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I
There are two modes of human life, my dear Pinnius, which are
manifestly as different in the time of their origin as they are in
their habitat, that of the country and that of the town. Country life
is much the more ancient, for time was when men lived altogether in
the country and had no towns: indeed, the oldest town in Greece,
according to the tradition, is the Boeotian Thebes, which was founded
by King Ogyges, and in our own land that of Rome, founded by King
Romulus of which now it may be affirmed with confidence, as was not
possible when Ennius wrote:
"'Tis seven hundred years, or more or less,
Since first illustrious Rome began her sway,
With hallowed augury."
Now, if it is admitted that Thebes was founded before the deluge,
which is known by Ogyges' name, its age is not more than about
twenty-one hundred years: and if that period is compared with the
lapse of time since men began to cultivate the land and to live in
huts and hovels, knowing naught of city walls and gates, it is evident
that life in the country preceded life in town by a tale of immemorial
years. Nor is this to be wondered at since 'God made the country and
man made the town.'[157] While the tradition is that all the arts were
invented in Greece within a thousand years, there never was a time
when the earth could not be cultivated. And, as life in the country
is the more ancient, so it is the better life: for it was not without
good reason that our ancestors were wont to plant colonies of citizens
in the country, because by them they were both fed in times of peace
and protected in times of war: nor was it without significance that
they called both the Earth and Ceres by the common name of Mother and
esteemed that those who worshipped her lead a life at once pious and
useful and were the sole representatives left on earth of the race of
Saturn. A proof of this is that the mysteries peculiar to the cult of
Ceres were called Initia, the very name indicating that they related
to the beginning of things.
A further proof that country life was earlier than that of town is
found in the name of the town of Thebes, which was bestowed from the
character of its situation rather than from the name of its founder:
for in the ancient language, and among the Aeolians who had their
origin in Boeotia, a small hill is called tebas without the
aspirate; and in the Sabine country, where Pelasgians from Greece
settled, they still have the same locution: witness that hill called
Tebae which stands in the Sabine country on the via Salaria not far
from the mile stone of Reate. At first agriculture was conducted on so
small a scale that it had little distinction, since those who followed
it, being sprung from shepherds, at once sowed their corn and
pastured their flocks on the same land, but as later this art grew in
importance the husbandry of live stock was separated, and it befel
that some men were called farmers and others shepherds.
The art of feeding live stock should really be divided into two
branches, as is not yet fully appreciated, one relating to the stock
kept at the steading, the other to the stock pastured in the fields.
The latter, which is designated by the name pecuaria, is well known
and highly esteemed so that rich men, either lease or buy much
pasture land in order to carry it on: the other, which is known as
villatice, has, because it seemed to be of less importance, been
treated by some as an incident of the husbandry of agriculture, when
in fact it should be made a part of the husbandry of live stock: nor
has it been described separately and at length by any one, so far as I
know.
And so, as I think that there are three branches of farm management
which are undertaken for profit, namely: agriculture, live stock and
the industries peculiar to the steading, I have planned three books,
of which I have already written two, the first concerning the
husbandry of agriculture, which I dedicated to my wife Fundania, and
the second concerning the husbandry of live stock to Turranius Niger:
the third, relating to the profits of those industries which are
carried on at the steading, I now send herewith to you; for the fact
that we are neighbours and entertain a mutual affection seems to
demand that it should be dedicated to you above all others.
Although you have a villa, which is remarkable for the beauty of its
workmanship within and without, and for the splendour of its mosaic
pavements, still you deem it to be bare unless you have the walls
decorated also with books: so in like manner that your villa may be
more distinguished by the profits you derive from it than by the
character of its construction, and that I may be of assistance to that
end, so far as may be, I have sent you this book, which is a summary
of some conversations which we have had on the subject of what makes
the perfectly equipped villa: and so I begin as follows:
Of the definition of a Roman villa
-
The Senator Q. Axius, my fellow tribesman, and I had cast our
votes at the comitia for the election of aediles, and, although it was
the heat of the day, we wished to be on hand when the candidate whom
we were supporting should go home. So Axius said to me: "What would
you think of taking shelter in the _villa publica_[158] while the votes
are being sorted rather than in the booth of our candidate." "I hold,"
said I, "not only with the proverb that bad advice is worst for him
who gives it, but that good advice is good for both the giver and the
taker."
