who occupy it, the land itself cannot display its native faculty,[5]
it is often possible to derive a truer notion from some neighbouring
district that ever you will learn about it from your neighbour's
lips.[6] Nay, even though the earth lie waste and barren, it may still
declare its nature; since a soil productive of beautiful wild fruits
can by careful tending be made to yield fruits of the cultivated kind
as beautiful. And on this wise, he who has the barest knowledge[7] of
the art of tillage can still discern the nature of the soil.

[4] Holden cf. Virg. "Georg." i. 53; iv. 109. According to the
commentator Servius, the poet drew largely upon Xenophon's
treatise.

[5] Or, "cannot prove its natural aptitude."

[6] Or, "from a neighbouring mortal."

[7] Or, "a mere empiric in the art of husbandry."

Thank you (I said), Ischomachus, my courage needs no further fanning
upon that score. I am bold enough now to believe that no one need
abstain from agriculture for fear he will not recognise the nature of
the soil. Indeed, I now recall to mind a fact concerning fishermen,
how as they ply their business on the seas, not crawling lazily along,
nor bringing to, for prospect's sake, but in the act of scudding past
the flying farmsteads,[8] these brave mariners have only to set eyes
upon crops on land, and they will boldly pronounce opinion on the
nature of the soil itself, whether good or bad: this they blame and
that they praise. And these opinions for the most part coincide, I
notice, with the verdict of the skilful farmer as to quality of