by way of
example: if the sow is not able to supply milk the sucking pigs should
be fed, until they are three months old, on roasted wheat (for when it
is raw it loosens the bowels) or on barley boiled in water.

"As to number: it is considered that ten boars to an hundred sows is
enough; some even reduce this proportion.

"The practice varies as to the number to a herd, but my judgment is
that a hundred is a moderate number: some make it more, say 150: some
feed two herds together, and some do even more than that. A small herd
is less expensive than a large one because the swineherd requires less
assistance. A swinefeeder should fix the number to be fed as a herd on
a principle of utility, not by the number of boars he may happen to
have, for that is determined by nature."

So far Scrofa.

_Of neat cattle_

V. At this point we were joined by the Senator Q. Lucienus, a man as
learned as he is agreeable and intimate with us all. "Hail, my fellow
citizens of Epirus," he exclaimed in Greek,[135] "and you, my dear
Varro, 'shepherd of men,' for I have already greeted Scrofa this
morning."

While one saluted him, another reproached him for having come so late
to our club.

"I will see to that, my merry men, for I am about to offer you my back
and a scourge: or else, Murrius, you who are my friend: come with me
while I pay a forfeit to the goddess Pales, so that you may bear me
witness if our friends here seek to make me do it again."

"Tell him," said Atticus, turning to Murrius, "what we have been
talking about and what is still on the programme, so that when his
turn comes he may be prepared. In the meantime we will take up the
second order of domestic live stock and proceed to a discussion of the
larger cattle."

"In this," said Vaccius, "my name would seem to assign me a part,
since cows (_vaccae_) are included in that category. Wherefore I will
tell what I know about neat cattle, so that he who knows less may
learn, while he who knows more may correct me when I fall down."

"Be careful what you do, Vaccius," said I, "for the genus _Bos_ is
of the first importance among cattle, certainly in Italy, which is
thought to have taken its very name from that family, for, as Timaeus
records, in ancient Greece a bull was called [Greek: italos], whence
is derived our word _vitula_, and from this Italy is supposed to have
taken its name because of the number and beauty of its breed, of
cattle (_vituli_). Others claim