Book 7

Since, Publius Silvinus, we are now about to deal with the lesser farm-animals, our first subject shall be that cheap and common animal the lesser a ass from the region of Arcadia, to which the majority of writers on agriculture consider that particular attention should be paid when it is a question of buying and tending beasts of burden; and they are quite right, for it can be kept even in a country which lacks pasturage, since it is content with very little fodder of any sort of quality, feeding on leaves and the thorns of brier-bushes, or a bundle of twigs which is offered to it; indeed it actually thrives on chaff, which is abundant in almost every region.

Further, it endures most bravely the neglect of a careless master and tolerates blows and want most patiently; for which reasons it is slower in breaking down than any other animal used for ploughing, for, since it shows the utmost endurance of toil and hunger, it is rarely affected by disease. The performance by this animal of very many essential tasks beyond its share is as remarkable as the very little care which it requires, since it can both break up with a light plough easily worked soil, such as is found in Baetica and all over Libya, and can draw on vehicles loads which are far from being small.

Often too as the most famous of poets says:

The tardy donkey's driver loads its sides

With cheap fruits and returning brings from town

A hammered millstone or black lump of pitch. a

This animal's almost invariable task at the present day consists in turning a mill and grinding corn. Every estate, therefore, requires a donkey as that might be called a necessary instrument, since, as I have said, it can conveniently convey to town and bring back most things that are required for use either with load on its neck or on its back. What kind of ass and what method of looking after it is most approved, has been sufficiently described in a previous book, where instructions have been given about the valuable type of animal. b

The importance of the sheep is secondary to that of the ass, though the sheep is of primary account if one has regard to the extent of its usefulness.

For it is our principal protection against the violence of the cold and supplies us with a generous provision of coverings for our bodies. Then, too, it is the sheep which not only satisfies the hunger of the country folk with cheese and milk in abundance but also embellishes the tables of people of taste with a variety of agreeable dishes. Indeed to some tribes, who have no corn, the sheep provides their diet; hence most of the nomadic tribes and the Getae c are called the Milk-Drinkers. Though the sheep, as Celsus most wisely remarks, is a very delicate creature, it enjoys sound health and suffers very little from contagious disease. Nevertheless a breed of sheep must be chosen to suit local conditions, a prin- ciple which ought always to be observed not only with regard to sheep but in every department of agriculture, as Vergil warns us, when he says:

Nor can all kinds of land all things produce. a

A rich, flat country supports tall sheep, a lean and hilly region those of square build, while a wooded, mountainous land produces small sheep.

Coated b sheep are best pastured in meadows and flat fallow ground. Not only the question of the kinds of sheep but also that of their colour are matters of great importance. Our farmers used to regard the Calabrian, Apulian and Milesian as breeds of outstanding excellence, and the Tarentine as the best of all; now Gaulish sheep are considered more valuable, especially that of Altinum,[a] also those which have their folds in the lean plains round Parma and Mutina. d While white is the best colour, it is also the most useful, because very many colours can b? made from it; but it cannot be produced from any other colour. By their very nature black and dark brown sheep also, which Pollentia e in Italy and Corduba f in Baetica produce, are esteemed for the price which they command; Asia likewise provides the red colour which they call crythraean. Experience has also taught the way to produce other variations of colour in this kind of animal. For when fierce wild rams of a marvellous colour were brought across amongst other wild beasts from a neighbouring district of Africa to the municipal town of Gades for those who were giving public shows, my uncle Marcus Columella, a man of keen intelligence and a dis- tinguished agriculturist, bought some of them and transferred them to his estate, and, when he had tamed them, mated them with " coated " ewes.

These produced in the first generation lambs with coarse wool but of the same colour as their sires. When these in their turn were coupled with Tarentine ewes, they produced rams -with a finer fleece. All the descendants of these latter in their turn reproduced the soft wool of their dams and the colours of their sires and grandsires. Columella used to claim that in this way whatever outward appearance the wild animals possessed was reproduced in the second and later generations of their descendants, while their savage nature was tamed. But I must return to my subject.

There are then two kinds of sheep, the soft-fleeced and the shaggy-coated; but, while there are several points common to both kinds when you are buying or looking after them, there are certain special characteristics of the well-bred sheep which it is well to observe. The following are generally the common points to be looked for when you are buying flocks: if whiteness of fleece is what pleases you most, you should never choose any but the whitest rams, for a dark lamb is often the offspring of a white ram, while.. a white lamb is never bred from a red or brown sire.

And so, if a ram has a white fleece, this is not itself a reason for approving of it, but only if its palate and tongue are also of the same colour as its wool; for if these parts of the body are black or spotted, the offspring is either dark or even parti-coloured. The same poet as I quoted above, amongst many other points, has expressed the same thing excellently in the following lines:

But though the father-ram itself is white, If under his wet palate a black tongue Lurks, then reject it, lest with dusky spots It stain the fleeces of the future race. a

The same reasoning applies both to red and to black rams, in whom, likewise, as I said just now, neither the tongue nor the palate ought to be different in colour from the wool, still less should the whole skin be variegated with spots. Sheep, therefore, should never be bought unless they still have their wool on their backs, so that it may be easier to see that they are of one colour only, because, unless this is a prominent feature of the rams, the marks on the father generally persist in the offspring.

The points which are most highly esteemed in a ram are breadth and height of stature, a belly which hangs down and is woolly, a very long tail, a thick fleece, a broad forehead, large testicles and curling horns—not because such a ram is more useful (for it is better without horns), but because horns do much less harm if they are curling than if they are up-standing and spreading.

In some localities, however, where the climate is damp and windy, we should prefer that both he-goats and rams should have very large horns, because, being thus wide-spreading and lofty, they protect most of the head from the storm. So, if the winter generally tends to be severe, we shall choose rams of this type; if it is milder, we shall prefer a ram which is hornless; for there is this disadvantage about a sheep with horns, that, being conscious that its head is armed, as it were, with a natural weapon, it often rushes into the fray and also becomes too wanton towards the females.

For (although it does not itself suffice to mate with the whole flock) it pursues its rival in the most violent manner and does not allow the flock to be covered at the proper time by any other ram, except when it is worn out by lust. On the other hand the hornless ram, since it realizes that it is, as it were, disarmed, is not prompt to quarrel and is milder in its amours.

Shepherds, therefore, use the following ruse to check the brutality of a butting he-goat or ram: they fix spikes in a strong board a foot in length and tie it to the horns with the spikes facing the forehead. This prevents the animal, fierce though he may be, from quarrelling, because by his blow he pricks and wounds himself. Epicharmus,a the Syracusan, who has written a very careful treatise on remedies for cattle, declares that a pugnacious ram can be tamed by piercing its horns with a gimlet near the ears at the point where the horns bend into a curve.

