Roman Farm Management: The Treatises of Cato and VarroCato, Marcus Porcius
History
Roman Farm Management: The Treatises of Cato and Varro
Cato, Marcus Porcius
Agriculture -- Early works to 1800; Farm management -- Early works to 1800
"Even when this is done the title to the flock does not pass until
they have been counted, but, nevertheless, the purchaser can hold the
seller to the bargain if he does not make delivery, even though the
purchase money has not passed, and by a like right the seller can hold
the buyer if he does not pay up.
"I will next speak about those other four subjects which Scrofa
outlined, namely: the feeding, breeding, raising and physicking of
sheep. In the first place, one should see that provision is made for
feeding the flock throughout the entire year, as well indoors as out.
The stable should be in a suitable location, protected against the
wind, looking rather to the East than the South, on cleared and
sloping ground so that it can be easily swept out and kept clean, for
moisture not only rots the wool of the sheep but their hoofs as well
and causes scab. When sheep have stood for several days you should
strew the stable with new bedding, so that they may be more
comfortable and be kept cleaner, and thus eat with more appetite. You
should also contrive stalls separated from the others in which you may
segregate the ewes about to yean, as well as any which may be ailing.
This precaution is practicable, however, only with sheep fed at the
steading, but those who graze their sheep in the mountain pastures and
far from cover, carry with them wicker hurdles or nets, and other such
conveniences with which they contrive folds for such separation. Sheep
indeed are grazed far and wide so that often it happens that their
winter quarters are many miles from their summer pastures."
"I know that to be true," said I, "for my flocks winter in Apulia and
spend the summer in the mountains above Reate: thus the public cattle
drifts between these two localities balance the separated pastures, as
a yoke balances two baskets."[120]
Atticus resumed: "When sheep are fed continually in the same locality
distinction must be made in the times of feeding them according to the
seasons: thus in summer they are driven out[121] to pasture at day break
because then the dewy grass is more appetizing than at midday, when
it is dry. At sunrise they are driven to water, to make them more
lickerish on their return. About noon and during the heat of the
day they are permitted to lie in the shade of rocks or under broad
spreading trees until the fresher evening air invites them to feed
again until sunset.[122] A sheep should always graze with the sun behind
it, because its head is very sensitive to heat. At sunset the flock
should be given a short rest and then driven again to water, and so
brought back to feed again until it is dark, for at that time of day
the grass has renewed its pleasant savour. This routine is usually
followed from the rising of the Pleiades until the autumn equinox.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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