at swallows and swans breed in Italy, which do not lay in other
lands, and don't you know that the Syrian date palm, which bears fruit
in Judea, does not yield in Italy?"

"If you prefer," said Scrofa, "to make out the entire eighty-one
chapters without any on the care of mules during the breeding season,
there are subjects with which you can fill this double vacancy by
adding those two kinds of extraordinary profit which is derived from
live stock. One of these is the fleece which men shear or pull from
sheep and goats, the other, which is more widely practised, that
from milk and cheese: the Greek writers indeed actually treat this
separately under the title [Greek: turopoiia], and have written
extensively about it."

_Of sheep_

II. "And now, since I have completed my task and the economy of live
stock husbandry has been defined, do you, men of Epirus, requite us
by expounding the subject in detail, so that we may see of what the
shepherds of Pergamis and Maledos are capable."

At this challenge, Atticus (who then was known as T. Pomponius but now
as Q. Caecilius retaining the same cognomen)[117] began as follows:

"I gather that I must make the beginning since you seem to turn your
eyes upon me: so I will speak of those cattle which you, Varro, have
called primitive, for you say that sheep were the first of the wild
beasts of the field which were captured and domesticated by man.

"In the first place you should buy good sheep, and they are so judged
primarily in respect of their age, that they are not what is known
as aged nor yet undeveloped lambs, because neither can yield you any
profit, the one no longer, the other not yet: but you may deem that
age which holds out a promise preferable to that whose only future is
death. So far as concerns conformation, a sheep should have a round
barrel, wool thick and soft and with long fibre, and, while heavy all
over the body, it should be thickest on the back and neck, and yet the
belly also should be covered, for unless the belly was covered our
ancestors were wont to call a sheep _apica_ and throw it out. They
should have short legs,[118] and, if they are of the Italian breed, long
tails, or short tails if they come from Syria. The most important
point to guard is that your flock is headed by a good sire. The
quality of a ram can usually be determined from his conformation and
from his get. So far as concerns conformation, a ram should have a
face well covered wi