C a t o ' s Farm Management 



three asses with pack saddles, to haul 

 out the manure, one other ass, and 

 one hundred sheep.^ 



Of the Duties of the Overseer ^ 

 (v) These are the duties of the 

 overseer: He should maintain dis- 

 cipline. He should observe the feast 

 days. He should respect the rights 

 of others and steadfastly uphold his 



more valuable manure. These are strong arguments 

 where the cost of human labor is small and econ- 

 omical farm management does not require that the 

 time of the ploughman shall be limited if the unit 

 cost of ploughing is to be reasonable. The ox is 

 slow, but in slave times he might reasonably have 

 been preferred to the horse. Today Lord Kames, 

 (or even old Hesiod, who urged that a ploughman 

 of forty year and a yoke of eight year steers be em- 

 ployed because they turned a more deliberate and so 

 a better furrow) would be considering the economi- 

 cal practicability of the gasolene motor as tractive 

 power for a gang of "crooked" plows. 



^ There were in addition, of course, milch goats, 

 hogs, pigeons and fowls. Cato adds a long list of 

 implements and other necessary equipment. Pliny 

 quotes Cato, "whatever can be done by the help of 

 the ass costs the least money." 



2 The Roman overseer was usually a superior, and 

 often a much indulged, slave. Cf. Horace's letter 

 (Epist. I, 14) to his overseer. 



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