[15] “As to feeding: when they begin to bear they are driven into the pens which are kept separate for that purpose; and there the new-born lambs are placed near a fire until they get their strength. They are kept penned for two or three days, while they are learning to recognise their dams and are getting their fill of nourishment. Then the dams go to pasture with the flock, and the lambs are kept penned; when the dams are brought back to them toward evening, the lambs are suckled by them and are again separated to keep them from being trampled by the dams during the night. The same thing takes place in the morning, before the dams go out to pasture, so that the lambs may be filled with milk. [16] When about ten days have passed, stakes are set to which the lambs are fastened at intervals by bark or other smooth ropes, so that the tender young things may not knock the skin off any of their legs while frisking about together during the whole day. If the lamb will not come to its dam’s udder, it should be held close and its lips smeared with butter or hog’s lard and the lips be given the savour of milk. A few days later ground vetch or tender grass is thrown out to them before they go out to pasture and when they come back; [17] and this feeding is continued until they are four months old. During this time some breeders do not milk the dams; and it is even better not to milk them at all, as they both yield more wool and bear more lambs. When the lambs are removed from the dams, care must be taken that they do not sicken from the separation; and so in feeding they must be coaxed by the daintiness of the food and guarded from being harmed by cold and heat. [18] They must be driven into the flock only after they no longer miss the dam, because they have forgotten the taste of milk. Lambs should be castrated not earlier than the fifth month, and then not until the heat or the cold has broken. Those they wish to rear for rams are chosen preferably from the young of dams which usually bear twins. The treatment is, in general, the same in the case of jacketed sheep — those which, on account of the excellence of the wool, are jacketed with skins, as is the practice at Tarentum and in Attica, to prevent the fleece from being soiled, in which case it cannot be so well dyed, or washed and bleached. [19] More care is employed in the case of these than in the case of rough-fleeced sheep, to keep the folds and stalls clean; and so they are covered with a stone pavement so that the urine may not stand anywhere in the stalls. To these the food which they prefer, such as fig leaves, straw, grape dregs, and bran, is fed in moderate quantities, to avoid under-feeding or over-feeding; either of which is harmful to their fattening, while alfalfa and snail-clover are both beneficial, as these fatten them very easily and produce milk.
[20] “In the matter of health there are many rules; but, as I said, the head shepherd keeps these written down in a book, and carries with him the remedies he may need. The only remaining division is that of number, and some make this larger, others smaller; for there are no natural limits in this respect. Our almost universal practice in Epirus is not to have less than one shepherd to the hundred rough-fleeced sheep, and two to the hundred jacketed sheep.”
[3.1] Cossinius, addressing him, said: “As you have bleated long enough, my dear Faustulus, now hear from me, as from Homer’s Melanthius born out of due season, with regard to goats; and learn how one ought to speak, briefly and to the point. One who decides to assemble a flock of goats should, in choosing his animals, have regard first to age, picking those of the age which is already capable of bringing in a profit, and this age preferably the one which can bring it longer; for the young goat is more profitable than the old. [2] As to conformation, see that they be strong and large, and have a smooth coat with thick hair, unless, to be sure, they belong to the hairless breed, for there are two breeds of goats. They should have two teat-like growths hanging under the chin, as such goats are more fertile; they should have rather large udders, so that they may give a greater quantity of milk and of richer quality in proportion. The buck should have hair which is rather soft and by preference white; short shoulders and neck; and a somewhat long throat. The flock is better if it is not formed of animals bought here and there, but of those which are accustomed to run together. [3] As to the breed, I make the remark which Atticus made with regard to sheep; with this exception, that the race of sheep is more quiet, inasmuch as they are gentler, while on the other hand that of goats is more nimble. As to their activity, Cato says in his Origines: ‘On Soracte and Fiscellum there are wild goats which make leaps of more than sixty feet from the cliffs.’ For just as the domesticated sheep is sprung from the wild sheep, so the domesticated goat is sprung from the wild goat; and the island Caprasia, off the coast of Italy, derives its name from these. [4] As she-goats which bear twins are of better stock, it is from these, preferably, that the males are usually chosen for service. Some owners are even careful to import she-goats from the island Melia, because it is thought that the largest and finest kids are produced there.
