402 Dr. Parry's Essay on the Nature, Produce, Origin, 



the improved Merino race of the present day, not to suspect that they are one and 

 the same breed. Let us examine the evidence of this fact. 



In the first place, there is not, so far as I linow, throughout Europe, except in 

 Italy itself, any breed of short-woolled sheep now existing besides the Merino, of 

 which the males are horned, and the females not. 



The sheep of Apulia and Calabria had anciently their summer and winter quar- 

 ters, as in Spain. We are told by Varro, that their winter pajtures were " a great 

 " many miles distant from those of summer." " This," says he, " I know; for 

 " my flocks which were summered in the Reatine mountains, were accustomed to 

 " winter in Apulia." " Multa millia absunt ssepe hibernae pastiones ab asstivis. Ego 

 " vero scio ; nam mihi greges in Appulia hibernabant. qui in Reatinis raontibus 

 " eestivabant."* Whether these pastures were the property of the flock-masters, or 

 only hired by them, I have not been able fully to ascertain. They appear, how- 

 ever, to have been chiefly commons, on entering upon which the shepherd paid a 

 tax collected by a publican, who set down the account in writing. Hence this 

 land was called " Scripturarius ager." t Those who there depastured their sheep 

 •without this entry in writing, were subject to the penalty of the Censorian law,]]^ 

 It is true, indeed, that the Roman sheep, which habitually travelled, were the hir- 

 sutae, or coarser-woolled ; but one may easily understand how a custom widely 

 spread in one country may, by communication, be introduced and perpetuated in 

 another with regard to objects of a similar kind, though diflPeiing in some unim- 

 portant particulars. 



It was universally the practice among the Romans to give salt, with a view to 

 promote appetite and thirst, to increase milk, and to improve digestion, in their 

 sheep.^ One can hardly believe that this practice, which still exists in Italy, should 



* Varon. ii. 2. 



f Scripturarius ager publicus appellatur, in quo, ut pecora pascantur, certum xs est : quia 

 publicanus scribendo conficit rationem cum pastore. Sexti Pompeii Festi de Verborum significa- 

 tioiie lib. xvii. 



J Greges ovium longe abiguntur ex Apulia in Samnium xstivatum, atque ad publicanum pro- 

 fitentur, ne si inscriptum pecus paverint, lege Censoria committant. Varron. ii. i. 



§ Nee tamcii iiDa sunt tarn blanda pabula, aut etiam pascua, quorum gratia non cxolescat usu 

 continue, nisi pecudum tastidio pastor occurrciit prx-bito sale, quod vclut ad pabuli condimentum 

 per acstatem canalibus ligneis impositum, cum c pastu redierint oves, lambunt, atque eo sapore 

 cupidinenn bibendi pascendique concipiunt. Columcl. vii. 3. Quin et pecudcs, arnientaque et 



