204Moreover, we must watch the stars of Arcturus, the days of the Kids and the shining Serpent as closely as those who, homeward bound over windy waters, venture on the Pontus and the jaws of oyster-bearing Abydos. 208When Libra has made the hours of day and of sleep equal, and now divides the world in half between light and shadow, work your bulls, men, sow barley in the fields right up to the last rain of the unmanageable winter solstice; 212it is time also to cover in the ground the flax crop and Ceres' poppy, and high time to bend to the ploughs, while the dry earth allows, while the clouds hang aloft.
215In spring is the sowing of beans; 215then you too, lucerne, the crumbling furrows receive, and millet's yearly care comes, when the white Bull with gilded horns opens the year, and the Dog sets, giving way before the star that faces backwards. 219But if you work the ground for a wheat harvest and hardy spelt, and press on with corn-ears alone, first let the Atlantids of the dawn be hidden from you, and the Cretan star of the blazing Crown depart, before you entrust to the furrows the seed that is due, and before you hasten to trust the hope of the year to an unwilling earth. 225Many have begun before Maia's setting; 225but the crop they awaited has mocked them with empty husks.
227If indeed you sow the vetch and the humble kidney-bean, and do not scorn the care of Pelusian lentils, Bootes as he sets will send you no obscure signs: begin, and extend your sowing to the middle of the frosts.