ithout the aid
of a physician, the flock master should have the rules written down:
indeed, the flock master must have some education, otherwise he can
never keep his flock accounts properly.[153]

"As to the number of shepherds, some make a narrow, some a broad,
allowance. I have one shepherd for every eighty long wool sheep:
Atticus here has one for every hundred. One can reduce the number
of men required in respect of large flocks (like those containing
a thousand head or more) much more readily than in respect of
comparatively small flocks, like Atticus' and mine, for I have only
seven hundred head of sheep, and you, Atticus, have, I believe, eight
hundred, though we are alike in providing a ram for every ten ewes.
Two men are required to care for a herd of fifty mares: and each of
them should have a mare broken for riding to serve as a mount in those
localities where it is the custom to drive the mares to pasture, as
often happens in Apulia and Lucania."

_Of milk and cheese and wool_

XI. "And now that we have fulfilled our promise, let us go," said
Cossinius.

"Not until you have added some thing," I cried, "concerning that
supplemental profit from cattle which was promised; namely, of milk
and cheese and the shearing of wool."

So Cossinius resumed:

"Ewes' milk, and, after it, goats' milk, is the most nourishing of all
liquids which we drink. As a purgative, mares' milk ranks first, and,
after it, in order, asses' milk, cows' milk and goats' milk, but
the quality depends upon what has been fed to the cattle, upon the
condition of the cattle, and upon when it is milked.

"So far as concerns the food of the cattle, milk is nourishing which
is made from barley and stover and other such kinds of dry and hard
cattle food.

"So far as concerns its purgative qualities, milk is good when made
from green stuff, especially if it is grass containing plants which,
taken by themselves, have a purgative effect upon the human body.

"So far as concerns the condition of the cattle, that milk is best
which comes from cattle in vigorous health and from those still young.

"So far as concerns the time of milking, that milk is best which comes
neither from a 'stripper' nor from a recently fresh dam.

"The cheese made of cows' milk is the most agreeable to the taste but
the most difficult to digest: next, that of ewes' milk, while the
least agreeable in taste, but the most easily digested, is that of
goats' milk.