bounteous Bacchus will rejoice In close plantations there. But if the vine On rising ground be placed, or hills supine, Extend thy loose battalions largely wide, Opening thy ranks and files on either side; But marshalled all in order as they stand, And let no soldier straggle from his band. As legions in the field their front display, To try the fortune of some doubtful day, And move to meet their foes with sober pace, Strict to their figure, though in wider space; Before the battle joins; while from afar The field yet glitters with the pomp of And equal Mars, like an impartial lord, Leaves all to fortune, and the dint of sword; So let thy vines in intervals be set, But not their rural discipline forget: Indulge their width, and add a roomy space, That their extremest lines may scarce embrace : Nor this alone t' indulge a vain delight, And make a pleasing prospect for the sight:

war,

Which crowded, want the room their branches to

DEPTH OF PLANTING: FOR VINES; STURDY STRENGTH AND DEEP ROOTS OF THE OAK.

How deep they must be planted, wouldst thou In shallow furrows vines securely grow. [know? Not so the rest of plants; for Jove's own tree, That holds the woods in awful sovereignty, Requires a depth of lodging in the ground; And, next the lower skies, a bed profound: High as his topmost boughs to heaven ascend, So low his roots to hell's dominion tend. Therefore, nor winds, nor winter's rage, o'erthrows His bulky body, but unmoved he grows; For length of ages lasts his happy reign, And lives of mortal men contend in vain. Full in the midst of his own strength he stands, Stretching his brawny arms, and leafy hands; His shade protects the plains, his head the hills

commands.

HAZEL AND WILD OLIVES TO BE ROOTED OUT; FIRES, THEIR EFFECTS.

The hurtful hazel in thy vineyard shun;
Nor plant it to receive the setting sun :
Nor break the topmost branches from the tree;
Nor prune, with blunted knife, the progeny.
Root up wild olives from thy labored lands:
For sparkling fire, from hinds' unwary hands,
Is often scattered o'er their unctuous rinds,
And after spread abroad by raging winds.
For first the smouldering flame the trunk receives,
Ascending thence, it crackles in the leaves;
At length victorious to the top aspires,
Involving all the wood in smoky fires :

But most, when driven by winds, the flaming storm
Of the long files destroys the beauteous form.
In ashes then th' unhappy vineyard lies,
Nor will the blasted plants from ruin rise;
Nor will the withered stock be green again, [plain.
But the wild olive shoots, and shades th' ungrateful

TIMES FOR PLOUGHING.

Be not seduced with wisdom's empty shows, To stir the peaceful ground when Boreas blows. When winter frosts constrain the field with cold, The fainty root can take no steady hold. But when the golden Spring reveals the year, And the white bird returns, whom serpents fear; That season deem the best to plant thy vines : Next that, is when autumnal warmth declines; Ere heat is quite decayed, or cold begun, Or Capricorn admits the winter sun.

REVIVIFYING ENERGIES OF SPRING; BIRDS, BEASTS, PLANTS.

The Spring adorns the woods, renews the leaves; The womb of earth the genial seed receives. For then almighty Jove descends, and pours Into his buxom bride his fruitful showers; And mixing his large limbs with hers, he feeds Her births with kindly juice, and fosters teeming seeds.

Then joyous birds frequent the lonely grove,
And beasts, by nature stung, renew their love.
Then fields the blades of buried corn disclose,
And while the balmy western spirit blows,
Earth to the breath her bosom dares expose.
With kindly moisture then the plants abound,
The grass securely springs above the ground;
The tender twig shoots upward to the skies,
And on the faith of the new sun relies.
The swerving vines on the tall elms prevail,
Unhurt by southern showers or northern hail.
They spread their gems the genial warmth to share,
And boldly trust their buds in open air.

THE CREATION IN SPRING; AN ACCOUnt of it.