[5] “With regard to purchase, my rule is different from the usual practice, as no man sound of mind guarantees that goats (which are never free of fever) are sound of body. And so the bargain is struck with only a few exceptions made, after a formula derived from the code of Manilius: ‘Do you guarantee that the said goats are to-day in good condition and able to drink, and that the title is in proper form?’ There is a remarkable thing about these animals, and even Archelaus is authority for the statement: some shepherds who have watched quite closely claim that goats do not breathe, as other animals do, through the nostrils, but through the ears.
[6] “Of the other four points, I have this to say with regard to feeding: It is better to have the goat stalls face the sunrise in winter, as the animals feel the cold acutely. Such stalls, and in fact all stalls, should be floored with stone or tile, to prevent the goat-house from being wet and muddy. When they have to spend the night outdoors, their pens should face in the same direction, and they should be bedded down with twigs so that they may not be muddied. The care of this animal in the matter of feeding is about the same as that of the sheep, though each has certain peculiarities; [7] thus, the goat prefers wooded glades to meadows, as it eats eagerly the field bushes and crops the undergrowth on cultivated land. Indeed, their name capra is derived from carpere, to crop. It is because of this fact that in a contract for the lease of a farm the exception is usually made that the renter may not pasture the offspring of a goat on the place. For their teeth are injurious to all forms of growth; and though the astronomers have placed them in the sky, they have put them outside the circle of the twelve signs — there are two kids and a she-goat not far from Taurus. [8] As to breeding, at the close of autumn, while the herd is at pasture, the bucks are driven from it into the goat-houses, as was directed with regard to rams. The female which has conceived drops her kid four months later, during the spring. As to rearing, when the kids reach the age of three months they are turned out and begin to form part of the flock. What can I say of the health of animals which are never healthy? I can only make one remark: that the head goatherds keep written directions as to the remedies to be used for some of their diseases and for flesh wounds which they frequently receive, as they are always fighting one another with their horns, and as they crop in thorny places. [9] One topic remains — that of number. This is smaller in the goat herd than in the flock, as goats are wanton and scatter widely, while sheep, on the contrary, huddle together and crowd into the same space. Hence in the Ager Gallicus breeders keep numerous herds rather than large ones, because in large herds an epidemic quickly spreads, and this may ruin the owner. [10] A flock of about fifty is considered quite large enough. The experience of the Roman knight, Gaberius, is thought to prove this: He had a place containing 1000 iugera near the city, and hearing from a certain goatherd who drove ten goats to the city that they yielded him a denarius a day per head, he bought 1000 goats, hoping that he would make 1000 denarii a day profit. In which he was sadly mistaken, for within a short time he lost the whole flock by disease. Among the Sallentini, however, and around Casinum, they have herds running as high as 100. As to the proportion o
f males to females, there is about the same difference of opinion, some (and this is my own practice) keeping one buck to every ten does; others, such as Menas, one to fifteen; and still others, such as Murrius, one to twenty.
[4.1] “But who sails forth from harbour, and preferably from an Italian harbour, to discourse about swine? I need hardly ask, for that Scrofa should be chosen to speak on that subject this surname of his indicates.” “You seem,” said Tremelius in reply, “not to know why I have the nickname Scrofa. That these gentlemen, too, may learn the reason while you are being enlightened, you must know that my family does not bear a swinish surname, and that I am no descendant of Eumaeus. My grandfather was the first to be called Scrofa. He was quaestor to the praetor Licinius Nerva, in the province of Macedonia, and was left in command of the army until the return of the praetor. The enemy, thinking that they had an opportunity to win a victory, began a vigorous assault on the camp. [2] In the course of his plea to the soldiers to seize arms and go to meet them, my grandfather said that he would scatter those people as a sow scatters her pigs; and he was as good as his word. For he so scattered and routed the enemy in that battle that because of it the praetor Nerva received the title of Imperator, and my grandfather earned the surname of Scrofa. Hence neither my great-grandfather nor any of the Tremelii who preceded him was called by this surname of Scrofa; and I am no less than the seventh man of praetorian rank in succession in our family. [3] Still, I will not shrink from the task of telling what I know about swine. For I have been a close student of agriculture since my earliest days, and this matter of swine is of equal interest to me and to you who are large cattle-owners. For who of our people cultivates a farm without keeping swine? and who has not heard that our fathers called him lazy and extravagant who hung in his larder a flitch of bacon which he had purchased from the butcher rather than got from his own farm?
