

2o6 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



could not be induced to mount his mother; so 

 the groom covered up the former's head, and then 

 brought him up and made him do so. As the ji 

 stallion was getting off the groom removed the 

 covering from his eyes, whereupon the horse rushed 



10 upon him and bit him to death. When the mares 

 have conceived you must see that they are not even 

 a little over-worked, and do not stay in any cold 

 place, for cold is particularly hurtful to them when 

 pregnant. And so in the stables you must not let 

 the ground get wet, and must keep the doors and 

 windows shut, and the mares must be separated by 

 long bars attached to the manger to keep them 

 apart, and prevent them from fighting with one 

 another. A mare in foal must neither be over-fed nor 



11 allowed to go hungry. Farmers who admit the 

 male every other year only, say that thus the mares 

 last longer, and the foals are better, and that just 

 as fields which produce ^ every year are sooner ex- 

 hausted, so too are mares which breed every year. 

 Ten days after birth foals must be driven out 

 with their mothers to graze, lest the dung rot their 



ix, 47) of a camel, and a similar one about a horse, but the 

 horse, Instead of killing the groom, hurled himself over a 

 precipice. 



^ Restihiles segetes. The comparison of a mare to a field Is 

 taken from Aristotle (H. A., vi, 22, near the end) : 'iva d' tviavrbv 

 Kai TrcLfiirav avdyKt] diaXsiweiv Kai ttouTv ioaTrtp viiov (fallow land). 



Columella (vi, 27, 13) says that " cart mares may bear every 

 year, but thoroughbreds every alternate year only so that the 

 colt may grow strong on Its mother's milk and may be able to 

 bear the strain of racing." 



