230 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



brought into the world. Another striking fact: 

 girls there, called ''virgins," sometimes twenty 

 years old, are not forbidden by the custom of the 

 country to mate with any one they like before 

 marriage, and to wander about unaccompanied, 

 and have children. 



10 Rules and prescriptions relating to the health of 

 the men and the flock, and such treatment as can 

 be given without a doctor, the chief shepherd should 

 have set down in writing. For if he cannot read 

 and write he is no good for his post, being quite 

 incapable of correctly making up the accounts 

 connected with his master's stock. 



As to the number of shepherds, some seta higher, 

 some a lower, standard. I have assigned one shep- 

 herd to every eighty wool-bearing sheep, Atticus 



11 one to every hundred. Where the flocks of sheep 

 are large — some have them up to a thousand sheep — 

 you may more easily subtract from the total number 

 of men than in the case of smaller flocks, such as 

 those belonging to Atticus and myself. For mine 

 consist of seven hundred head, you, I believe, have 

 had flocks of eight hundred, agreeing, however, with 

 me in keeping one ram to every ten sheep. 



For a herd of fifty mares two men are wanted, 

 and, without doubt, each of them should have a mare 

 that has been broken for riding, in those districts 

 where the mares are rounded up and driven to their 

 stables at night, as is often the case in Apulia and 

 Lucania. 



