I50 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



practised from the rising of the Pleiads to the 



12 autumnal equinox. In places where the harvest 

 has just been got, it is a good thing to drive them 

 on to the corn-fields, for a double reason : they get 

 fat on the fallen ears, and by trampling the straw 

 and by dunging they improve the crops for the 

 following year. The other modes of feeding in 

 winter and spring-time differ from this in that they 

 drive the sheep out to pasture only when the hoar- 

 frost has evaporated, and feed them throughout the 

 whole day, thinking it enough to take them once 

 only to drink, at noon. 



13 So much for the different ways of feeding. What 

 I am now about to say relates to breeding. The 

 rams which you mean to use for this purpose 

 should be separated from the flock two months^ 

 before, and given a more generous allowance of 

 food. When they return from grazing to their 

 stalls, if barley is given them they grow stronger 

 and more capable of enduring fatigue. 



The best time for their service is from the setting 

 of Arcturus'' to the setting of Aquila, for those that 



not redintegrahit should be in the text, Cf. Vergil (Georg., iii, 



336): 



Solis ad occasum cumfrigidus aera Vesper 



Temper at et saUus rejicit iam roscida Luna. 



Varro (iii, 7, 6) uses redintegrare in the sense of "refresh": 

 quod libera aere, cum exierint in agros, redintegrentur. 



^ Bimestri tempore. Cf. Geoponica, xviii, 3, where Varro is 

 closely followed throughout the chapter. 



■^ Ah Arcturi occasu. Pliny (N. H., viii, 47) gives precise 

 dates — from 13th May to 23rd July. 



