WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6)

Chapter 412: CHAP. 8.—THE PROPER MODE OF USING MANURE.
By the Elder Pliny
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

Classics of LiteratureHistory - AncientNature/Gardening/AnimalsScience - Biology

About This Book

The work assembles systematic observations on animals, insects, and trees, combining natural history with practical notes. It surveys insect forms and habits, including bees, silk‑producing worms, spiders, and parasitic species, and discusses reproduction, classification, diseases, and useful products like honey and silk. It then examines animal anatomy in detail, limb by limb and organ by organ, comparing organs, vital functions, and bodily peculiarities across species. Later sections catalogue trees and exotic plants, describing aromatic gums, spices, frankincense, myrrh, and methods for producing and testing unguents and perfumes, and noting their uses and regions of origin.

CHAP. 8.—THE PROPER MODE OF USING MANURE.

It is recommended,2914 also, that the dung-heap should be kept in the open air, in a spot deep sunk and well adapted to receive the moisture: it should be covered, too, with straw, that it may not dry up with the sun, care being taken to drive a stake of robur into the ground, to prevent serpents from breeding2915 there. It is of the greatest consequence that the manure should be laid upon the land while2916 the west winds prevail, and during a dry moon. Most persons, however, misunderstand this precept, and think this should be done when the west winds are just beginning to blow, and in the month of February only; it being really the fact that most crops require manuring in other months as well. At whatever period, however, it may be thought proper to manure the land, the greatest care should be taken that the wind is blowing due west at the time, and that the moon is on the wane, and quite dry. Such precautions as these will increase in a most surprising degree the fertilizing effects of manure.