Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/54

 

Next the distinctive marks of soils I'll show:
Would you a subtile from a dense glebe know?
(One favours vines, and one the golden grain, 255
The subtile Bacchus, Ceres the dense plain:)
A spot selected, sink a pit profound,
Then back replace the dirt, and tread the ground:
Should mould be wanting, the soil loose declare,
And flocks will fatten, and vines flourish there: 260
But if the rubbish it's old seat disdain,
And, the trench fill'd, redundant mould remain,
With ridgy clots expect a sluggish soil;
Here, harnest to the yoke, let stout steers toil:
But earth, that planters salt and bitter name, 265
Churlish to corn, and what no plough can tame,
Alike unfit to propagate the kind
Of grapes and apples, by this mark you'll find:
Baskets with twigs well-woven first provide, 269
And wine-press strainers, in the smoke long dry'd,
Snatch from the roofs; in those the bad mould fling
Heap'd high, and drench'd with water from the spring:
Soon thro' the wicker, struggling to be free,
The liquid trickling in large drops you'll see;
The savour will detect itself now plain, 275
And the shockt Taster writhe his mouth with pain.

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