C at o' s Farm Management 



when the west wind begins to blow. 

 rl) When you close your pastures (to the 

 \ stock) clean them and root out all 

 '\ weeds/ 



"^p should touch the beds: but, as I have said, they 



'l" should be cultivated with wooden rakes, and in the 



'• same manner they should be weeded so that no for- 



^^' ij eign grass can choke out the young alfalfa. The 



'"i I first cutting should be late, when the seed begins 



'" ' to fall: afterwards, when it is well rooted, you can 

 cut it as young as you wish to feed to the stock. 



^'" Feed it at first sparingly, until the stock become ac- 



'^ customed to it, for it causes bloat and excess of 



■'^ blood. After cutting, irrigate the beds frequently, 



'^' jj and after a few days, when the roots begin to 



"^ jj sprout, weed out all other kinds of grass. Cultivated 



™ in this way alfalfa can be mowed six times a year, 



'' and it will last for ten years." 



1 As we have seen, Cato recommended chiefly a 

 system of intensive farming with the vine and the 

 olive as staples. On such a farm few live stock 

 were kept and they were largely fed in the barnyard, 

 so that the question of pastures was of relatively 

 small importance. In Varro's time the feeding of 

 large flocks of cattle and sheep had become of great 

 importance, and with this in mind Varro (I, 7) 

 makes one of his society of country gentlemen reply 

 to a quotation of Cato's scheme of laying out a 

 farm {ante p. 27) : 



"I know he wrote that but every one does not 

 agree with him. There are some who put a good 

 pasture first, and I am among them. Our ancestors 

 were wont to call them not prata, as we do, but 

 farata (because they are always ready for use). 

 The aedile Caesar Vopiscus, in pleading a cause be- 

 fore the censors, once said that the prairie of Rosea 



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