ed
to eat by giving them appetizing food, and care should be taken that
they do not suffer from cold or heat. When at last they have forgotten
the taste of milk and no longer yearn for the dam, they may be driven
out with the flock.

"A ram lamb should not be altered until he is five months old, nor yet
in very hot or very cold weather. Those which you wish to keep for
rams should be chosen as far as possible from dams who are in the
habit of having twin lambs.

"Most of these recommendations apply equally to those fine wool sheep
which are called _pellitae_, because they are jacketed with skins, as
is done at Tarentum and in Attica, to protect their wool from fouling,
for by this precaution the fleece is kept in better plight for dyeing,
washing or cleaning. Greater diligence is required to keep clean the
folds and stables of such sheep than is necessary for the ordinary
breeds: so they are paved with stone to the end that no urine may
stand anywhere in the stable.

"Sheep eat whatever is put before them--fig leaves, marc, even straw.
Bran should be fed to them in moderation, lest they eat either too
much or too little of it, in either of which cases it is bad for the
digestion, but clover and alfalfa agree with them best and make both
fat and milk with the utmost facility.

"So far as concerns the health of the flock, there are many things
I might add, but, as Scrofa has said, the flock master keeps his
prescriptions written down in a book and carries with him what he
needs in the way of physic.

"It remains to speak of the number of sheep in a flock. Some make this
more, some less, for there is no natural limit. In Epirus almost all
of us have a rule not to allow more than one hundred short wool sheep
or fifty fine wool jacketed sheep to a shepherd."

_Of goats_

III. As Atticus stopped, Cossinius took him up. "Come, my dear
Faustulus," he cried, "you have bleated long enough. Take now from me,
as from a late born Homeric Melanthius,[123] a small offering from my
flock of goats, and at the same time learn a lesson in brevity. He
who wishes to form a flock of goats should consider in choosing them:
first of all that they are of an age capable of breeding, and that for
some time to come, for a tiro is more useful for that purpose than a
veteran. As to conformation, see to it that they are strong and large,
with a smooth body and thick coat: but beware of the short haired
goat, for there are both kinds. The