I] DOGS AND FOUR-FOOTED STOCK 59 



4 long on either side. Where the soil is light, as 

 in Campania — for there they do not plough with 

 heavy oxen but with cows or asses — you may the 

 more easily put them to a light plough, to the 

 mills, or to any carting there may be on the estate 

 itself. For the latter purpose some people use 

 young asses, others cows and mules — the choice de- 

 pending on the pasturage available, for it costs less 

 to keep an ass than a cow, though the latter is more 



5 profitable in itself. 

 In this matter, the farmer has to consider the 



surface nature of his land. Where it is hilly and 

 •iff, he must get draught animals of greater 

 _trength, and preferably such as may be themselves 

 profitable while doing the same amount of work. 



CHAPTER XXI 



OF DOGS AND FOUR-FOOTED STOCK 



It is better to keep a few fine and active dogs than 

 many. These should be trained to watch by night 

 and to sleep shut up during the day. What is to 

 be done' with four-footed stock not broken to harness 



* De indomitis . . . faciundum. This looks like the heading 

 of a section which has strayed. In the Latin *' table of con- 

 tents" (certainly not by Varro as it stands, for Idus Augustae 

 are there mentioned, and the month Sextilis was not called 



