BOOK VII. IX. 7-9 



pigs may root about in the marsh and turn up worms 

 and wallow in the mud, which pigs love to do ; and may 

 they also be able to use water freely ; for it has proved 

 a great benefit for them to do this in the summer and 

 to tear up the sweet-flavoured rootlets of under-water 

 growths, such as the reed-mace, the rush, and the bast- 

 ard reed, which the vulgar call the "cane." Sows indeed 8 

 grow fat on cultivated ground when it is grassy and 

 planted with fruit-trees of several kinds, so as to 

 provide at different seasons of the year apples, 

 plums, pears, nuts of many kinds and figs. You 

 should not, however, on the strength of these fruits 

 be sparing of the contents of the granary, Avhich 

 should often be handed out when out-door food fails. 

 For this purpose plenty of mast should be stored either 

 in cisterns of water or in lofts exposed to the smoke." 

 They should also be given the opportunity of feeding 9 

 on beans and similar leguminous vegetables, when 

 their cheapness makes this possible, especially in the 

 spring when green fodder is still in a juicy condition, 

 which is generally harmful to pigs. Early in the 

 morning, therefore, before they go out to pasture, 

 they should be given a nourishing meal of food from 

 the store, that the bowel may not be irritated by 

 grass which is immature and that the herd may not 

 waste away by the trouble which it causes. Pigs 

 ought not to be shut up all together, like all other 

 herds, but sties ought to be constructed after the 

 manner of colonnades, in which the sows can be shut 

 up after farrowing and even during pregnancy ; for 

 sows more than any other animals, when they are 



" Cisternis — tabulatis, these words are possibly corrupt but 

 the general meaning is clear. Pontedera suggests cisiemis 

 sine aqua vel fumosis tabulatis^ 



295 



