(CLV) In the winter surface water should be drained off the fields. On hillsides courses should be kept clear for the water to flow off. During the rainy season at the beginning of Autumn is the greatest risk from water. When it begins to rain all the hands should go out with picks and shovels and clear out the drains so that the water may flow off into the roads, and the crops be protected. _Of preparing the seed bed_ (LXI) What is the first principle of good agriculture? To plough well. What is the second? To plough again; and the third is to manure. When you plough corn land, plough well and in good weather, lest you turn a cloddy furrow. The other things of good agriculture are to sow seed plentifully, to thin the young sprouts, and to hill up the roots with earth. (V) Never plough rotten land[30] nor drive flocks or carts across it. If care is not taken about this, the land so abused will be barren for three years. _Of manure_ (V) Plan to have a big compost heap and take the best of care of the manure. When it is hauled out see that it is well rotted and spread. The Autumn is the time to do this. (XXXVII) You can make manure of litter, lupine straw, chaff, bean stalks, husks and the leaves of ilex and of oak.[31] (XXX) Fold your sheep on the land which you are about to seed, and there feed them leaves.[32] _Of soil improvement_ (XXXVII) The things which are harmful to corn land are to plough the ground when it is rotten, and to plant chick peas which are harvested with the straw and are salt. Barley, fenugreek and pulse all exhaust corn land, as well as all other things which are harvested with the straw. Do not plant nut trees in the corn land. On the other hand, lupines, field beans and vetch manure corn land.[33] (VI) Where the soil is rich and fertile, without shade, there the corn land ought to be. Where the land lies low, plant rape, millet, and panic grass. _Of forage crops_ (VIII) If you have a water meadow you will not want forage, but if not then sow an upland meadow, so that hay may not be lacking. (LIII) Save your hay when the times comes, and beware lest you mow too late. Mow before the seed is ripe. House the best hay by itself, so that you may feed it to the draft cattle during the spring ploughing, before the clover is mature. (XXVII) Sow, for feed for the cattle, clover, vetch, fenugreek, field beans and pulse. Sow these crops a second and a third time. _Of planting_ (XXXIV) Wherever the land is cold and wet, sow there first, and last of all in the warmest places. _Of pastures_ (L) Manure the pastures in early spring in the dark of the moon, when the west wind begins to blow. When you close your pastures (to the stock) clean them and root out all weeds. _Of feeding live stock_ (XXX) As long as they are available, feed green leaves of elm, poplar, oak and fig to your cattle and sheep. (V) Store leaves, also, to be fed to the sheep before they have withered.[34]