CHAP. 63.—WORK TO BE DONE AT THE WINTER SOLSTICE.
Be careful never to touch the vine at the winter solstice. Hyginus recommends us to strain and even rack-off wine at the seventh day after the winter solstice, provided the moon is seven days old. About this period, also, the cherry-tree, he says, should be planted. Acorns, too, should now be put in soak for the oxen, a modius for each pair. If given in larger quantities, this food will prove injurious to their health; and whenever it is given, if they are fed with it for less than thirty days in succession, an attack of scab in the spring, it is said, will be sure to make you repent.
This, too, is the period that we have already assigned450 for cutting timber—other kinds of work, again, may be found for the hours of the night, which are then so greatly prolonged. There are baskets, hurdles, and panniers to be woven, and wood to be cut for torches: squared stays451 for the vine may be prepared, too, thirty in the day time, and if rounded,452 as many as sixty. In the long hours of the evening, too, some five squared stays, or ten rounded ones may be got ready, and the same number while the day is breaking.