LIBER XVIII · CAPUT 15
THE VETCH
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Et vicia pinguescunt arva, nec ipsa agricolis operosa. uno sulco sata non saritur, non stercoratur nec aliud quam deoccatur. sationis eius tria tempora: circa occasum arcturi, ut Decembri mense pascat. tum optime seritur in semen. aeque namque fert depasta. secunda satio mense lanuario est, novissima Martio, tum ad frondem utilissima. siccitatem ex omnibus, quae seruntur, maxime amat. non aspernatur etiam umbrosa. ex semine eius, si lecta matura est, palea ceteris praefertur. vitibus praeripit sucum, languescuntque, si in arbusto seratur.
Nec ervi operosa cura est. hoc amplius quam vicia runcatur, et ipsum medicaminis vim optinens, quippe cum divom Augustum curatum epistulis ipsius memoria exstet. sufficiunt singulis boum iugis modi quini sati. Martio mense satum noxium esse bobus aiunt, item autumno gravedinosum, innoxium autem fieri primo vere satum.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
The vetch, too, enriches the soil, and its cultivation entails no labour on the agriculturist. It is sown after the ground has been but once turned up, and requires neither hoeing nor manuring; nothing at all, indeed, except harrowing. There are three periods for sowing it; the first is about the setting of Arcturus, when it is intended for feeding cattle in the month of December, while in the blade; this crop, too, is the best of all for seed, for, although grazed upon, it will bear just as well. The second crop is sown in the month of January, and the last in March; this last being the best crop for fodder. Of all the seeds this is the one that thrives best in a dry soil; still, however, it manifests no repugnance to a shaded locality. This grain, if gathered when quite ripe, produces a chaff superior to that of any other. If sown near vines supported by trees, the vetch will draw away the juices from the vines, and make them languid.
The cultivation of the fitch, too, is attended with no difficulty. It requires weeding, however, more than the vetch. Like it, the fitch has certain medicinal properties; for we find the fact still kept in remembrance by some letters of his, that the late Emperor Augustus was cured by its agency. Five modii will sow as much ground as a yoke of oxen can plough in a day. If sown in the month of March, it is injurious, they say, to oxen: and when sown in autumn, it is apt to produce head-ache. If, however, it is put in the ground at the beginning of spring, it will be productive of no bad results.