Cato*s Farm Management 



ings.^ It is fitting that the farm 

 buildings should be well constructed, 

 that you should have ample oil cel- 

 lars and wine vats, and a good supply 

 of casks, so that you can wait for high 

 prices, something which will re- 

 dound to your honour, your profit 

 and your self-respect. 



(iv) Build your dwelling house 

 in accordance with your means. If 

 you build well in a good situation 

 and on a good property, and furnish 

 the house suitably for country life, 

 you will come there more often and 

 more willingly.^ The farm will then 

 be better, fewer mistakes will be 



1 Pliny quotes Cato as advising to buy what others 

 have built rather then build oneself, and thus, as he 

 says, enjoy the fruits of another's folly. The 

 cacoethes edificandi is a familiar disease among 

 country gentlemen. 



2 Columella (I, 4) makes the acute observation 

 that the country house should also be agreeable to 

 the owner's wife if he wishes to get the full measure 

 of enjoyment out of it. Magon, the Carthaginian, 

 advised "if you buy a farm, sell your house in town, 

 lest you be tempted to prefer the cultivation of the 

 urban gods to those of the country." 



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