i68 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



to feed until the hoar-frost has evaporated, and the 

 ice has melted. 



7 For breeding, the boars should be separated from 

 the herd two months before they are admitted to 

 the sows. The best time for their admission is from 

 Favonius to the vernal equinox, as thus the sow 

 brings forth her young in the summer,^ for she 

 goes four months and then litters when there is 

 plenty of pasturage on the land. The sows should 

 not be covered before they are a year old; it is 

 better to wait until they are twenty months, that 

 they may be two years old when they become 

 mothers. It is said that after they have begun ^ to 

 breed they can go on well up to the seventh year. 



8 At the time of covering they are driven forth into 

 miry paths ^ and muddy pools that they may wallow 



^ Aestate pariat. The Geoponica (xix, 6) follow Varro. 

 dpiarrj Se ijpa . . . aTrb (^f<pvpov irvofjg eittg tapivijg hrjixepiag^ uxjTf 

 ykvtaOai Kara to OepoQ rbv toketov. Aristotle (H. A., v, 14) says 

 that the young pigs born in summer are the worst, being 

 puny and thin, and that the best time for birth is the be- 

 ginning of winter. This is no doubt true in the case of a hot 

 climate. 



^ Cum coeperunt Columella (vii, 9, 3) : Femina sus hahetur 

 ad partus edendos idonea fere usque in annos septem, quae 

 quanta foecundior est celerius senescit. 



^ Lutosos limites. Limites does not seem to be the right 

 word. Schneider suggests lamas, bogs, which the scholiast 

 to Horace (Ep., i, 13, 10) defines as lacunas maiores continentes 

 aquam pluviam, quoting from Ennius. 



Silvorum saltus, latebras, lamasque lutoras. 



The word was rare, and would probably have been unintel- 



