BOOK VI. I. 1-3 



I. I should find it far from easy to say what are Points to 

 the points to be looked for and what to be avoided for in oxen, 

 in the purchase of oxen ; for cattle show variation 

 in bodily form and disposition and the colour of 

 their hair according to the nature of the district and 

 climate in which they live. Those of Asia and of 

 Gaul and of Epirus are different in form, and not 

 only are there diversities in the various provinces, 

 but Italy itself shows varieties in its different parts, 

 Campania generally produces small, white oxen, 

 which are, however, well suited for their work and for 

 the cultivation of their native soil. Umbria breeds 2 

 huge white oxen, but it also produces red oxen, 

 esteemed not less for their spirit than for their bodily 

 strength. Etruria and Latium breed oxen which 

 are thick-set but powerful as workers. The oxen 

 bred in the Apennines are very tough and able to 

 endure every kind of hardship but not comely to 

 look upon. Though there is so much variety and 

 diversity, yet there are certain as it were universal 

 and fixed principles which the farmer of arable land 

 ought to follow in buying bullocks. Mago" the 

 Carthaginian has laid down these principles in the 

 form which we will now detail. The bullocks which 3 

 should be purchased are those which are young, 

 squarely built, with large limbs and horns which are 

 long and blackish and strong ; the forehead should 

 be wide and covered with curly hair, the ears shaggy, 

 the eyes and lips dark in colour, the nostrils bent 

 back and wide spreading, the neck long and muscular, 

 the dewlap ample and falling almost to the knees, 

 the chest broad, the shoulders huge ; the belly should 

 be capacious and have the appearance of pregnancy, 

 the flanks extended, the loins wide, the back straight 



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