BOOK VI. III. 3-6 



tied up in bundles and chickpea and also meadow- 

 hay. We are not looking after our cattle so well if 

 we feed them on chaff, which is a universal, and in 

 some districts the only, resource. The chaff which 

 is most highly esteemed comes from millet, the next 

 best from barley, and the third best from wheat ; 

 beasts of burden which are rendering regular terms 

 of labour are given barley as well as chaff. 



The diet of oxen is regulated according to the time 

 of year. In January it is a good plan to give them 

 four sextarii each of bitter-vetch crushed and soaked 

 in water and mixed with chaff, or a modius of soaked 

 lupines, or half a. modius of soaked chickling-pea, as well 

 as chaff in abundance. If there is a lack of pulse, 

 it is allowable to mix with chaff grape skins taken 

 from the after-wine which have been washed and 

 dried, but there is no doubt that it is far better to 

 give them the grapemash, skins and all, before they 

 have been washed, for they contain the strength 

 both of food and of wine and make the cattle sleek 

 and of good cheer and plump. If we abstain from 

 giving them grain, it is enough to supply a fodder- 

 basket holding twenty modii of dry leaves or thirty 

 pounds of hay, or green bay-leaves or the foliage of 

 the holm-oak in unlimited quantities. To these mast 

 is added, if the resources of the district permit, but, 

 unless enough is provided to cause satiety, it causes 

 the scab. A halt-modius of crushed beans may also 

 be provided, if a good crop makes it cheap enough 

 to do so. In February the food is usually the same. 

 In March and April an addition should be made to 

 the weight of hay in places where the ground is being 

 broken up for the first time ; forty pounds, however, 

 will be enough to give to each animal. From April 



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