“A man, then, who wishes to keep his herd in good condition should select, first, animals of the proper age, secondly, of good conformation (that is, with heavy members, except in the case of feet and head), of uniform colour rather than spotted. You should see that the boars have not only these same qualities, but especially that their shoulders are well developed. [4] The breed of swine is determined by their appearance, their litter, and the locality from which they come: from their appearance if both boar and sow are handsome; from their litter if they produce numerous pigs; from the locality if you get them from places where fat rather than thin swine are produced. [5] The formula of purchase usually runs as follows: ‘Do you guarantee that the said swine are sound, and that the title is good, and that I am protected from suits for damage, and that they are not from a diseased herd?’ Some buyers add the stipulation that they have got through with fever and diarrhoea.
“In the matter of feeding, ground proper for this animal is wet, as it likes not only water but even mud. It is for this reason, they say, that wolves, when they catch swine, always drag them to water, because their teeth cannot endure the heat of the flesh. [6] As this animal feeds chiefly on mast, and next on beans, barley, and other grains, this food produces not only fat but a pleasant flavour in the flesh. In summer they are driven to pasture early in the day, and before the heat grows intense they are driven into a shady spot, preferably where there is water; then in the afternoon, when the heat has diminished, they are again turned out to pasture. In winter they are not turned out until the frost has disappeared and the ice has melted. [7] In the matter of breeding, the boars are to be separated out two months ahead. The best time for service is from the beginning of the west wind to the spring equinox, as in this case the litter is produced in summer. For the sow is pregnant for four months and will thus bear her young when the land is rich in food. Sows should not be bred when less than a year old, and it is better to wait until they are twenty months old, so that they will be two years old when they bear. When they once begin bearing it is said that they continue to do so satisfactorily up to the seventh year. [8] At the time of breeding they are driven into muddy lanes and pools, so that they may wallow in the mud; for this is their form of refreshment, as bathing is to human beings. After all the sows have conceived, the boars are again separated. The boar begins to cover at eight months and keeps his vigour up to three years; after which time he begins to deteriorate until he reaches the butcher, the appointed go-between of pork and the populace.
[9] “The Greek name for the pig is ὕς, once called θῦς from the verb θῦειν, that is, ‘to sacrifice’; for it seems that at the beginning of making sacrifices they first took the victim from the swine family. There are traces of this in these facts: that pigs are sacrificed at the initial rites of Ceres; that at the rites that initiate peace, when a treaty is made, a pig is killed; and that at the beginning of the marriage rites of ancient kings and eminent personages in Etruria, the bride and groom, in the ceremonies which united them, first sacrificed a pig. [10] The ancient Latins, too, as well as the Greeks living in Italy, seem to have had the same custom; for our women, and especially nurses, call that part which in girls is the mark of their sex porcus, as Greek women call it choeros, meaning thereby that it is a distinctive part mature enough for marriage. There is a saying that the race of pigs is expressly given by nature to set forth a banquet; and that accordingly life was given them just like salt, to preserve the flesh. The Gauls usually make the best and largest flitches of them; it is a sign of their excellence that annually Comacine and Cavarine hams and shoulders are still imported from Gaul to Rome. [11] With regard to the size of the Gallic flitches, Cato uses this language: ‘The Insubrians in Italy salt down three and four thousand flitches; in spring the sow grows so fat that she cannot stand on her own feet, and cannot take a step; and so when one is to be taken anywhere it is placed in a wagon.’ Atilius of Spain, a thoroughly truthful man and one widely versed in a variety of subjects, used to tell the story that when a sow was killed in Lusitania, a district of Farther Spain, there was sent to the senator Lucius Volumnius a piece of the meat with two ribs attached which weighed •three-and-twenty pounds; and that the meat of that sow was •one foot three fingers thick from skin to bone.” [12] “No less remarkable a thing was told me in Arcadia,” I remarked; “I recall that I went to look at a sow which was so fat that not only could she not rise to her feet, but actually a shrew-mouse had eaten a hole in her flesh, built her nest, and borne her young. I have heard that the same thing occurred in Venetia.”
