BOOK VII. III. IO-I2 



For, as the same poet says,* it causes scab in sheep, 10 



When after shearing sweat unwashen clings 

 And prickly briers tear away their flesh. 



Moreover, the yield of wool is daily reduced, for the 

 more abundantly it grows upon the animal, the more 

 exposed it is to brambles, by which it is caught, as if 

 by hooks, and torn from their backs as they feed. 

 The sheep also loses the soft covering with which it 

 is protected, and this can only be replaced at con- 

 siderable expense. 



The authorities are in general agreement that the 11 

 earliest time of the year at which the ewes should 

 be mated is the spring, when the Parilia ^ is cele- 

 brated, if the ewe has just reached maturity, but, if 

 she has already produced a lamb, about the month of 

 July. The earlier date is, however, undoubtedly 

 preferable, so that, just as the vintage follows the 

 harvest, so the birth of the lamb may succeed to the 

 gathering in of the grapes, and the lamb, having 

 enjoyed its fill of food during the whole autumn, may 

 gain strength before the gloomy cold season and the 

 short rations of winter come on. For an autumn lamb is 

 superior to a spring lamb, as Celsus very truly remarks, 

 because it is more important that it should grow 

 strong before the summer solstice than before the 

 winter solstice, and it alone of all animals can be born 

 without risk in mid-winter. If circumstances require 12 

 that more males than females should be produced, 

 Aristotle," that shrewd researcher into natural 



« Vergil, Georg. III. 443. 



* The feast of Pales, tutelary goddess of sheep and 

 shepherds, which was celebrated on April 18th. 

 « De Gen. Anim., 766, 35 ff. 



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