eration shall not exceed the return from it.

_Of the vintage_

LIV. In vineyards the vintage should begin when the grape is ripe, but
care must be taken with what kind of grapes and in what part of the
vineyard you begin: for the early grapes and the mixed variety, which
is called black, ripen some time before the others and should be
gathered first, like the fruit grown on the side of the arbustum, or
of the vineyard, which is exposed to the sun. During the gathering
those grapes from which you expect to make wine should be separated
from those reserved for the table: the choicer being carried to the
wine press and collected in empty jars, while those reserved to eat
are collected in separate baskets, transferred to little pots and
stored in jars packed with marc, though some are immersed in the pond
in jars daubed with pitch and some raised to a shelf in the store
room.

The stems and the skins of the grapes which have been trodden out
should be put under the press so that any must left in them may be
added to the supply in the vat. When this marc ceases to yield a flow,
it is chopped with a knife and pressed again, and the must expressed
by this final operation is hence called _circumcisitum_[101] and is kept
by itself because it smacks of the knife. The marc finally remaining
is thrown into jars, to which water is added, thus preparing a drink
which is called after-wine or grape juice, and is given to the hands
in the winter instead of wine.

_Of the olive harvest_

LV. And now of the harvest of the olive yard.[102] You should pick by
hand, rather than beat from the tree, all the olives which can be
reached from the ground or from a ladder, because this fruit becomes
arid when it has been struck and does not yield so much oil: and in
picking by hand it is better to do so with the bare fingers rather
than with a tool because the texture of a tool not only injures the
berry but barks the branches and leaves them exposed to the frost. So
it is better to use a reed than a pole to strike down the fruit which
cannot be reached by hand, for (as the proverb is) the heavier the
blow, the more need there is for a surgeon. He who beats his trees
should beware of doing injury, for often an olive when it is struck
away brings down with it from the branch a twig, and when this happens
the fruit of the following year is lost: and this is not the least
reason why it is said that the olive bears fruit, or much fruit, only