The best time for breeding from this animal is when it is three years old; but it continues to be suitable up to eight years of age. The female ought to be mated after its second year and is still regarded as young at five years; after its seventh year it becomes exhausted. You will, therefore, as I have said, buy ewes before they have been sheared and you will reject those which are parti-coloured or bald, because its colour can not be determined. You will refuse a sterile ewe which has passed its third year and has projecting teeth: you will select a two-year-old with a large frame, a neck covered with shaggy hair which is abundant but not coarse, and a woolly and ample belly; for a small and hairless ewe must be avoided.

These are, roughly speaking, the general points which must be observed when you are buying sheep; the following points must be observed in their management.

Their folds should be built low and extended in length rather than in breadth, so that they may be warm in winter and also that lack of space may not cause the ewes to cast their young. They should be placed so as to face the mid-day sun; for sheep, though naturally the best clothed of animals, can least endure cold, or summer heat either. For this reason a closed court with a high wall ought to be constructed in front of the entrance, so that there may be a safe way out for the animal when it is affected by the heat; and care must be taken to prevent there being any standing water by always keeping their folds strewn with the driest possible fern or straw, so that the ewes after lambing may have something clean and soft on which to lie, and that the folds may be very clean, and that the health of the ewes, which must be specially guarded, may not be impaired by dampness. Sheep must be supplied with an abundance of every kind of food; for even a small flock, if it is given its fill of fodder, brings its owner a bigger return than a very large one which has suffered from want. You must look for fallow land which is not only grassy but also for the most part free from thorns; for, to make our repeated appeal to the authority of inspired poesy,a

If wool is your desire, above all else

Avoid the prickly woods and burs and caltropses.

For, as the same poet says,a it causes scab in sheep,

When after shearing sweat unwashen clings And prickly briers tear away their flesh.

Moreover, the yield of wool is daily reduced, for the more abundantly it grows upon the animal, the more exposed it is to brambles, by which it is caught, as if by hooks, and torn from their backs as they feed. The sheep also loses the soft covering with which it is protected, and this can only be replaced at considerable expense.

The authorities are in general agreement that the earliest time of the year at which the ewes should be mated is the spring, when the Parilia b is celebrated, if the ewe has just reached maturity, but, if she has already produced a lamb, about the month of July.

The earlier date is, however, undoubtedly preferable, so that, just as the vintage follows the harvest, so the birth of the lamb may succeed to the gathering in of the grapes, and the lamb, having enjoyed its fill of food during the whole autumn, may gain strength before the gloomy cold season and the short rations of winter come on. For an autumn lamb is superior to a spring lamb, as Celsus very truly remarks, because it is more important that it should grow strong before the summer solstice than before the winter solstice, and it alone of all animals can be born without risk in mid-winter. If circumstances require that more males than females should be produced, Aristotle,[a] that shrewd researcher into natural phenomena, advises that in the breeding season we should look out for breezes from the north on dry days, so as to pasture the flock facing this wind, and that the male should cover the female looking in that direction; if, on the other hand, female births are desired, we should seek for southern breezes, so that the ewes may be covered in the same manner.. The device, which was described in the preceding book,a of tying up the right or left testicle of the ram with a band, is difficult to carry out in large flocks.

After the lambing season the bailiff in charge of the sheep on an outlying estate reserves almost all the young offspring for pasture; and in a section near town hands over the tender lambs, before they have begun to graze, to the butcher, since it costs only a little to convey them to the town and also, when they have been taken away, no slighter profit is made out of the milk from their mothers.

Even in the neighbourhood of a town, however, one lamb in five will have to be left with its mother, for an animal born on the spot is much more profitable than one brought from a distance, nor ought the mistake be made of letting the whole flock become exhausted by age and leave the owner without any stock, especially as it is the first duty of a good shepherd every year to substitute the same number of sheep, or even more, in place of those which have died or are diseased, since the severity of the cold and winter often surprises the shepherd and causes the death of those ewes which he had failed to remove from the flock in the autumn because he thought them still able to stand the cold.

These mishaps are also further reason why no ewe, unless it is very strong, should be caught unprepared by winter and why the number should be made up with young stock.

Whoever is going to follow this system will have to take care not to put a lamb under a ewe which is less than four years or more than eight years old, for a ewe of neither of these ages is fit to bring up its young; moreover, the offspring of aged stock generally reproduces the qualities of old age inherited from its parents, being either sterile or weakly. The delivery of a pregnant ewe should be watched over with as much care as mid-wives exercise; for this animal produces its offspring just in the same way as a woman, and its labour is often even more painful since it is devoid of all reasoning.

Hence the owner of a flock ought to have some knowledge of veterinary medicine, so that, if circumstances require it, when the foetus becomes stuck crosswise in the genital organs, he may either extract it whole, or be able to remove it from the womb, after dividing it with a knife without causing the mother's death—an operation which the Greeks call embryalkein. a The lamb, when it has been brought forth, ought to be set upon its feet and put near its mother's udder; then its mouth should be opened and moistened by pressing the mother's teats, so that it may learn to derive its nourishment from her.

But, before this is done, a little milk should be drawn off, which shepherds call biestings, for, if this is not to some extent extracted, it does harm to the lamb, which for the first two days after its birth should be shut up with its mother, so that she may cherish her offspring, and that it may learn to know her. Then, as long as it has not begun to frisk about, it should be kept in a dark and warm en- closure; afterwards, when it begins to be sportive, it will have to be shut up with the lambs of its own age in a pen fenced with osiers, so that it may not become thin from what we may call too much youthful frolicking, and care must be taken to separate a more tender lamb from the stronger ones, because the robust torments the feeble.

It is enough to make this separation in the morning before the flock goes out to pasture, and then at dusk to let the lambs mingle with the ewes when they return home after eating their fill. When the lambs begin to get strong, they should be fed in the folds with shrub-trefoil or lucerne, and also with bran, or, if the price permits, with flour of barley or of bitter-vetch. Afterwards, when they have reached their full strength, their mothers should be brought about mid-day to the meadows or fallow lands adjoining the farm and the lambs released from their pen, so that they may learn to feed outside.

Concerning the nature of their food we have already spoken before and now call to mind what was not mentioned, namely, that the vegetation which is most acceptable is that which comes up when the fields have received their first ploughing; the next best is that which grows in meadows which are free from marsh; boggy and wooded lands are considered least suitable.

There is, however, no fodder or even pasturage so agreeable that the pleasure which it gives does not grow stale with continuous use, unless the shepherd counteracts this aversion of his sheep by providing salt. This is placed in wooden troughs during the summer to serve as a kind of seasoning in their water and fodder and the sheep lick it up when they return from the pasture, and the taste of it makes them conceive a desire to eat and drink. But on the other hand the lack of food in winter is relieved by putting food for them under cover in their folds.

They can be most conveniently fed on leaves of elm or ash which have been kept in store or on autumn hay, which is called the after-crop; for it is softer and therefore pleasanter than the early crop. Shrub-trefoil and cultivated vetch also make excellent fodder; but, when all else has failed, chaff of dried pulse must be used as a last resort, for barley by itself or chickling-vetch crushed with beans is too expensive to be provided at a reasonable price in districts near towns; but, wherever their cheapness allows, they are undoubtedly the best food.