[13] “It may usually be determined from the first litter which sow is prolific in breeding, as there is not much difference in the number of pigs in the succeeding litters. As to rearing, which is called porculatio, the pigs are allowed to remain with their mothers for two months; in the second month, after they are able to feed, they are removed. Pigs born in winter are apt to grow thin on account of the cold and because the mothers drive them off on account of the scantiness of the milk, and the consequent bruising of their teats by the teeth of the pigs. Each sow should have her separate sty in which to feed her pigs; because she does not drive away the pigs of a strange litter, and so, if they become mixed she deteriorates in breeding. [14] Her year is naturally divided into two parts, as she bears twice a year, being with young for four months and giving suck for two. The sty should be constructed •about three feet high, and a little more than that across, at such a height from the ground that if the sow when pregnant should try to jump out, she will not cast her young. The height of the pen should be such that the swineherd can easily look around it, to prevent the little pigs from being crushed by the mother, and be able to clean the bottom without trouble. The sty should have a door with the lower sill •one and a third feet high, so that the pigs cannot jump over it when the mother leaves the sty. [15] Whenever the swineherd cleans the sty he should always cover the floor with sand, or throw into each sty something to soak up the moisture; and when a sow has young he should feed her more bountifully so that she may more easily supply milk. They are usually fed about two pounds of barley soaked i
n water; some double this amount, feeding both morning and evening, if they have no other food to give. [16] Pigs when weaned are by some people no longer called ‘sucking-pigs,’ but delici or shoats. On the tenth day after birth they are considered ‘pure,’ and for that reason the ancients called them sacres, because they are said to be fit for sacrifice first at that age. Hence in Plautus’s play, the Menaechmi, the scene of which is laid in Epidamnus, a character who, thinking that another is mad, wants him to make sacrifice and be cured, asks: ‘What’s the price of porci sacres in this town?’ Wine dregs and grape refuse are usually fed them if the farm produces these. [17] When they have outgrown the name of sucking-pigs they are called nefrendes, from the fact that they are not able to ‘crunch’ (frendere), that is crush, beans. Porcus is an old Greek word, but it is obsolete, as they now use the word choeros. At the time of bearing, care is taken to see that the sows drink twice a day for the sake of the milk. The saying is that a sow should bear as many pigs as she has teats; if she bear less she will not pay for herself, and if she bear more it is a portent. [18] It is recorded that the most ancient portent of this kind is the sow of Aeneas at Lavinium, which bore thirty white pigs; and the portent was fulfilled in that thirty years later the people of Lavinium founded the town of Alba. Traces of this sow and her pigs are to be seen even to this day; there are bronze images of them standing in public places even now, and the body of the sow is exhibited by the priests, having been kept in brine, according to their account. [19] A sow can feed eight little pigs at first; but when they have taken on weight it is the practice of experienced breeders to remove half of them, as the mother cannot supply enough milk and the whole of the litter cannot grow fat. The mother is not driven out of the sty except for water during the first ten days after delivery; but after this time they are allowed to range for food in near-by parts of the steading, so that they may come back often and feed their pigs. [20] When these are grown they are allowed to follow the mother to pasture; but when they come home they are separated from the mothers and fed apart, so as to grow accustomed to the lack of the mother’s nourishment, a point which they reach in ten days. The swineherd should accustom them to do everything to the sound of the horn. At first they are penned in; and then, when the horn sounds, the sty is opened so that they can come out into the place where barley is spread out. This is spread in a row because in that way less is wasted than if it is heaped up, and more of them can reach it easily. The idea in having them gather at the sound of the horn is that they may not become lost when scattered in wooded country. [21] The best time for castrating the boars is when one year old, and certainly not less than six months; when this is done their name is changed, and they are called ‘barrows’ instead of boars. As to the health of swine, I shall give but one illustration: if the sow cannot furnish enough milk for the sucking-pigs, toasted wheat should be fed (for raw wheat loosens the bowels), or barley soaked in water, until they are three months old. [22] As to numbers, ten boars are considered enough for 100 sows, and some breeders even lessen this number. The number in a herd varies; for myself I consider a herd of 100 a reasonable number, but some breeders have larger ones, the number sometimes going as high as 150. Some double the size of the herd, and others have even a larger herd. A rather small herd is less expensive than one too large, as the herdsman requires fewer helpers; and so the breeder determines the size of the herd by his own advantage, and not as he determines the number of boars to keep, as this latter point is derived from nature.”
Delphi Complete Works of Varro Page 9