"There is also a distinction between cheese when it is soft and new
made and when it is dry and old, for when it is soft it is more
nourishing and digestible, but the opposite is true of old and dry
cheese.

"The custom is to make cheese from the rising of the Pleiades in spring
to their rising in summer, and yet the rule is not invariable, because
of difference in locality and the supply of forage.

"The practice is to add a quantity of rennet, equal to the size of an
olive, to two _congii_ of milk to make it curdle. The rennet taken
from the stomachs of the hare and the kid is better than that from
lambs, but some use as a ferment the milk of the fig tree mixed with
vinegar, and some times sprinkled with other vegetable products.
In parts of Greece this is called [Greek: opos], elsewhere [Greek:
dakruos]."

"I am prepared to believe," I said, "that the fig tree standing beside
the chapel of the goddess Rumina[154] was planted by shepherds for the
purpose you mention, for there is it the practice to make libations of
milk rather than of wine or to sacrifice suckling pigs. For men used
to use the word _rumis_ or _ruma_ where we now say _mamma_, signifying
a teat: hence even now suckling lambs are called _subrumi_ from the
teat they suck, just as we call suckling pigs _lactantes_ from _lac_,
the milk that comes from the teat."

Cossinius resumed:

"If you sprinkle your cheese with salt it is better to use the mineral
than the marine kind.

"Concerning the shearing of sheep, the first thing to be looked into
before you begin is that the sheep are not suffering from scab or
sores, as it is better to wait, if necessary, until they are cured
before shearing.

"The time to shear is between the vernal equinox and the summer
solstice, when the sheep begin to sweat (it is the sweat which gives
new clipped wool its name _sucida_). As soon as the sheep are sheared
they are smeared with a mixture[155] of wine and oil, some add white
wax and hogs' grease. If they are sheep which are kept blanketed, the
inside of the blanket should be anointed with this mixture before it
is put on again.

"If the sheep has suffered any wound during the shearing, it should be
treated with liquid tar.

"Long wool sheep are usually sheared about the time of the barley
harvest: in some places before the hay harvest.

"Some men shear their sheep twice a year, as in hither Spain, investing
double work because they think they get more wool,