As for the times at which sheep ought to be fed and taken to water during the summer, my opinion is the same as that delivered by Maro:

At Lucifer's first rising let us haste To the cool fields, while yet the dawn is new, And turf still hoary, and on tender grass The dew is sweetest to the feeding herd. Then, when the sky's fourth hour brings thirst to all, Let's lead the flocks to wells and deep-dug pools,a and in the middle of the day, as the same poet says, let us conduct them to a valley,

Where haply Jove's great oak with hardwood old Stretches its giant branches or a grove Black -with thick holm-oaks broods with holy shade. b

Then, when the heat is abated, let us again conduct them to the water (and this must be done even in the summer) and again drive them back to the pasture,

Till sun-set, when chill evening cools the air And Luna's dews the thirsty glades refresh. a

But about the time when the Dogstar shows itself, we must carefully observe the position of the sun in summer, so that before mid-day the flock may be driven facing the west and may advance in that direction, but that after mid-day it may be driven towards the east, since it is of great importance that their heads, as they graze, should not face the sun, which is generally harmful to animals at the rising of the aforesaid constellation.In winter and spring the sheep should be kept in their pens during the morning hours until the sun removes the rime from the fields, for grass with hoar-frost upon it causes catarrh in cattle and loosens the bowels; wherefore also in cold and damp seasons of the year they must be given the opportunity of drinking only once a day.

He who follows the flock should be observant and vigilant—a precept which applies to every guardian of every kind of four-footed animal—and should be gentle in his management of them and also keep close to them, because they are silent,b and when driving them out or bringing them home, he should threaten them by shouting or with his staff but never cast any missile at them, nor should he withdraw too far from them nor should he lie or sit down; for unless he is advancing he should stand up right,because the duty of a guardian calls for a lofty and com- manding elevation from which the eyes can see as from a watch-tower, so that he may prevent the slower, pregnant ewes, through delaying, and those which are active and have already borne their young, through hurrying forward, from becoming separated from the rest, lest a thief or a wild beast cheat the shepherd while he is day-dreaming. These precepts are of general application and apply to sheep of all kinds; we will now deal with some points which are peculiar to the best breeds.

It is scarcely advantageous to keep the Greek breed, which most people call the Tarentine, unless the owner is constantly on the spot, since it requires more care and food than other kinds.

For, while all the sheep which are kept for their wool are more delicate than the others, the Tarentine breed is particularly so, for it does not tolerate any carelessness on the part of the owner or shepherd, much less niggardliness, nor can it stand heat or cold. It is seldom fed out of doors but generally at home, and is most greedy of fodder and, if the bailiff fraudulently abstracts any of the food, disaster overtakes the flock.

During the winter, when the sheep are fed in their pens, a satisfactory diet per head is three sextarii of barley or of beans crushed with their pods, or four sextarii of chickling-vetch provided you also supply them with dried leaves or lucerne, dry or fresh, or shrub-trefoil; also seven pounds of hay of the second crop is to their liking or plenty of pulse-chaff. Only a very small profit can be made by selling the lambs of this kind of sheep and no return from the ewes' milk; for the lambs which ought to be taken away from their mother a very few days after birth, are generally slaughtered before they reach maturity, and their dams, deprived of their own lambs, are given the offspring of others to suckle; for each single lamb is put under two nurses and it is inexpedient that it should be deprived of any of their milk, that so, receiving a more satisfying quantity of milk, it may quickly grow strong, and that the ewe which has borne a lamb, having a nurse to share her duties, may have less difficulty in bringing her offspring up.

Therefore you must be very careful to see that the lambs are daily put to the udders of their own mothers and also of strange ewes who have no maternal affection for them.

But in flocks of this kind more males must be brought up than in those of coarse-woolled sheep; for the males are castrated before they can be mated, when they have completed two years, and are killed, and their skins sold to dealers at a much higher price than other fleeces because of the beauty of their wool.We shall remember to feed a Greek sheep on open fields free from all shoots and brambles, lest, as I have already said, its wool and its covering be torn away. Nor, because it does not go out to pasture every day, does it require less but more diligent care at home than out of doors; for it must frequently be uncovered and allowed to cool and its wool pulled apart and soaked with wine and oil.

Sometimes too the whole animal must be washed, if sunny weather allows it, but it is enough to do this three times a year. The fold must be frequently swept and cleansed and all moisture due to urine must be brushed away, the best method of keeping it dry being the use of boards with holes in them with which the sheep-folds are paved, so that the flock may lie down on them. The shelters must be free not only from mud and ordure but also from deadly snakes; with this end in view,

Learn too to burn the fragrant cedar-wood And from the stalls to drive dread water-snakes With fumes of Syrian gum; a a viper oft, Dangerous to the touch, 'neath unmoved pens Has lurked and, frightened, shunned the light of heaven,

Or else a grass-snake wont to haunt the shed. b

Therefore, at the bidding of the same poet,

Seize, shepherd, A club of oak, and when it rears its head In threatening wise and swells its hissing neck, Then strike it down. c

Or, to avoid the necessity of this dangerous expedient, burn a woman's hair continually or a stag's horn, the odour of which is the best thing to prevent this pestilential creature from settling in the sheep-folds.

It is impossible to observe in all regions the same fixed time of year for shearing, because summer does not everywhere advance with the same speed or slowness.

The best plan is to watch carefully for weather when the sheep will not feel the cold if you deprive them of their wool, nor the heat if you put off shearing them. But, whenever a sheep has been sheared, it must be anointed with the following preparation: the juice of boiled lupines, the dregs of old wine and the lees of olives are mixed in equal portions and the sheep is soaked with this liquid after it has been sheared, and when, after its skin has been anointed during three days and it has absorbed this preparation, on the fourth day, if the sea is near at hand, the sheep should be driven down to the shore and plunged in; but, if this is impossible, rain-water, after being hardened for this purpose with salt in the open air, is boiled for a short time and the flock thoroughly washed with it. Celsus declares that a sheep treated in this manner cannot possibly suffer from scab for a whole year, and there is no doubt that, as a result, its wool too will grow again more soft and luxuriant than before.

Since we have now considered the management and care which sheep require when in good health, we will now give directions how to come to the help of those which are suffering from ailments or diseases, although almost all this part of my treatise has already been entirely exhausted when we were discussing in the previous book a the medical treatment of the larger cattle; for since the physical nature of the smaller and of the larger quadrupeds is practically the same, only a few trifling differences are to be found in their diseases and the remedies of them; but, however unimportant they are, we will not omit them.

If the whole flock is sick, we again prescribe in this case also as the most efficacious remedy what we directed before, because we regard it as the most salutary, namely, to change both the fodder and the watering-places and to seek another climate for the grazing-ground as a whole, and to take care to choose densely shaded country, if the malady which has attacked the flock is the result of heat, but, if it is the result of cold, to choose a sunny district.

