!] ON PRODUCE FOR MARKET 119 



CHAPTER LXIX 



ON PRODUCE FOR MARKET 



I Of the spelt which has been mown, that which you 

 wsh to be prepared for food should be brought out 

 in the winter to be roasted in the bakery. Such of 

 it IS you want sown should be brought out when 

 tht fields are ready to receive it. So, in general, 

 the various kinds of corn to be sown must be got 

 ou at their proper times. As for the things which 

 are for market you must note the proper time for 

 eao, for some things — those that will not keep — 

 yoi must bring out and sell quickly before they 

 spd, others, which will keep, you must sell when 

 the fetch a good price. For it often happens that 

 wht you keep back for some time not only gives 

 yo interest on your outlay, but even doubles your 

 prdt if you bring it out at the right moment. 



^Far {Kt'ut, spelt, French ipeautre) a poor kind of wheat 

 whh, however, grows well on poor soils. It was the prin- 

 cifl food — eaten in the form of porridge — of the ancient 

 Rmans. The words farina (flour), confarreatio, and diffar- 

 re'io (patrician forms of marriage and divorce) were derived 

 fm it. It was much used in sacrifices — to Ceres, Tellus, etc. 



^ike barley, it was roasted first and then pounded in a 

 tfroden mortar (Cf. Pliny, N. H., xviii, 11): twice — the first time 

 t remove the husk, the second to reduce the grain to flour. 



I 'liny tells us in the same chapter that only those who 



f pounded " yizr were called bakers; and that there were no 

 ikers by trade in Rome before the Persian war — 580 years 

 ker the foundation of the city {i.e., 174 B.C.). 



