It is in this interval, too, that the little bee comes forth, and announces that the bean is about to blossom; for it is the bean in flower that summons it forth. We will here give another sign, which tells us when the cold is gone; as soon as ever you see the mulberry[507] in bud, you have no occasion to fear any injury from the rigour of the weather. It is the time, now, to put in cuttings of the olive, to clear away between the olive-trees, and, in the earlier days of the equinox, to irrigate the meadows. As soon, however, as the grass puts forth a stem, you must shut off the water from the fields.[508] You must now lop the leafy branches of the vine, it being the rule that this should be done as soon as the branches have attained four fingers in length; one labourer will be sufficient for a jugerum. The crops of corn, too, should be hoed over again, an operation which lasts twenty days. It is generally thought, however, that it is injurious to both vine and corn to begin hoeing directly after the equinox. This is the proper time, too, for washing sheep. After the rising of the Vergiliæ the more remarkable signs are, according to Cæsar, the morning rising of Arcturus, which takes place on the following day;[509] and the rising of the Lyre on the third[510] before the ides of May. The She-goat sets in the evening of the twelfth before[511] the calends of June, and in Attica the Dog. On the eleventh[512] before the calends of June, according to Cæsar, Orion’s Sword begins to appear; and, according to the same writer, on the fourth[513] before the nones of June the Eagle rises in the evening, and in Assyria as well. On the seventh[514] before the ides of June Arcturus sets in the morning to the people of Italy, and on the fourth[515] before the ides the Dolphin rises in the evening. On the seventeenth[516] before the calends of July Orion’s Sword rises in Italy, and, four days later, in Egypt. On the eleventh[517] before the calends of July, according to Cæsar’s reckoning, Orion’s Sword begins to set; and the eighth[518] before the calends of July, the longest day in the year, with the shortest night, brings us to the summer solstice. In this interval of time the vine should be cleared of its superfluous branches, and care taken to give an old vine one turning up at the roots, a young tree two. Sheep, too, are sheared at this period, lupines turned up for manuring the land, the ground dug, vetches cut for fodder, and beans gathered in and threshed.