32
THE FARM AND
Because strong nature underlies the earth.
Yet even these, if grafted well or moved,
And set in trenches with the soil improved,
Cast by their wildwood mind, and nursed in ease,
Come blithely into any plan you please. 66
Nay, barren suckers from the root will bear
When planted out with liberal space and air:
Their mother's foliage shrouds them now in gloom, 69
And robs the growing buds, and starves the bloom.
Meanwhile the seedling tree maturely climbs,
A canopy for men of distant times:
Degenerate fruits forget their taste and shape,
And birds make boot upon the worthless grape.
So all cost trouble, all must be compell'd 75
To keep their line, by constant labour quell'd.
But olives answer better from the stock,
And Paphian myrtles from the solid block;
The vine from layers, and from offsets spring
Hard hazels, and the ash the forest-king, 80
The tree whose chaplets shade Alcides' brow,
And Chaon Father's mast-producing bough:
And thus the lofty palm bedecks the plain,
And fir design'd for hardships on the main.
Yet even these, if grafted well or moved,
And set in trenches with the soil improved,
Cast by their wildwood mind, and nursed in ease,
Come blithely into any plan you please. 66
Nay, barren suckers from the root will bear
When planted out with liberal space and air:
Their mother's foliage shrouds them now in gloom, 69
And robs the growing buds, and starves the bloom.
Meanwhile the seedling tree maturely climbs,
A canopy for men of distant times:
Degenerate fruits forget their taste and shape,
And birds make boot upon the worthless grape.
So all cost trouble, all must be compell'd 75
To keep their line, by constant labour quell'd.
But olives answer better from the stock,
And Paphian myrtles from the solid block;
The vine from layers, and from offsets spring
Hard hazels, and the ash the forest-king, 80
The tree whose chaplets shade Alcides' brow,
And Chaon Father's mast-producing bough:
And thus the lofty palm bedecks the plain,
And fir design'd for hardships on the main.
