e to the rain and when broken down by its action easier
to cultivate. Such land should be ploughed not less than twice, but
three times is better.[83] The Summer is the season of the grain
harvest; the Autumn, when the weather is dry, that of the vintage: and
it is also the fit time for thinning out the woods, when the trees to
be removed should be cut down close to the ground and the roots should
be dug up before the first rains to prevent them from stooling. In
Winter the trees may be pruned, provided this is done at a time when
the bark is free from frost and rain and ice.

XXVIII. Spring begins when the sun is in Aquarius, Summer when it is
in Taurus, Autumn when it is in Leo, and Winter when it is in Scorpio.
Since the beginning of each of the four seasons is the twenty-third
day after the entrance of the sun in these signs respectively, it
follows that Spring has ninety-one days, Summer ninety-four, Autumn
ninety-one and Winter eighty-nine: which, reduced to the dates of our
present official calendar,[84] makes the beginning of Spring on the
seventh day before the Ides of February (February 7), of Summer on the
seventh day before the Ides of May (May 9), of Autumn on the third day
before the Ides of August (August 11), and of Winter on the fourth day
before the Ides of November (November 10).

A CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS

By a more exact definition of the seasons, the year is divided into
eight parts, the first of forty-five days from the date of the rising
of the west wind (February 7) to the date of the vernal equinox (March
24), the second of the ensuing forty-four days to the rising of the
Pleiades (May 7), the third of forty-eight days to the summer solstice
(June 24), the fourth of twenty-seven days to the rising of the Dog
Star (July 21), the fifth of sixty-seven days to the Autumn equinox
(September 26), the sixth of thirty-two days to the setting of the
Pleiades (October 28), the seventh of fifty-seven days to the winter
solstice (December 24), and the eighth of forty-five days to the
beginning of the first.[85]

_1 deg. February 7-March 24_

XXIX. These are the things to be done during the first of the seasons
so enumerated: All kinds of nurseries should be set out, the vines
should be first pruned, then dug, and the roots which have protruded
from the ground should be cut out, the meadows should be cleaned,
willows planted and the corn hoed. We call that corn land (_seges_