CHAP, in S Y L V A 57 



the worms are hatch'd, so as we see them in galls. 

 What benefit the mast does universally yield (once 

 in two years at least) for the fatting of hogs and deer, 

 I shall shew upon another occasion, before the con- 

 clusion of this Discourse. A peck of acorns a day, 

 with a little bran, will make an hog ('tis said) increase 

 a pound-weight per diem for two months together. 

 They give them also to oxen mingled with bran, 

 chop'd or broken ; otherwise they are apt to sprout 

 and grow in their bellies. Others say, they should 

 first be macerated in water, to extract their malignity; 

 cattle many times perishing without this preparation. 

 Cato advises the husband-man to reserve 240 bushels 

 of acorns for his oxen, mingled with a like quantity 

 of beans and lupines, and to drench them well. But 

 in truth they are more proper for swine, and being so 

 made small, will fatten pidgeons, peacocks, turkeys, 

 pheasants and poultry ; nay 't is reported, that some 

 fishes feed on them, especially the tunny, in such 

 places of the coast where trees hang over arms of the 

 sea. Acorns, esculus ab esca (before the use of wheat- 

 corn was found out) were heretofore the food of men, 

 nay of Jupiter himself, (as well as other productions 

 of the earth) till their luxurious palats were debauch- 

 ed : And even in the Romans time, the custom was 

 in Spain to make a second service of acorns and 

 mast, (as the French now do of marrons and chesnuts) 

 which they likewise used to rost under the embers. 



1 Fed with the oaken mast 



The aged trees themselves in years surpass'd. 



1 Et querna glande repasta 



^quasse annosas vivendo corpora Quercus. 



H 



