Soc. It would not do. There would be too much mud.
Isch. Well then, what would you say to summer?
Soc. The soil will be too hard in summer for a plough and a pair of oxen to break up.
Isch. It looks as if spring-time were the season to begin this work, then? What do you say?
Soc. I say, one may expect the soil broken up at that season of the year to crumble (12) best.
(12) {kheisthai} = laxari, dissolvi, to be most friable, to scatter
readily.
Isch. Yes, and grasses (13) turned over at that season, Socrates, serve to supply the soil already with manure; while as they have not shed their seed as yet, they cannot vegetate. (14) I am supposing that you recognise a further fact: to form good land, a fallow must be clean and clear of undergrowth and weeds, (15) and baked as much as possible by exposure to the sun. (16)
(13) "Herbage," whether grass or other plants, "grass," "clover," etc;
Theophr. "Hist. Pl." i. 3. 1; Holden, "green crops."
(14) Lit. "and not as yet have shed their seed so as to spring into
blade."
(15) Or, "quitch."
(16) Holden cf. Virg. "Georg." i. 65, coquat; ii. 260, excoquere. So
Lucr. vi. 962.
Soc. Yes, that is quite a proper state of things, I should imagine.
Isch. And to bring about this proper state of things, do you maintain there can be any other better system than that of turning the soil over as many times as possible in summer?