And so we made our way to the villa publica, where we found Appius
Claudius,[159] the Augur, seated on a bench waiting for any call for his
services by the Consul: on his left was Cornelius Merula (blackbird)
of the Consular family of that name, and Fircellius Pavo (pea-cock)
of Reate, and on his right Minutius Pica (mag-pie) and M. Petronius
Passer (sparrow). When we had approached them Axius, smiling, said to
Appius: "May we come into your aviary where you are sitting among the
birds?"
"By all means," replied Appius, "and especially you who set before me
such birds as still make my mouth water, when I was your guest a few
days ago at your Reatine villa on my way to lake Velinus to settle the
controversy between the people of Interamna and Reate.[160]
"But" he added, "is not this villa, which our ancestors constructed,
simpler and so better than that elaborate one of yours at Reate: do
you see any where here any furniture of citrus wood or ormolu, any
decorations of vermillion or blue, any tessellations or mosaic work,
all of which on the other hand were displayed in your house? And while
this is open to the entire people, yours is available to you alone:
this is the resort for the citizens after the comitia in the Campus
Martius, and for all alike, while yours is reserved for mares and
asses. And furthermore it should be considered that this building is
useful in carrying on the public business, for here the consuls review
the army on parade, here the arms are inspected, here the censors
enumerate the people."
"Tell me," retorted Axius, "which is useful, this villa of yours
giving on the Campus Martius, more extravagantly arrayed with objects
of art than all Reate put together, so bedizened is it with pictures
and garnished with statues, or mine where there is no trace of the
artists Lysippus or Antiphilus, but there are many of the farm hand
and the shepherd?
"And since there can be no villa where there is no farm and that well
cultivated, how can you call this house of yours a villa which has no
land appurtenant to it and no cattle or horses? Again, tell me, pray,
how does your villa compare with that of your grandfather and great
grandfather, for one cannot see at yours, as one could always see at
theirs, cured hay in the mows, the vintage in the cellar, and the
harvest in the granary? Because, forsooth, a house is situated out of
town, it is no more a villa for that reason than the houses of those
who dwell beyond the Porta Flumentaria or in the Aemiliana suburb."
"Since it appears that I do not know what a villa is," replied Appius,
smiling, "I wish you would be good enough to instruct me, so that I
may not make a fool of myself, as I am planning to buy from M. Seius
his villa at Ostia: for if a mere house is not a villa unless it is
equipped with a jackass costing forty thousand sesterces ($2,000),
like that you showed me at your place, I fear that I would be making
a mistake in buying Seius' house on the shore at Ostia in the belief
that it is a villa. But it was our friend Merula here who put me in
mind of buying this house, for he told me that he had spent several
days there and that he had never seen a more delightful villa, and yet
he saw there no paintings, nor any bronze or marble statues, neither
did he see any wine press, or oil mill, or oil jars."
"And what kind of a villa is this," said Axius, turning to Merula,
"where there are neither the ornaments of a town house nor the
utensils of a farm?"
"Do you consider," said Merula, "that your house on the bank of
Velinus, which neither painter nor architect has ever seen, is any
less a villa than the one you have in Rosea so elegantly decorated
with the work of an architect and which you share with your famous
jackass?"
Axius admitted, with a nod, that a simple farm house was as much
entitled to be called a villa as any house which united the
characteristics of both town and country, and asked what he deduced
from this.
