II] OF COWS AND OXEN 191 



spend the winter near the sea, they are driven off 

 at the time of the great heats to wooded mountains. 

 For breeding purposes, the following is my usual 



2 practice. For one month before the admission of 

 the bull, the cows must not get their full measure ^ 

 of food and drink, for it is thought that they con- 

 ceive more readily when thin. On the other hand, 

 two months before that time I fatten up my bulls 

 with grass, chaff and hay, and separate them from 

 the cows. I keep the same number of bulls as does 

 Atticus, that is, for seventy^ breeding cows, two 

 bulls, one of them a year, the other two years old. 

 This I practise just about the rising of that constella- 

 tion which is called by the Greeks >Mpa, by our j 

 countrymen *' fides" (the lyre). When the busi- 



3 ness is over I drive back the bulls to the flock. One 

 can tell whether the cow has conceived a male or a; 

 female by noticing during the act of coition on/ 

 which side the bull comes down. If it is a male He v '' 

 goes more to the right, if a female to the left. Why 



this is the case, said he to me, you readers of 

 Aristotle^ must determine. Impregnation should 

 not take place before the animals are two years old, 



Se impleant. Cf. Col. vi, 24, 3 : Ne eas steriles reddat nimia 

 t>oris obesitas. 

 LXX. Columella (vi, 243) says one to fifteen. Unuin 

 ... irem quindecim vaccis sufficere ahunde est. Possibly XXL or 

 XXX should be read, which gives the same proportion as 

 Columella and Pliny, vlii, 45 (as amended by Pintianus) : 

 Implent et singuli quindenas eodem anno. 



' Aristolelem. De Gen. An., v, and vi. Cf. Col. vl, 24, 3, 

 Pliny, viii, 45, and Geoponica, xvii, 6. 



