CHAP. 71.—WORK TO BE DONE AFTER THE SUMMER SOLSTICE.
The following are the rural occupations for this interval of time—the ground must have another turning up, and the trees must be cleared about the roots and moulded up, where the heat of the locality requires it. Those plants, however, which are in bud must not be spaded at the roots, except where the soil is particularly rich. The seed-plots, too, must be well cleared with the hoe, the barley-harvest got in, and the threshing-floor prepared for the harvest with chalk, as Cato586 tells us, slackened with amurca of olives; Virgil587 makes mention of a method still more laborious even. In general, however, it is considered sufficient to make it perfectly level, and then to cover it with a solution of cow-dung588 and water; this being thought sufficient to prevent the dust from rising.