But it will be advisable to drive the flock at a moderate pace and not to hurry it for 'fear of aggravating its enfeebled condition with long journeys; on the other hand it should not be driven at an absolutely slow and sluggish rate; for, while it is not expedient to urge sheep on forcibly when they are worn out by disease and put a strain upon them, yet it is good to give them moderate exercise and, as it were, to rouse them from their torpor and not allow them to lose strength through inactivity, and so perish.

Next, when the flock has been conducted to its new station, it should be distributed in small groups amongst the farmers; for it recovers more easily when it is divided up than when it is kept together, either because the infectiousness of the disease itself is less in a small number or because a more effective cure can be applied more expeditiously to fewer victims. These precepts, then, and the others which we laid down in the earlier part of our treatise (to avoid repeating here what we have already said) should be observed when the whole flock is sick; but if individual animals are affected, the following rules should be observed.

Sheep more often than any other animals are attacked by the scab, which generally occurs, as our poet says,a

When the cold shower and shivering -winter, chill With hoary frost, have pierced them to the quick, or else after they have been sheared, if you do not apply the remedy already described, or if you do not wash out the summer sweat in the sea or in a river, or if you allow the flock, after having been shorn, to suffer wounds from wild brambles or thorns, or if you are using a pen in which mules or horses or donkeys have stood; but, above all things, scantiness of fodder causes emaciation, and emaciation causes the scab.

This disease can be diagnosed in the following way when it begins to creep in: the sheep either gnaw the part affected, or strike it with horn or hoof, or rub it against a tree or wipe it upon the walls.

When you see any sheep acting in these ways, it will be best to take hold of the animal and draw its wool apart, for there is a rough skin underneath it and a kind of crust. This must be treated at the first possible opportunity, lest it infect the whole flock, since, while other cattle are readily attacked by contagious disease, sheep are particularly so. There are, however, several remedies, which we will on this account enumerate, not because it is necessary to use them all at one time but in order that, since some of them are not to be met with in certain regions, one out of many may be found in order to effect a cure.

First, the preparation which I explained just now can be used with advantage, namely, a mixture in equal portions of crushed white hellebore with lees of wine and dregs of oil and the juice of boiled lupine. The juice of green hemlock can also be used to remove scabbiness; this plant is cut in spring-time, when it is already producing stalk but not seeds, and crushed, and the juice is pressed out and stored in an earthenware vessel, half a modius of dried salt being mixed with two urnae of the liquid. Next the vessel is sealed up and buried in a dung-pit and, after having matured for a whole year in the heat of the dung, it is taken out and the preparation is heated and smeared over the part affected by scab after it has been previously reduced to a state of soreness by being rubbed with a rough potsherd or a piece of pumice-stone.

The same disease is also treated with oil-lees boiled down by two-thirds, and also with stale human urine in which red-hot tiles have been plunged.

Some people, however, put the urine itself upon the fire and reduce its volume by one-fifth and mix with it an equal quantity of the juice of green hemlock and then pour into each urn of this liquid a sextarius of crushed salt. a An equal quantity of ground sulphur and liquid pitch boiled over a slow fire has a good effect. A passage in the Georgics, however, declares that there is no more sovereign remedy,

Than if with knife one cuts the ulcer's head; The scab, if covered, gains fresh food and life. b

That is why it must be opened and treated, like other wounds, with medicaments. The poet presently adds, with equal wisdom, that, when sheep are in a state of fever, they should be bled either from the pastern or between the two parts of the hoof; for, as he says,

It oft has greatly helped to keep away The kindled flames of fever, if you strike The vein which throbs with blood beneath the foot. c

We also draw off blood beneath the eyes and from the ears. Lameness also troubles sheep in two ways, either when fouling or galling occurs in the actual division of the hoof, or when the same place harbours a tubercule from about the middle of which a hair projects like that of a dog, which has a small worm beneath it.

Fouling and galling are removed by being anointed with liquid pitch by itself or with alum and sulphur and vinegar mixed together, or young pomegranate, before it forms its seeds, crushed up with alum and with vinegar poured over it, or copper-rust sprinkled over it, or else burnt oak-apples pulverized and mixed with rough wine and smeared on the sore.

A tubercule which has a worm inside it should be cut round with a knife with the greatest possible care, lest, in the course of cutting, we should also wound the part of the animal which is underneath it; for, if this is damaged, it discharges poisonous matter and, if this is sprinkled over the wound, it makes it so difficult to heal that the whole foot has to be amputated. But when you have carefully cut round the tubercule, burning fat should be made to drip over the wound by means of a lighted torch.

Any sheep which is suffering from a disease of the lungs should be treated in the same way as a pig is treated for the same disease, by the insertion through the ear of what the veterinary surgeons call lungwort.[a]

We have already spoken6 of this plant when we dealt with the treatment of the larger cattle. This disease is usually contracted in the summer if the water has been in short supply, and for this reason opportunity must be given to all quadrupeds of drinking more freely in hot weather. Celsus is of opinion that, if there is trouble in the lungs, one should give the sufferer as much sour vinegar as it can stand, or else pour down the left nostril through a small horn about three heminae of stale human urine which has been heated, and put a sextans of axle-grease down its throat.

Erysipelas, which the shepherds call pusula, is incurable.

Unless it is confined to the first sheep which is attacked by this kind of trouble, it infects and lays low the whole flock, if it does not yield to medical or surgical treatment; for it blazes forth at almost any touch. The only remedy which it does not reject is fomentation with goat's milk, which, when poured upon it, as it were,charms by its touch the fiery raging of the disease, postponing rather than preventing the destruction of the flock. The celebrated writer of Egyptian race. Bolus of Mendesium,a whose commentaries, which in Greek are called Hand-wrought Products and are published under the pseudonym of Democritus, is of opinion that as a precaution against this disease the hides of the sheep ought to be frequently and carefully examined, so that if any trace of disease is by chance discovered in any one of them, we may immediately dig a trench on the threshold of the sheep-fold and, laying it on its back, inter alive the animal which is suffering from erysipelas and allow the whole, flock to pass over its buried body; for by doing this the disease is driven away.

Bile, not the least fatal disease in summer, is dispelled by making the victim drink stale human urine. The same remedy is also given to a sheep which is suffering from jaundice. If rheum is trouble- some, stalks of ox-marjoram or wild mint, wrapped round with wool, are inserted in the nostrils and turned round and round until the sheep sneezes.

The broken legs of sheep are treated in the same manner as those of human beings; they are wrapped in wool soaked in oil and wine and then bound up in splints which are placed round them. Knotgrass a has also bad effects which are serious; for, if the sheep feeds on it, its whole belly becomes distended and then contracts, and the animal foams at the mouth and emits a thin kind of matter which has a foul odour. The victim must immediately be bled underneath the tail in the region nearest to the buttocks, and also a vein must be opened on the upper lip. Sheep whose breathing is asthmatical must have their ears cut with the knife and be transferred to other districts, a precaution which, in my opinion, ought to be taken in all diseases and plagues.

