259These things observed, remember to bake the earth well beforehand, to cut up the great hills with trenches, and to expose the upturned clods to the north wind, before you plant the glad race of the vine. 262Fields of crumbling soil are best: this the winds see to, and the cold frosts, and the sturdy digger loosening and stirring the acres. 265And men whom no vigilance escapes first seek out a similar place, where the first bed may be prepared for the trees, and to which they may soon be carried when set out, lest the seedlings fail to recognise a mother suddenly changed. 269Indeed, they even mark the quarter of the sky on the bark, so that they may restore each as it stood, on which side it bore the southern heats, which back it turned to the pole: so strong is habit in tender years.
273Whether it is better to plant the vine on hills or on the plain, ask first. 274If you are measuring out the fields of a rich plain, plant thickly; 275in thick planting Bacchus is no less productive; 276but if you are measuring out soil sloping in hillocks and gently rising hills, give room to the rows, but no less let every path, once the trees are set, square exactly with the lane cut across it. 279As often in a great war, when the legion has deployed its cohorts in long array, and the column has halted on the open plain, and the lines are drawn up, and the whole earth far and wide ripples with gleaming bronze, and they do not yet join in grim battle, but Mars wanders uncertain amid the armies: so let all be measured out with equal numbers in the paths; 285not only so that the prospect may feed an idle mind, but because in no other way will the earth give equal strength to all, nor will the branches be able to stretch out into free space.