[13] "_Lusimus_: hæc propter _Culicis_ sint carmina dicta."
[14] Of course, I reckon the
"Exceptantque leves auras; et sæpe sine ullis," etc.,
(Lib. III. 274,) as among the superstitions.
[15] The same writer, under Februarius, Tit. XVII., gives a very curious
method of grafting the willow, so that it may bear peaches.
[16] Praise big farms; stick by little ones.
[17] This, with other odes, is prettily turned by Sig. Pietro Bussolino,
and given as an appendix to the _Serie degli Scritti in Dialetto
Venez._, by Bart. Gamba.
[18] _De Consol. Phil._ Lib. II.
[19] See Gibbon,--opening of Chapter LIII.
[20] As a curious illustration of the rhetoric of the different
agronomes, I give the various wordings of this universal maxim.
The "Geoponica" has,--[Greek: "Pollo ton agron ameino poiei despotou
synechês parousia."] Lib. II. Cap. i.
Columella says,--"Ne ista quidem præsidia tantum pollent, quantum vel
una præsentia domini." I. i. 18.
Cato says,--"Frons occipitio prior est." Cap. iv.
Palladius puts it,--"Præsentia domini provectus est agri." I. vi.
And the elder Pliny writes,--"Majores ferthissimum in agro oculum domini
esse dixerunt."
[21] "E molti libri d'antichi e de' novelli savi lessi e studiai, e
diverse e varie operazioni de' coltivalori delle terre vidi e conobbi."
[22] "Il proprio cibo delle piante sara aleuno humido ben mischiato."
Cap. xiii.
[23] Crescenzi'a book was written in Latin, but was very shortly after
(perhaps by himself) rendered into the street-tongue of Italy.
[24] See Roscoe, _Life of Lorenzo de' Medici_, Chap. VIII.