Succour must also be given to lambs when they are suffering from fever or affected by any other sickness; those which are labouring under any disease ought not to be admitted to their dams, lest they pass on the malady to them.

The ewes, then, must be milked separately, and rain-water must be mixed in equal measure with the milk and this potion given to the lambs which have fever. Many people use goats' milk as a remedy for these same lambs, pouring it down their throats through a small horn. There is also an eruptive disease, called by the shepherds ostigo (lamb-scab), which is fatal to sucking lambs. This generally occurs, if, through the carelessness of the shepherd, the lambs or even kids have been let loose and have fed on grass which is covered with dew, which they certainly should not be allowed to do.

But when this has happened, a kind of erysipelas surrounds their mouths and lips with filthy sores.

The cure consists of hyssop and salt crushed together in equal quantities, the palate, the tongue and the whole mouth being rubbed with this mixture. Next the sores are washed with vinegar and then thoroughly anointed with liquid pitch and lard. Some people prefer a mixture of one part of verdigris to two parts of stale axle-grease heated and used as a medicine; some make a mixture of crushed cypress-leaves and water and thoroughly wash the sores and the palate. The method of castration has already been described, for the operation is performed on lambs in the same manner as on the larger quadrupeds.

Now that enough has been said about sheep,

I will next turn to goats. This species of animal prefers thickets to open country and is best pastured in rough and wooded districts; for it has no aversion to brambles and has no fault to find with briers and takes a particular pleasure in bushes and shrubs, such as the strawberry-tree, the buck-thorn, the wild trefoil and shrubs of holm-oak and oak which have not yet reached any great height.

The points of the best type of he-goat are two excrescences which project downwards from its throat below its jaws, a large frame, thick legs, a full, short neck, flabby and drooping ears, a small head, and black, thick, glossy and very long hair; for the he-goat is also shorn

For use in camps and hapless sailors' coats. a

The he-goat is quite ready for breeding purposes at the age of seven months; for it is immoderate in its desires and, while it is still being fed at its mother's udder, it leaps upon her and tries to do her violence.

Hence, before it has reached six years of age, it is fast becoming old, because it has worn itself out in early youth by premature indulgence of its desires; and so, when it is only five years old, it is regarded as unfit for impregnating the female. A she-goat is most highly approved which most closely resembles the he-goat which we have described, if it also has a very large udder and a great abundance of milk.

If we live in a calm climate we shall acquire a she-goat without horns; for in a stormy and rainy climate we shall prefer one with horns; but always and in every district the fathers of the herd will have to be hornless, because those which have horns are generally dangerous because of their viciousness. One ought not to keep a larger number than a hundred head of goats in one enclosure, though one can equally easily keep a thousand sheep in the folds. When one is acquiring she-goats for the first time, it is better to buy a whole herd at once than to purchase them one by one from a number of sources; this prevents them from splitting up into small groups while they are pasturing and makes them settle down quickly and in greater harmony in goat-stalls. The heat is harmful to this creature, but the cold is even more so, especially to pregnant she-goats, for an unusually frosty winter destroys the embryo. But not only the abnormally frosty winter causes abortion; it also occurs if less than a sufficiency of mast is given them; and so the herd should not be allowed to eat mast unless a plentiful supply can be provided.

The time which we advise for covering the she-goats is during the autumn, some time before the month of December, so that the kids may be born when spring is already approaching and the shrubs are coming into bud and the woods just sprouting with new foliage.

A site for the goats' stable should be chosen which has a natural or artificial stone floor, since no Utter is provided for this animal. A careful goatherd sweeps out the stable every day and does not allow any ordure or moisture to remain or any mud to form, all of which things are prejudicial to goats. If a she-goat is of good stock, it frequently bears twins and sometimes triplets. It is a very poor increase when two mothers produce only three kids between them.

a When the kids are born, they are reared in the same manner as lambs except that their wantonness must be more repressed and kept within stricter bounds. Besides an abundance of milk, elm-seed or shrub-trefoil or ivy must be provided, or else tops of mastic and other delicate foliage must be put before them. When there are sets of twins, from each pair one, whichever seems to be the more robust, is reserved to fill up the herd, while the rest are handed over to the dealers. A she-goat of only one or two years (for both ages are capable of bearing young) should not be given kids to rear; for it ought not to bring up a kid till it is three years old. And a mother of one year ought to be immediately deprived of its offspring, but a kid of a two-year-old mother ought to be left with it until it is ready to be sold.

The mother-goats ought not to be kept beyond eight years, because, worn out by continual bearing, they end by becoming barren. The herd-master ought to be keen, hardy, energetic, well able to endure toil, active and bold—the sort of man who can make his way without difficulty over rocks and deserts and through briers; he ought not to follow the herd like keepers of the other kind of cattle,a but should usually precede it. The she-goat which leads the herd is a very energetic animal; the one which so advances ought from time to time to be restrained in order that it may not race out in front but may browse quietly and slowly,so that it may have a large udder and not be lean of body.

Other kinds of domestic animals, when they are afflicted with pestilence, begin by wasting away with disease and weakness, but she-goats are the only animals which, though they are plump and lively, are suddenly cut off and over-whelmed, as it were, with sudden ruin, the whole herd at a time. This usually occurs as a result of too rich a diet. Therefore, when the plague has still stricken only a few of the herd, the goats should all be bled and given no food for a whole day and be kept shut up in their pens for the four middle hours of the day. If besides this, a languor attacks them, they are dosed with a beverage consisting of the roots of reeds and white thorn, with which, after we have carefully bruised them with an iron pestle, we mix rain-water and give this, and nothing else, to the goats to drink. If this does not dispel their sickness, the animals must be sold; or, if this cannot be managed, they should be slaughtered with the knife and their flesh salted. Then, after an interval, the fitting time will come to replace the flock, but not before the pestilential season, if it was winter, has changed to summer, or, if it was autumn, has changed to spring.

If only individual goats are suffering from the disease, we shall apply the same remedies as to sheep; for when the skin is distended with water—the malady which the Greeks call hydrōps (dropsy)—a slight incision should be made in the skin under the shoulder, causing the fatal liquid to flow away; then the wound thus caused should be treated with liquid pitch.

If, after a she-goat has borne young, the genital parts swell up and the after-birth has not put in an appearance, a sextarius of boiled down must, or, if this is not available, the same quantity of good wine, should be poured down the throat and the sexual parts filled with a liquid solution of wax. But, not to enter into more detail now, we shall give goats the same remedies as we have prescribed for sheep.

It will be necessary too not to neglect the task of cheese-making, especially in distant parts of the country, where it is not convenient to take milk to the market in pails.