In this soft season (let me dare to sing)
The world was hatched by heaven's imperial King:
In prime of all the year, and holy-days of Spring.
Then did the new creation first appear;
Nor other was the tenor of the year:

When laughing heaven did the great birth attend,
And eastern winds their wintry breath suspend :
Then sheep first saw the sun in open fields;
And savage beasts were sent to stock the wilds:
And golden stars flew up to light the skies,
And man's relentless race from stony quarries rise.
Nor could the tender new creation bear
Th' excessive heats or coldness of the year:
But, chilled by Winter, or by Summer fired,
The middle temper of the Spring required.
When warmth and moisture did at once abound,
And heaven's indulgence brooded on the ground.

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST WET AND DROUGHT.

For what remains, in depth of earth secure Thy covered plants, and dung with hot manure ; And shells and gravel in the grounds enclose; For through their hollow chinks the water flows : Which, thus imbibed, returns in misty dews, And, steaming up, the rising plant renews. Some husbandmen, of late, have found the way A hilly heap of stones above to lay,

And press the plants with sherds of potter's clay. This fence against immoderate rains they found : Or when the dog-star cleaves the thirsty ground.

KEEP THE SOIL FREE; TRAINING OF VINES ON POLES, ELMS,

ETC.

Be mindful, when thou hast entombed the shoot, With store of earth around to feed the root; With iron teeth of rakes, and prongs, to move The crusted earth, and loosen it above. Then exercise thy sturdy steers to plough Betwixt thy vines, and teach the feeble row To mount on reeds, and wands, and, upward led, On ashen poles to raise their forky head. On these new crutches let them learn to walk, Till swerving upwards, with a stronger stalk, They brave the winds, and, clinging to their guide, On tops of elms at length triumphant ride.

HOW TO PRUNE VINES.

But in their tender nonage, while they spread Their springing leaves, and lift their infant head, And upward while they shoot in open air, Indulge their childhood, and the nursling spare. Nor exercise thy rage on new-born life, But let thy hand supply the pruning-knife; And crop luxuriant stragglers, nor be loth To strip the branches of their leafy growth: But when the rooted vines, with steady hold, Can clasp their elms, then, husbandman, be bold To lop the disobedient boughs, that strayed Beyond their ranks : let crooked steel invade The lawless troops, which discipline disclaim, And their superfluous growth with rigor tame.

PROTECT VINES AGAINST CATTLE, GOATS, ETC. Next, fenced with hedges and deep ditches round, Exclude the encroaching cattle from thy ground, While yet the tender germs but just appear, Unable to sustain th' uncertain year; Whose leaves are not alone foul Winter's prey, But oft by summer suns are scorched away; And, worse than both, become th' unworthy browse Of buffaloes, salt goats, and hungry cows. For not December's frost, that burns the boughs, Nor dog-days' parching heat, that splits the rocks, Are half so harmful as the greedy flocks; [stocks. Their venomed bite, and scars indented on the

THE GOAT DEVOTED TO BACCHUS. RITES OF THE BACCHANALS AND WORSHIP OF BACCHUS.

For this the malefactor goat was laid On Bacchus' altar, and his forfeit paid. At Athens thus old comedy began, When round the streets the reeling actors ran; In country villages, and crossing ways, Contending for the prizes of their plays : And glad with Bacchus, on the grassy soil, Leapt o'er the skins of goats besmeared with oil. Thus Roman youth, derived from ruined Troy, In rude Saturnian rhymes express their joy : With taunts and laughter loud, their audience please, Deformed with vizards, cut from barks of trees: In jolly hymns they praise the god of wine, Whose earthen images adorn the pine; And there are hung on high, in honor of the vine: A madness so devout the vineyard fills, In hollow valleys and on rising hills; On whate'er side he turns his honest face, [grace. And dances in the wind, those fields are in his To Bacchus therefore let us tune our lays, And in our mother-tongue resound his praise. Thin cakes in chargers, and a guilty goat, Dragged by the horns, be to his altars brought ; Whose offered entrails shall his crime reproach, And drip their fatness from the hazel broach.

THE DRESSING OF VINES; MELLOWING THE SOIL.

To dress thy vines new labor is required, Nor must the painful husbandman be tired: