194 VARRO ON FARMING [bk, 



for otherwise they are trampled on by them. They 

 should be taken to the mother early in the morning 

 and again when they come back from the pasture. 

 When the calves are grown big, keep up the strength 

 of the dams by giving them green fodder in their 

 stalls. In the case of these, as generally of all 

 stables, a flooring of stone or some other material 

 must be laid down to prevent the hoofs from rotting. 

 From the autumnal equinox onwards they graze 



17 with their dams. Bulls should not be castrated 

 before they are two ^ years old, as otherwise they do 

 not easily recover from the operation. Those which 

 are castrated after that age grow up hard to manage 

 and useless for purposes of work. Again, as is the 

 case in all other flocks of domestic animals, every 

 year a choice should be made of the cows to be kept, 

 and those which it is not desirable to keep ^ must be 

 got rid of, as they take up the room of those which 

 are able to yield increase. Should any cow have lost 

 a calf you must put under her calves whose mothers 

 give them too little milk. To six-months-old calves 

 wheaten bran, barley-flour, and young grass is 

 given, and they are made to drink night and morn- 



18 ing. Many directions concerning their health I 



^ Ante bimum. Aristotle (H. A., ix, 50) says: "when they 

 are a year old," kviavaioi. 



Mago states, according to Columella (vi, 26, i — where two 

 ways of performing the operation are described) vituli dum 

 adhuc teneri sunt. 



^ Reiculae. Cf. note on ii, i, 24. The Geoponica (xvii, 10) 

 give as the equivalent of this word * ' the barren and weakly 

 cows and those of advanced age." 



