or we do not see L. Fundilius who invited us."

"Be of good cheer," replied Agrius, "for not only has that egg which
indicates the last lap of the chariot race in the games at the circus
not yet been removed, but we have not even seen that other egg which
is the first course of dinner.[54] And so until the Sacristan returns
and joins us do you discourse to us of the uses or the pleasures of
agriculture, or of both. For now the sceptre of agriculture is in your
hands, which formerly, they say, belonged to Stolo."

"First of all," began Scrofa, "we must have a definition. Are we to be
limited in discussing agriculture to the planting of the land or are
we to touch also on those other occupations which are carried on in
the country, such as feeding sheep and cattle. For I have observed
that those who write on agriculture, whether in Greek or Punic or
Latin, wander widely from their subject."

"I do not think that those authors should be imitated in that," said
Stolo, "for I deem them to have done better who have confined the
subject to the straitest limits, excluding all considerations which
are not strictly pertinent to the subject. Wherefore the subject of
grazing, which many writers treat as a part of agriculture, seems to
me to belong rather to a treatise on live stock. That the occupations
are different is apparent from the difference in the names of those we
put in charge of them, for we call one the farmer (_villicus_) and the
other the herdsman (_magister pecoris_). The farmer is charged with
the cultivation of the land and is so called from the _villa_ or farm
house to which he hauls in the crops from the fields and from which he
hauls them away when they are sold. Wherefore also the peasants say
_vea_ for _via_, deriving their word for the road over which they haul
from the name of the vehicle in which they do the hauling, _vectura_,
and by the same derivation _vella_ for _villa_, the farm house to and
from which they haul. In like manner the trade of a carrier is called
_vellatura_ from the practice of driving a _vectura_, or cart."

"Surely," said Fundanius, "feeding cattle is one thing and agriculture
is another, but they are related. Just as the right pipe of the
_tibia_ is different from the left pipe, yet are they complements
because while the one leads, it is to carry the air, and the other
follows, it is for the accompaniment."

"And, to push your analogy further, it may be added," said I, "that
the