BOOK VII. HI. 7-9 



ample belly ; for a small and hairless ewe must be 

 avoided. 



These are, roughly speaking, the general points 8 

 which must be observed when you are buying sheep ; 

 the following points must be observed in their 

 management. Their folds should be built low and 

 extended in length rather than in breadth, so that 

 they may be warm in winter and also that lack of 

 space may not cause the ewes to cast their young. 

 They should be placed so as to face the mid-day sun ; 

 for sheep, though naturally the best clothed of 

 animals, can least endure cold, or summer heat 

 either. For this reason a closed court with a high 

 wall ought to be constructed in front of the entrance, 

 so that there may be a safe way out for the animal 

 when it is affected by the heat ; and care must 

 be taken to prevent there being any standing water 

 by always keeping their folds strewn with the driest 

 possible fern or straw, so that the ewes after lambing 

 may have something clean and soft on which to lie, 

 and that the folds may be very clean, and that the 9 

 health of the ewes, which must be specially guarded, 

 may not be impaired by dampness. Sheep must be 

 supplied with an abundance of every kind of food ; 

 for even a small flock, if it is given its fill of fodder, 

 brings its owner a bigger return than a very large one 

 which has suffered from want. You must look for 

 fallow land which is not only grassy but also for the 

 miost part free from thorns ; for, to make our repeated 

 appeal to the authority of inspired poesy," 



If wool is your desire, above all else 



Avoid the prickly woods and burs and caltropses. 



• Vergil, Georg. III. 384 f. 



243 



