Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/56

 

What parts were open to the Boreal rage:
So strong is habit's force in tender age.

Consider first, if it be better found
To plant on hilly, or on level ground:
If you a plain prefer, in thick ranks sow; 305
Vines not less fertile in thick ranks will grow.
But if a wavy surface claim your care,
And sloping steeps, 'tis best your ranks to spare:
Yet in exactest rows your trees design,
Each space responding to the transverse line. 310
As in th' embattled field we oft behold
The length'ning legion all it't files unfold;
From the dire conflict while the hosts abstain,
And Mars yet dubious roams the midmost plain,
The rank'd battalions stand expos'd to sight; 315
The wide field fluctuates with a brazen light.
So at just intervals arrange your trees;
Yet not alone a vacant mind to please,
But that Earth equally may feed each root,
And free in air the spreading branches shoot. 320

Ask ye, how low the trenches should be cut?
In a slight furrow I the vine would put;
Not so the Tree: the Tree delights to stretch
In earth more deep his fibres; chief the Beech:

High