6o VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



and with cattle? If meadow-land form part of the 

 farm and a farmer owns no cattle of his own, he 

 must dispose of the pasturage, and graze and stable 

 other people's cattle on his farm. 



CHAPTER XXII 



OF INSTRUMENTS OF PRODUCTION (MUTE) 



1 Concerning the other mute instruments of produc- 

 tion — baskets, casks, etc., the following rules are 

 to be laid down : nothing should be bought which 

 can be grown on the farm and made by the house- 

 hold. Under this head come mainly things made of 

 osiers and the wood the country supplies. Such as 

 baskets, frails, threshing sleighs, stakes,^ and rakes, 

 as well as things made ofhemp, flax, reeds, palm ^ and 

 bull-rushes, such as wagon ropes, bands, and mats. 



2 Things which cannot be got from the farm will 

 not diminish your profit much by their cost if in 



Augustus before 27 B.C., whilst this book was written 36 B.C.) 

 after De Canibus comes Si prata sunt in fundo^ pecus non est^ 

 quid sit faciendum. 



^ Valli. I have translated "stakes" — the usual meaning 

 of the word — though one suspects that Pontedera is right in 

 making it a diminutive of vannus (a winnowing fan) on the 

 analogy of catella from catena, homullus from homo {homon- 

 lus)y villum from vinum, etc. Diminutives were a marked 

 feature of Vulgar Latin. 



^ Palms. Columella (v, 5, 15) speaks of palmeae tegetes 

 used for sheltering the vines. These " mats " were probably 

 made of vine stalks. 



I 



