Cato^s Farm Management 



set it about with myrtle hedges, both 

 white and black, as well as Delphic 

 and Cyprian laurel. 



Of Stocking the Farm 

 (x) An olive farm of two hun- 

 dred and forty jugera (i6o acres) 

 ought to be stocked as follows: an 

 overseer, a house keeper, five labor- 

 ers, three ox drivers, one swineherd, 

 one ass driver, one shepherd; in all 

 thirteen hands: three pair of oxen,^ 



after you have dined well, you will eat five cabbage 

 leaves they will make you feel as if you had had 

 nothing to drink, so that you can drink as much more 

 as you wish, 'bibesque quantum 'voles!' 



1 Henry Home, Lord Kames, a Scots judge of the 

 XVni Century, whom Dr. Johnson considered a bet- 

 ter farmer than judge and a better judge than 

 scholar, but who had many of the characteristics 

 of our priscus Cato, argues in his ingenious 

 Gentleman Farmer against the expense of plough- 

 ing with horses and urges a return to oxen. 

 He points out that horses involve a large original 

 investment, are worn out in farm work, and after 

 their prime steadily depreciate in value; while, on 

 the other hand, the ox can be fattened for market 

 when his usefulness as a draught animal is over, 

 and then sell for more than his original cost; that 

 he is less subject to infirmities than the horse; can be 

 fed per tractive unit more economically and give 



[32 1 



