the territory of Pupinia (in Latium), where all the foliage is meagre and the vines look starved, where the scant straw never stools, nor the fig tree blooms, while for the most part the trees are as covered with moss as are the arid pastures. On the other hand, a rich soil like that of Etruria reveals itself heavy with grain and forage crops and its umbrageous trees are clean of moss. Soil of medium strength, like that near Tibur, which one might say is rather hungry than starved, repays cultivation in proportion as it takes on the quality of rich land." "Diophanes of Bithynia," said Stolo, "was very much to the point when he wrote that the best indication of the suitability of soil for cultivation can be had either from the soil itself or from what grows in it: so one should ascertain whether it is white or black, if it is light and friable when it is dug, whether its consistency is ashy, or too heavy: or it can be tested by evidence that the wild growth upon it is heavy and fruitful after its kind.[65] But proceed and tell us of your third division, which relates to the measurement and laying out of the farm." _Of the units of area used in measuring land_ X. Scrofa resumed: "Every country has its own system for measuring land. In Further Spain the unit of area is the _jugum_, in Campania the _versus_, here in the Roman country and among the Latins it is the _jugerum_. They call a _jugum_ the area which a pair of oxen can plough in a day. The _versus_ is one hundred feet square: the _jugerum_ is the area containing two square _actus_: the _actus quadratus_ or _acnua_, as it is called by the Latins, measuring 120 feet in width and as much in length.[66] The smallest fraction of a jugerum is called a _scripulum_ and is ten feet square. From this base the surveyors some times call the butts of land which exceed a jugerum _unciae_ (twelfths) or _sextantes_ (seventy seconds) or some other such duodecimal division, for the jugerum contains 288 scripula, like the ancient pound weight which was in use before the Punic wars. Two jugera, which Romulus first made the headright and which thus became the unit of inheritance, are called an _haeredium_:[67] later one hundred haeredia were called a _centuria_, which is 2,400 _unciae_ square. Four centuriae adjoining, so that there are two on each side, are called a _saltus_ in the distribution of the public lands." _Of the considerations on building a steading_ _a. Size_ XI. As the result of faulty surveys of the farm it often happens that the steading is constructed either too small or too large for the farm, a mistake which in either case is of prejudice both to the property and its revenue. If one builds too large or too many buildings he is eaten up by the expense of maintenance, while if one builds less than the farm requires the harvest is lost, for there is no doubt that the largest wine cellar must be provided for that farm on which the vintages are largest, or granary, if it is a grain farm.