CHAP. 54. (24.)—HOW TO ASCERTAIN THE QUALITY OF SEED. The best seed of all is that which is of the last year’s growth. That which is two years old is inferior, and three the worst of all—beyond that, it is unproductive.[386] The same definite rule which applies to one kind of seed is applicable to them all: the seed which falls to the bottom[387] on the threshing-floor, should be reserved for sowing, for being the most weighty it is the best in quality: there is no better method, in fact, of ascertaining its quality. The grains of those ears which have intervals between the seed should be rejected. The best grain is that which has a reddish hue,[388] and which, when broken between the teeth, presents the same[389] colour; that which has more white within is of inferior quality. It is a well-known fact that some lands require more seed than others, from which circumstance first arose a superstition that exists among the peasantry; it is their belief that when the ground demands the seed with greater avidity than usual, it is famished, and devours the grain. It is consistent with reason to put in the seed where the soil is humid sooner than elsewhere, to prevent the grain from rotting in the rain: on dry spots it should be sown later, and just before the fall of a shower, so that it may not have to lie long without germinating and so come to nothing. When the seed is put in early it should be sown thick, as it is a considerable time before it germinates; but when it is put in later, it should be sown thinly, to prevent it from being suffocated. There is a certain degree of skill, too, required in scattering the seed evenly; to ensure this, the hand must keep time[390] with the step, moving always with the right foot. There are certain persons, also, who have a secret method[391] of their own, having been born[392] with a happy hand which imparts fruitfulness to the grain. Care should be taken not to sow seed in a warm locality which has been grown in a cold one, nor should the produce of an early soil be sown in a late one. Those who give advice to the contrary have quite misapplied their pains. CHAP. 55.—WHAT QUANTITY OF EACH KIND OF GRAIN IS REQUISITE FOR SOWING A JUGERUM. [393] In a soil of middling quality, the proper proportion of seed is five modii of wheat or winter-wheat to the jugerum, ten of spelt or of seed-wheat—that being the name which we have mentioned[394] as being given to one kind of wheat—six of barley, one-fifth more of beans than of wheat, twelve of vetches, three of chick-pease, chicheling vetches, and pease, ten of lupines, three of lentils—(these last, however, it is said, must be sown with dry manure)—six of fitches, six of fenugreek, four of kidney-beans, twenty of hay grass,[395] and four sextarii of millet and panic. Where the soil is rich, the proportion must be greater, where it is thin, less.[396]