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

 44 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;

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.

As in th' embattled field we oft behold

The length'ning legion all it't [sic] 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;

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.

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