Ere in an unknown ground you fix your share,
Mark well the winds and temp'rature of air,
The culture, genius of the place next try;
What it will best produce, and what deny.
Here ripen grapes; there yellow harvests rise; 65
Unbidden herbs another spot supplies,
And fruitage: seest thou not? soft Sabe sends
Her frankincense; her iv'ry India lends;
Of saffron Tmolus his rich stores resigns;
Chalybs the treasures of his iron mines; 70
Pontus his castor of rank scent; swift steeds,
Victorious in the ring, Epirus breeds.
These laws and pacts eternal were assign'd
To soils by nature, when man's hardy kind
Burst into being, as Deucalion hurl'd 75
His stones into the wide unpeopled world.
Haste then and to the plough yoke the stout steer
In the first months of the new-op'ning year;
And let the clods in ridges as they lie,
Be bak'd beneath a glowing summer-sky. 80
But if the soil be poor, it will suffice
To cut slight furrows near Arcturus' rise:
There, lest wild herbs molest the laughing land;
Here, lest all moisture leave the steril sand.
With
