Be careful never to touch the vine at the winter solstice. Hyginus recommends us to strain and even rack-off wine at the seventh day after the winter solstice, provided the moon is seven days old. About this period, also, the cherry-tree, he says, should be planted. Acorns, too, should now be put in soak for the oxen, a modius for each pair. If given in larger quantities, this food will prove injurious to their health; and whenever it is given, if they are fed with it for less than thirty days in succession, an attack of scab in the spring, it is said, will be sure to make you repent. This, too, is the period that we have already assigned[450] for cutting timber—other kinds of work, again, may be found for the hours of the night, which are then so greatly prolonged. There are baskets, hurdles, and panniers to be woven, and wood to be cut for torches: squared stays[451] for the vine may be prepared, too, thirty in the day time, and if rounded,[452] as many as sixty. In the long hours of the evening, too, some five squared stays, or ten rounded ones may be got ready, and the same number while the day is breaking. CHAP. 64.—WORK TO BE DONE BETWEEN THE WINTER SOLSTICE AND THE PREVALENCE OF THE WEST WINDS. Between the winter solstice and the period when the west winds begin to prevail, the following, according to Cæsar, are the more important signs afforded by the constellations: the Dog sets in the morning, upon the third[453] day before the calends of January; a day on the evening of which the Eagle sets to the people of Attica and the adjoining countries. On the day before[454] the nones of January, according to Cæsar’s computation, the Dolphin rises in the morning, and on the next day, the Lyre, upon the evening of which the Arrow sets to the people of Egypt. Upon the sixth[455] day before the ides of January, the Dolphin sets in the evening, and Italy has many days of continuous cold; the same is the case also when the sun enters Aquarius, about the sixteenth[456] day before the calends of February. On the eighth[457] before the calends of February, the star which Tubero calls the Royal Star[458] sets in the morning in the breast of Leo, and in the evening of the day before[459] the nones of February, the Lyre sets. During the latter days of this period, whenever the nature of the weather will allow of it, the ground should be turned up with a double mattock, for planting the rose and the vine—sixty men to a jugerum. Ditches, too, should be cleaned out, or new ones made; and the time of day-break may be usefully employed in sharpening iron tools, fitting on handles, repairing such dolia[460] as may have been broken, and rubbing up and cleaning their staves. CHAP. 65.—WORK TO BE DONE BETWEEN THE PREVALENCE OF THE WEST WINDS AND THE VERNAL EQUINOX.