Further, if the cheese is made of a thin consistency, it must be sold as quickly as possible while it is still fresh and retains its moisture; if, however, it is of a rich and thick consistency, it bears being kept for a longer period. Cheese should be made of pure milk which is as fresh as possible, for if it is left to stand or mixed with water, it quickly turns sour. It should usually be curdled with rennet obtained from a lamb or a kid, though it can also be coagulated with the flower of the wild thistle or the seeds of the safflower,a and equally well with the liquid which flows from a fig-tree if you make an incision in the bark while it is still green. The best cheese, how- ever, is that which contains only a very small quantity of any drug.

The least amount of rennet that a pail of milk requires weighs a silver denarius; and there is no doubt that cheese which has been solidified by means of small shoots from a fig-tree has a very pleasant flavour. A pail when it has been filled with milk should always be kept at some degree of heat; it should not, however, be brought into contact with the flames, as some people think it proper to do, but should be put to stand not far from the fire, and, when the liquid has thickened, it should immediately be transferred to wicker vessels or baskets or moulds; for it is of the utmost importance that the whey should percolate as quickly as possible and become separated from the solid matter.

For this reason the countryfolk do not even allow the whey to drain away slowly of its own accord, but, as soon as the cheese has become somewhat more solid, they place weights on the top of it, so that the whey may be pressed out; then, when the cheese has been taken out of the moulds or baskets, it is placed in a cool, shady place, that it may not go bad, and, although it is placed on very clean boards, it is sprinkled with pounded salt, so that it may exude the acid liquid; and, when it has hardened, it is still more violently compressed, so that it may become more compact; and then it is again treated with parched salt and again compressed by means of weights.

When this has been done for nine days it is washed with fresh water. Then the cheeses are set in rows on wickerwork trays made for the purpose under the shade in such a manner that one does not touch another, and that they become moderately dry; then, that the cheese may remain the more tender, it is closely packed on several shelves in an enclosed place which is not exposed to the winds.

Under these conditions it does not become full of holes or salty or dry, the first of these bad conditions being generally due to too little pressure, the second to its being over-salted, and the third to its being scorched by the sun. This kind of cheese can even be exported beyond the sea.

Cheese which is to be eaten within a few days while still fresh, is prepared with less trouble; for it is taken out of the wicker-baskets and dipped into salt and brine and then dried a little in the sun. Some people, before they put the shackles a on the she-goats, drop green pine-nuts into the pail and then milk the she-goats over them and only remove them when they have transferred the curdled milk into the moulds. Some crush the green pine-kernels by themselves and mix them with the milk and curdle it in this way. Others allow thyme which has been crushed and pounded through a sieve to coagulate with the milk; similarly, you can give the cheese any flavour you like by adding any seasoning which you choose. The method of making what we call " hand-pressed " cheese is the best-known of all: when the milk is slightly congealed in the pail and still warm, it is broken up and hot water is poured over it, and then it is either shaped by hand or else pressed into box-wood moulds. Cheese also which is hardened in brine and then coloured with the smoke of apple-tree wood or stubble has a not unpleasant flavour. But let us now return to the point from which we digressed. b

In every kind of quadruped it is a male of the fine appearance which is the object of our careful choice, because the offspring is more often like its father than like its mother.

So too, when it is a question of pigs, those boars must meet with our approval which are remarkable for their outstanding bodily size in general, provided that they are square rather than long or round, and which have a belly which hangs down, huge haunches, but not correspondingly long legs and hoofs, a long and glandulous neck, and a snout which is short and snub; also it is especially important that they should be as lustful as possible when they have sexual intercourse. They are fit for breeding purposes from a year old until they are four years old, though they can also impregnate a sow at six months old.

Breeding sows are esteemed which are very long in shape, provided that in their other limbs they resemble the description which we have given of the boars. If the district is cold and frosty, a herd should be selected with very hard, dense, black bristles; if it is temperate and sunny, smooth pigs and even white ones such as are kept by bakers a may be pastured there. A sow is considered fit for breeding purposes until it is about seven years old, but the more prolific it is the more quickly it becomes old. It can quite well conceive at a year old, but ought to be covered by the boar in the month of February and, having been four months with young, it should farrow in the fifth month, when the grass is already of stronger growth, so that the porkers may find the milk at the perfection of its full strength and also, when they cease to be suckled at the udder, they may feed on stubble and the fruits also which fall from leguminous plants.

This is the practice in out-of-the-way regions where raising stock is the only thing which pays; for in districts near towns the sucking pig must be turned into money, for then its mother is saved trouble by not having to rear it and will more quickly conceive and produce another offspring, and so bear twice in the same year.

The males are castrated, so that they may be enabled to grow fat, either at six months, when they first begin to cover the sows, or else at three or four years of age, when they have been often used for breeding. An operation is also performed with the knife on the wombs of the females to make them suppurate and close up as a result of scarring over, so that they cannot breed. I do not know the reason for doing this, unless it is lack of food; for where there is abundance of fodder, it always pays to rear stock.

Moreover, pigs can make shift in any sort of country wherever situated.

For they find suitable pasture both in the mountains and in the plains, though it is better on marshy ground than on dry. The most convenient feeding-grounds are woods covered with oaks, cork-trees, beeches, Turkey oaks, holm-oaks, wild olive trees, terebinth-trees,a hazels, wild fruit-trees like the white thorn, carob-trees, junipers, nettle-trees, vine-tendrils, cornel-rees, strawberry-trees, plum-trees, Christ's thorn, and wild pear-trees. For these ripen at different times and provide plenty of food for the herd almost all the year round. But where there is a lack of trees, we shall have recourse to fodder which grows near the ground and prefer muddy to dry ground, so that the pigs may root about in the marsh and turn up worms and wallow in the mud, which pigs love to do; and may they also be able to use water freely; for it has proved a great benefit for them to do this in the summer and to tear up the sweet-flavoured rootlets of under-water growths, such as the reed-mace, the rush, and the bastardreed, which the vulgar call the cane.

Sowsindeed grow fat on cultivated ground when it is grassy and planted with fruit-trees of several kinds, so as to provide at different seasons of the year apples, plums, pears, nuts of many kinds and figs.

You should not, however, on the strength of these fruits be sparing of the contents of the granary, which should often be handed out when out-door food fails. For this purpose plenty of mast should be. stored either in cisterns of water or in lofts exposed to the smoke. a They should also be given the opportunity of feeding on beans and similar leguminous vegetables, when their cheapness makes this possible, especially in the spring when green fodder is still in a juicy condition, which is generally harmful to pigs. Early in the morning, therefore, before they go out to pasture, they should be given a nourishing meal of food from the store, that the bowel may not be irritated by grass which is immature and that the herd may not waste away by the trouble which it causes. Pigs ought not to be shut up all together, like all other herds, but sties ought to be constructed after the manner of colonnades, in which the sows can be shut up after farrowing and even during pregnancy; for sows more than any other animals, when they are penned together in a crowd and pell-mell, lie one on top of another and abortions are thus caused.

Therefore, as I have said,sties should be built joined by party walls each to the other and four feet in height,so that the sow may not be able to jump over the these barrieis.

