XVI.
WHY DO MEN SAY, SOW WHEAT IN CLAY AND BARLEY IN DUST?
Is the reason (as we said) because wheat takes up more nourishment; and barley cannot bear so much, but is choked with it? Or does wheat, because it is hard and ligneous, thrive better when it is softened and loosened in a moist soil; and barley at the first in a dry soil, because of its rarity? Or is the one temperament congruous and harmless to wheat, because it is hot; and the other to barley, because it is cold? Or are men afraid to sow wheat in a dry soil, because of the ants, which presently lie in wait for it; but they cannot so easily deal with barley nor carry it away, because it is a larger grain?
Quaestiones Naturales. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.
Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.