C a t o* s Farm Management 



lies low, plant rape, millet, and panic 

 grass. 



Of Forage Crops 



(Vlll) If you have a water 

 meadow you will not want forage, 

 but if not then sow an upland 

 meadow, so that hay may not be 

 lacking. 



(liii) Save your hay when the 

 times comes, and beware lest you 

 mow too late. Mow before the seed 

 is ripe. House the best hay by itself, 

 so that you may feed it to the draft 

 cattle during the spring plowing, be- 

 fore the clover is mature. 



(xxvil) Sow, for feed for the 

 cattle, clover, vetch, fenugreek, field 

 beans and pulse. Sow these crops a 

 second and a third time.^ 



1 Alfalfa was one of the standbys of ancient agri- 

 culture, as Arthur Young found it to be in France in 

 the XVIII Century, and as it is all over South- 

 ern Europe today. Cato does not himself mention 

 alfalfa, but according to Pliny it was introduced 

 into Italy from Greece, whence it had been brought 

 from Asia, during the Persian wars, and so derived 



[49I 