They ought not to be roofed over, so that the man in charge may be able to look in from above and count the number of piglings, and that if any mother is lying on top of its litter and squeezes one of them, he may extract it from under her. The swineherd must be watchful, energetic, painstaking and active: he ought to be able to remember all the sows under his charge, both those which have produced offspring and the younger sows, so that he may identify the offspring of each separately. He. must be on the watch for sows which are farrowing and shut them up, so that they may produce their Utter in a sty; he must then take note immediately of the number and quality of the piglings which are born and take special care that none of them is brought up by a sow which is not its mother; for the sucking-pigs, if they have escaped from the sty, very easily become mixed up, and the sow, when it lies down, offers its dugs as freely to the offspring of other sows as to her own.

Thus the most important duty of the swine breeder is to keep each sow shut up with its own litter.

If he has not a good memory and so cannot recognize the offspring of each sow, he should put the same mark on the sow and its piglings with liquid pitch, so that he may distinguish the different litters and their mothers by means of letters or some other device; for where a large number is involved, it is necessary to employ distinctive marks, so that the swineherd's memory may not be confused. Since, however, it seems a laborious task to carry out this plan in large herds, the most convenient method is to construct the sties in such a way that their thresholds are low enough for the sow to be able to get out but too high for the sucking pig to climb over; thus no strange porker can creep in, and each litter awaits its own mother in the place where they sleep.

A litter ought not to number more than eight, not that I am ignorant that the fecundity of breeding-sows can produce more than this number, but because a sow which rears more than eight quickly becomes worn out. Those sows which are given a litter to rear, must be sustained with cooked barley, so that they may not be reduced to a state of extreme emaciation and from that to some fatal sickness. The careful swineherd will frequently sweep out the piggery and the sties still more often; for, though the animal in question behaves in a filthy manner when it is at pasture, it likes its sleeping-place to be very clean. Such, more or less, is the manner in which pigs should be kept when they are in good health; our next task is to deal with the care of the pig in disease.

The signs of fever in pigs are when they lean over and hold their heads awry, and, after running their cures, forward a little way over their feeding-ground, suddenly halt and are seized with giddiness and fall down.

Notice must be taken in which direction they lean their heads forward, so that we may let blood from the ear on the opposite side; we shall also smite under the tail, at two fingers' distance from the haunches, the vein which at this point is fairly big, but it ought first to be beaten with a vine-twig, and then, as it swells up from the stroke of the rod, it should be opened with a knife, and, after the blood has been drawn off, the vein ought to be bound up with bark of a willow or even of an elm-tree.

After this we shall keep the animals under cover for a day or two and give them as much moderately warm water as they shall desire and a sextarius each of barley-flour.

If pigs are scrofulous, they must be bled under the tongue and, when the blood has flowed, it will be well to rub the whole mouth with powdered salt mixed with wheaten flour. Some people think that a more efficacious remedy is to make them swallow three cyathi each of fish-pickle through a horn; they then tie together split sticks of fennel with a linen cord and hang them round their necks in such a way that the scrofulous tumours are in contact with the fennel-stalks. For pigs suffering from vomiting, ivory-dust is regarded as a good remedy mixed with powdered salt and beans ground very small and given to them on an empty stomach before they go out to pasture.

Sometimes also the whole herd suffers at the same time, which causes them to become thin and to refuse their food and to lie down in the middle of the field when they are driven out to pasture and to want to go to sleep in the summer sunshine overcome by a kind of drowsiness. When this happens, the whole herd is shut up in a covered stable and deprived of drink and food for one day; then on the following day the root of the snake-like cucumber, crushed and mixed with water, is given to quench their thirst, and when the animals have drunk it they are seized with nausea and vomit and so are purged; when all the bile has been discharged, they are given chick-pea or beans sprinkled with hard brine, after which they are allowed to drink warm water, as men are allowed to do in similar circumstances.

While thirst in the summer is pernicious to all quadrupeds, it is specially hurtful to pigs.

We, therefore, advise that they should not be taken to water twice a day, like goats and sheep, but that, if possible, they should be kept in the neighbourhood of a river or pool at the time of the rising of the Dogstar; for, when a pig is feeling the intense heat, it is not content with drinking the water, if it cannot also plunge into it and so cool its fat maw and its belly distended with fodder, and there is nothing in which it takes so much pleasure as wallowing in streams and muddy lakes. But if the nature of the district makes this impossible, drinking water should be drawn from wells and poured into troughs in generous supply; for, unless they are abundantly satisfied, their lungs become affected.

This disease is best treated by inserting lungwort into the ears, a small root of which Ave have already more than once spoken about and in detail. Pain from a diseased spleen also often attacks them; this happens when a serious drought occurs and when, as the Bucolic poem says,a

Fruits lie on all sides, each strewn 'neath its tree.

For pigs, being insatiable animals, make for sweetness in their food beyond measure and suffer exceedingly in the summer from swelling of the spleen. This can be relieved if troughs made of tamarisk wood and butcher's broom are constructed and filled with water and put in their way when they are thirsty; for the juice of the wood has a medicinal effect and, being swallowed, stops intestinal swelling.

Two seasons are observed for castrating the pig, spring and autumn.

There are two methods of carrying out this operation. The first, which we have already described, consists of making two incisions and squeezing out a testicle through each of them. The other is more spectacular but more dangerous; but I will not pass it over in silence. When you have opened up with the knife and drawn out one of the male organs,a insert a lancet through the wound that has been made; then cut the middle skin, as it were, which intervenes between the two genital members, and with your bent fingers draw out the other testicle also; the result will be that there will be only one scar after the application of the other remedies which we have described earlier.

But there is one point, which concerns the religious scruples of the head of the family,b and which I have thought that I ought not to pass over in silence, namely, that there are some breeding-sows which devour their young. When this happens; it is not regarded as a prodigy; for pigs, of all farm-animals, are the least able to endure hunger, and sometimes feel such need of food that they consume not only the offspring of other sows, if they are allowed to do so, but also their own young.

I have now, unless I am mistaken, dealt in sufficient detail with animals used for ploughing and other cattle and with the herdsmen who are employed to look after and watch over flocks of four-footed animals at home and out of doors with all the resources of human intelligence. Now, as I promised in the earlier part of my treatise, I will speak of the dumb guardians of the flocks, though it is wrong to speak of the dog as a dumb guardian; for what human being more clearly or so vociferously gives warning of the presence of a wild beast or of a thief as does the dog by its barking?

What servant is more attached to his master than is a dog? What companion more faithful? What guardian more incorruptible? What more wakeful night-watchman can be found? Lastly, what more steadfast avenger or defender? To buy and keep a dog ought, therefore, to be among the first things which a farmer does, because it is the guardian of the farm, its produce, the household and the cattle. There are three different reasons for procuring and keeping a dog.

