The Georgics and Eclogues of Virgil Author:Virgil Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: GEORGIC II The arts of husbandry, the stars of heaven, Thus far have filled my song; but, Bacchus, now Of thee I sing, of many a greenwood tree, And of the sl... more »ow-grown olive's offspring fair. Draw nigh, O Sire Lenaeus! thy good gifts On every side abound; the teeming land Blooms with autumnal vines, the foaming vats Run o'er with vintage. O Lenaeus, come, Here at our wine-press cast thy buskins by, And stain with purple grape thine ankles bare. Mark at the outset in what differing wise Trees left to Nature propagate their kind. For some, not urged of man, spread far and wide At their own will, along the open plains Or winding rivers; thus the osiers grow, The pliant broom-plant, the tall poplar's stem, And smooth green willows silvering in the wind. But others from sown seed begin; as groves Of lofty chestnut, and Jove's chosen leaf, Sweet acorn, or that oak, whose vocal bough Seemed to the listening Greeks an oracle. Others of scions densely clustering grow, As cherry and elm; Parnassian laurel, too, Lifts in large mother-shade its infant stem. These three are Nature's ways; such bourgeoning The shrubs, the copses have, and templed groves. But art and custom other means contrive: One cuts his slips from out the yielding womb Of mother tree, and in his trenches sets; One buries stocks in earth, as quartered stakes Or pointed poles; some trees need slips bent back Bow-shaped, which take root in their native soil; Some need no root at all; the pruner's blade Cuts the tree's crest and plants it in the ground. Even small sections serve, and, strange to tell! Out of bare blocks will burst the olive green. Often we watch one tree put forth unharmed Branches of differing kind: a pear-tree grows Engrafted apples, and tough cornels wild Redden with plums. Therefore, 0 husbandmen,...« less