82 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



several kinds. Cassius writes that the best is that 

 from birds, excepting marsh or water fowl. Of 

 these he gives the preference to pigeons' dung, as 

 being the warmest and as setting up fermentation 



2 in the soil. According to him it should be scat- 

 tered on the ground like seed and not heaped up, as 

 cattle dung is. I consider the best to be that taken 

 from aviaries where field-fares and blackbirds 

 are kept, for it is not only good for the soil, but 

 supplies a fattening food for both cattle and swine. 

 We find accordingly that the rent paid for aviaries 

 is less in cases where the owner reserves this man- 

 ure for the farm than where it is thrown in as part 

 of the bargain, Cassius writes that next to pigeons' 

 dung comes that of man, and in the third place 



3 that of goats, sheep, and asses; while horse dung 

 is the worst of all, though it is good for corn-crops. 

 For meadows it is perhaps the best of all manures, 

 since it produces an abundant crop of grass, which 

 is the case with the dung of all beasts of burden fed 

 on barley. The dung-hill must be made close to 

 the farm-house, so that the labour of carrying it 

 away may be as small as possible. They say that 

 no serpent breeds in the dung-hill if a piece of oak- 

 wood ^ be driven into the middle of it. 



^ Rohusta materia = oak. wood. Cf. Pliny (N. H., xvii, 9: 

 Palo e robore depacto fieri iubet Ita fore ne innascantur his 

 serpentes. 



