Cato[476] lays down the following rules for the operations of spring. “Ditches,” he says, “should be dug in the seed-plots, vines should be grafted, and the elm, the fig, the olive, and other fruit-trees planted in dense and humid soils. Such meadows[477] as are not irrigated, must be manured in a dry moon, protected from the western blasts, and carefully cleaned: noxious weeds must be rooted up, fig-trees cleared, new seed-plots made, and the old ones dressed: all this should be done before you begin to hoe the vineyard. When the pear is in blossom, too, you should begin to plough, where it is a meagre gravelly soil. When you have done all this, you may plough the more heavy, watery soils, doing this the last of all.” The proper time for ploughing, then,[478] is denoted by these two signs, the earliest fruit of the lentisk[479] making its appearance, and the blossoming of the pear. There is a third sign however, as well, the flowering of the squill among the bulbous,[480] and of the narcissus among the garland, plants. For both the squill and the narcissus, as well as the lentisk, flower three times, denoting by their first flowering the first period for ploughing, by the second flowering the second, and by the third flowering the last; in this way it is that one thing affords hints for another. There is one precaution, too, that is by no means the least important among them all, not to let ivy touch the bean while in blossom; for at this period the ivy is noxious[481] to it, and most baneful in its effects. Some plants, again afford certain signs which bear reference more particularly to themselves, the fig for instance; when a few leaves only are found shooting from the summit, like a cup in shape, then it is more particularly that the fig-tree should be planted. CHAP. 66.—WORK TO BE DONE AFTER THE VERNAL EQUINOX.