I] THE FARM YARD AND HOUSE 41 



night, and what he is taking with him, especially if 

 there is no door-keeper. In particular you must see 

 to it that there be a kitchen adjoining the farmhouse, 

 tor in the dark winter mornings before the sun is 

 up several things are done there, and food is cooked 

 and eaten in it. Moreover, for the wagons and such 

 implements as fear a rainy sky, roofed buildings of 

 sufficient size should be made in the farmyard; for 

 these, if merely stored in the enclosure under the 

 open sky, are only safe from thieves, but cannot 

 stand against bad weather. 

 3 On a large farm it is better to have two yards: 

 one having in the middle a place where rain-water 

 may collect; or, in case there is running water, a 

 place inside the bases of the pillars that surround 

 the yard, which may be made, if desired, into a half- 

 tank.^ For cattle returning from the plough-land in 

 summer drink and bathe here, as well as gQesQy sows, 



' Cna ut inierdius. The condition of the text here seems 

 desperate. Interdius, despite the ingenious attempts of 

 Schneider and others to explain it, gives no satisfactory 

 sense. Aqua saliens must mean "running water," i.e.y a 

 stream. Pliny (Epist., ii, 17, 25) says that his villa has no 

 aqua saliens^ though It has wells, or rather springs. I would 

 •uggest the reading : Una ut interius compluvium haheat aut 

 locum, etc. A copyist might easily have omitted the aut, 

 which I have Inserted, through the influence of the at imme- 

 diately preceding It. Cum venit (the reading of editions before 

 Victorlus) would make still better sense. 



The pond is called semipiscina, perhaps because It would 

 have masonry (the stylobates) on one or two sides only, the 

 piscina usually on four. 



