1I come now to the pleasures of farmers, in which I take incredible delight, which are not hindered by any old age and which seem to me to come closest to the life of the wise man. 1For they keep an account with the earth, which never refuses its command nor ever returns what it has received without interest, but sometimes at a lower, generally at a higher rate; 1although for my part it is not only the produce, but also the power and nature of the earth itself that delights me. 1When it has received the scattered seed in its softened and worked bosom, first it keeps it hidden, from which the harrowing that does this has been named occatio; 1then, when the seed has been warmed by its heat and its pressure, it splits it open and draws from it the green blade, which, resting on the fibres of its roots, gradually grows up and, raised on a jointed stalk, is enclosed in sheaths as though now coming of age; 1and when it has emerged from these, it pours forth the grain of the ear, built up in rows, and is defended against the pecking of smaller birds by a palisade of beards.
52Why should I recount the origins, planting and growth of vines? 52I cannot have my fill of this delight — so that you may know the repose and amusement of my old age. 52For I pass over the very power of all things that are produced from the earth, which from the tiny seed of a fig or the pip of a grape or from the minutest seeds of other fruits or plants produces such great trunks and branches; 52mallet-shoots, slips, cuttings, quicksets, layers — do they not cause anyone to be delighted and to marvel? 52The vine indeed, which by nature droops and, unless it is supported, sinks to the ground, to raise itself embraces with its tendrils, as if with hands, whatever it has caught hold of; and as it creeps with manifold and wandering course, the farmer's art cuts it back with the knife and restrains it, so that it may not run to wood with shoots and spread too far in every direction.
53And so at the beginning of spring, on the shoots that have been left, there appears at the joints, as it were, of the branches what is called the bud, from which the grape springs forth and shows itself; and growing with the juice of the earth and the heat of the sun, it is at first very bitter to the taste, then, when ripened, grows sweet, and clothed with vine leaves it does not lack moderate warmth and wards off the excessive heat of the sun. 53What can be richer in fruit or more beautiful to look upon than this? 53Indeed it is not only its usefulness that delights me, as I said before, but also its cultivation and its very nature: the rows of props, the joining of the heads at the top, the tying up and layering of the vines, the pruning of some shoots, as I have said, and the letting grow of others.
53Why should I mention irrigation, why the trenching of the field and the repeated digging, by which the earth is made much more fertile? 53Why should I speak of the usefulness of manuring? 53I have spoken of it in the book which I wrote on farming. 54About this the learned Hesiod said not even a word when he was writing on the cultivation of the field. 54But Homer, who lived, as it seems to me, many generations earlier, represents Laertes soothing the longing he felt for his son by tilling his field and manuring it. 54Nor indeed is country life rich only in cornfields and meadows and vineyards and orchards, but also in gardens and fruit-groves, and then in the grazing of flocks, in swarms of bees, and in the variety of every kind of flower.
54And not only plantings give delight, but also graftings, than which agriculture has invented nothing more ingenious.