One type of dog is chosen to oppose the plots of human beings and watches over the farm and all its appurtenances; a second kind for repelling the attacks of men and wild beasts and keeping an eye at home on the stables and abroad on the flocks as they feed; the third kind is acquired for the purposes of the chase, and not only does not help the farmer but actually lures him away from his work and makes him lazy about it. We must, therefore, speak of the farm-yard dog and the sheep-dog; for the sporting hound has nothing to do with the art which we profess.

As guardian of the farm a dog should be chosen which is of ample bulk with a loud and sonorous bark in order that it may terrify the malefactor, first because he hears it and then because he sees it; indeed, sometimes without being even seen it puts to flight the crafty plotter merely by the terror which its growling inspires. It should be the same colour all over, white being the colour which should rather be chosen for a sheep-dog and black for a farm-yard dog; for a dog of varied colouring is not to be recommended for either purpose.

The shepherd prefers a white dog because it is unlike a wild beast, and sometimes a plain means of distinction is required in the dogs when one is driving off wolves in the obscurity of early morning or even at dusk, lest one strike a dog instead of a wild beast. The farmyard dog, which is pitted against the wicked wiles of men, if the thief approaches in the clear light of day, has a more alarming appearance if it is black, whereas at night it is not even seen because it resembles the shadow and so, under the cover of darkness, the dog can approach the crafty thief in greater security.

A squarely built dog is preferred to one which is long or short, and it should have a head so large as to appear to form the largest part of it; it should have ears which droop and hang down, eyes black or grey, sparkling with rays of bright light, a broad and shaggy chest', wide shoulders, thick, rough legs and a short tail; the joints of its feet and its claws, which the Greeks call drakes, should be very large. Such are the points which will meet with most approval in all farm-yard dogs. In character they should neither be very mild nor, on the other hand, savage and cruel; if they are mild, they fawn on everyone, including the thief; if they are fierce they attack even the people of the house. It is enough that they should be stern but not fawning, so that they sometimes look even upon their companions in servitude with a somewhat wrathful eye, while they always blaze with anger against strangers. Above all they should be seen to be vigilant in their watch and not given to wandering, but diligent and cautious rather than rash; for the cautious do not give the alarm unless they have discovered something for certain, whereas the rash are aroused by any vain noise and groundless suspicion.

I have thought it necessary to mention these points, because it is not nature alone but education as well which forms character, so that, when there is an opportunity of buying a dog, we may choose one with these qualities and that when we are going to train dogs which have been born at home, we may bring them up on such principles as these.

It does not matter much if farm-yard dogs are heavily built and lack speed, since they have to function rather at close quarters and where they are posted than at a distance and over a wide area; for they should always remain round the enclosures and within the buildings, indeed they ought never go out farther from home and can perfectly well carry out their duties by cleverly scenting out anyone who approaches and frightening him by barking and not allowing him to come any nearer, or, if he insists on approaching, they violently attack him. Their first duty is not to allow themselves to be attacked, their second duty to defend themselves with courage and pertinacity if they are provoked. So much for the dogs which guard the house; our next subject is sheep-dogs.

A dog which is to guard cattle ought not to be as lean and swift of foot as one which pursues deer and stags and the swiftest animals, nor so fat and heavily built as the dog which guards the farm and granary, but he must, nevertheless, be strong and to a certain extent prompt to act and vigorous, since the purpose for which he is acquired is to pick quarrels and to fight and also to move quickly, since he has to repel the stealthy lurking of the wolf and to follow the wild beast as he escapes with his prey and make him drop it and to bring it back again. Therefore a dog of a rather long, slim build is better able to deal with these emergencies than one which is short or even squarely built, since, as I have said, sometimes the necessity of pursuing a wild beast with speed demands this. The other joints in sheep-dogs if they resemble the limbs of farm-yard dogs meet with equal approval.

Practically the same food should be given to both types of dog. If the farm is extensive enough to support herds of cattle, barley-flour with whey is a suitable food for all dogs without distinction; but if the land is closely planted with young shoots and affords no pasture, they must be given their fill of bread made from emmer or wheaten flour, mixed, however, with the liquid of boiled beans, which must be lukewarm, for, if it is boiling, it causes madness.

Neither dogs nor bitches must be allowed to have sexual intercourse until they are a year old; for if they are allowed to do so when they are quite young, it enfeebles their bodies and their strength, and causes them to degenerate mentally.

The first puppies which a bitch produces must be taken from her, because at the first attempt she does not nourish them properly and the rearing of them hinders her general bodily growth. Dogs procreate vigorously up to ten years of age, but beyond that they do not seem suitable for covering bitches, for the offspring of an elderly dog turns out to be slow. and lazy. Bitches conceive up to nine years of age, but are not serviceable after the tenth year. Puppies should not be allowed to run loose during the first six months, until they are grown strong, except to join their mother in sport and play; later they should be kept on the chain during the day and let loose at night.

We should never allow those whose noble qualities we wish to preserve, to be brought up at the dugs of any strange bitch, since its mother's milk and spirit always does much more to foster the growth of their minds and bodies. But if a bitch which has a litter is deficient in milk, it will be best to provide goats' milk for the puppies until they are four months old.

Dogs should be called by names which are not very long, so that each may obey more quickly when he is called, but they should not have shorter names than those which are pronounced in two syllables,a such as the Greek Σκύλαξ (puppy) and the Latin Ferox (savage), the Greek Λάκων (Spartan) and the Latin Celer (speedy) or, for a bitch, the Greek Σπουδή (zeal), Ἀλκή (Valour), 'Ρωμή (strength) or the Latin Lupa (she-wolf), Cerva (hind) and Tigris (tigress). 14 It will be found best to cut the tails of puppies forty days after birth in the following manner: there is a nerve, which passes along through the joints of the spine down to the extremity of the tail; this is taken between the teeth and drawn out a little way and then broken. As a result, the tail never grows to an ugly length and (so many shepherds declare) rabies, a disease which is fatal to this animal, is prevented. b

It commonly happens that in the summer the ears of dogs are so full of sores caused by flies, that they often lose their ears altogether. To prevent this, the ears should be rubbed with crushed bitter almonds. If, however, the ears are already covered with sores, it will be found a good plan to drip boiled liquid pitch mixed with lard on the wounds. Ticks also fall off if they are touched with this same preparation; for they ought not to be plucked off by hand,lest, as we have remarked also before, they cause sores.

A dog which is infested with fleas should be treated either with crushed cumin mixed in water with the same quantity of hellebore and smeared on, or else with the juice of the snake-like cucumber, or if these are unobtainable, with stale oil-lees poured over the whole body. If a dog is attacked by the scab, gypsum and sesame should be ground together in equal quantities and mixed with liquid pitch and smeared on the part affected; this remedy is reported to be suitable also for human beings. If this plague has become rather violent, it is got rid of by the juice of the cedar-tree. The other diseases of dogs will have to be treated according to the instructions which we have given for the other animals.

So much for the lesser domestic animals.In the next book we will give instructions about the keeping of live stock at the farm-house, which includes the care of fowls, fish and four-footed wild creatures.