"What?" said Merula. "Why, if your estate in Rosea is to be approved
by reason of the husbandry which you carry on, and is properly called
a villa because there cattle are fed and stabled, then, by the same
reasoning, all those houses should be called villas in which large
profits are derived from husbandry: for what difference does it make
whether you derive your profit from sheep or from birds? Is the income
any sweeter which comes from cattle in which bees are generated, than
from the bees themselves, such as work in their hives at the villa of
Seius? Do you sell to the butcher the hogs which you raise at your
farm for more than Seius sells his wild boars to the meat market?"
"Am I any less able," replied Axius, "to have these things at my farm
at Reate: is Sicilian honey made at Seius' place and only Corsican
honey at Reate,[161] and does the mast which he buys for his wild boars
make them fat while that which I get for nothing from my woods makes
mine lean?"
"But," said Appius, "Merula does not deny that you can carry on at
your villa the kind of husbandry which Seius does at his, yet I myself
have seen that you don't.
"For there are two kinds of husbandry of live stock: one in the fields,
as of cattle; and the other at the steading, as of chickens and
pigeons and bees and other such things which are usually kept at a
villa.
"About the latter, Mago the Carthaginian, and Cassius Dionysius and
others have treated specially in different parts of their books, and
it would seem that Seius has read their precepts and so has learned
how to make more profit from his villa alone by such husbandry than
others make out of an entire farm."
"Certainly," agreed Merula, "for I have seen there great flocks of
geese, chickens, pigeons, cranes and pea-cocks: also dormice, fish,
wild boars and other such game.[162] The freedman who keeps his books
which Varro has seen, assured me when he was doing the honours in the
absence of his master, that Seius derives an income of more than fifty
thousand sesterces ($2,500) per annum from his villa."
As Axius seemed astonished, I asked him: "Surely you know the estate
of my aunt in the Sabine country which is at the twenty-fourth mile
stone from Rome on the via Salaria."
"Of course, I do," Axius replied, "for it is there that I am wont to
divide the day in summer on my way from Reate to town and to spend the
night when I come thence in winter."
"Well," I continued, "in that villa there is an aviary from which
I know that there were taken in one season five thousand thrushes,
which, at three deniers apiece, means that that department of the
establishment brought in a revenue of sixty thousand sesterces that
year, or twice the yield of the entire two hundred jugera of your farm
at Reate."[163]
"What, sixty thousand," exclaimed Axius, "sixty thousand: you are
making game of me!"
"Sixty thousand," I affirmed, "but in order that you might realize
such a lucky throw you will require either a public banquet or a
triumph on the scale of that of Scipio Metellus, or club dinners,
which indeed have now become so frequent as to raise the price of
provisions of the market."
"You will perchance expect this return every year," said Merula, "so I
trust that your aviary may not lead you into a loss. But surely in such
good times as these it could not happen that you would fail, except
rarely, for what year is there that does not see such a feast or a
triumph, or club dinners, such as now-a-days consume victuals without
number. Nay," he added, "it seems that in our habit of luxury such a
public banquet is a daily occurrence within the gates of Rome."[164]
To supplement the examples of such profits: L. Albutius, a learned
man and, as you know, the author of certain satires in the manner of
Lucilius, has said that the returns from feeding live stock on his
Alban farm are always less than his income from his villa, for the
farm yields less than ten thousand sesterces and the villa more than
twenty. He even maintains that if he should establish a villa near
the sea in such a place as he might choose he could derive from it
an income of more than a hundred thousand sesterces. Did not M. Cato
recently sell forty thousand sesterces worth of fishes from the fish
ponds of Lucullus after he had accepted the administration of his
estate?"
"My dear Merula," exclaimed Axius, "take me, I beg of you, as your
pupil in the art of the husbandry of the steading."
"I will begin," replied Merula, "as soon as you promise me a minerval
in the form of a dinner."[165]
"You shall have it," said Axius, "both today, and hereafter as well,
off those delicacies you will teach me to rear."
"I fear," replied Merula, "that what you may offer me at the beginning
of your experience with villa feeding will be dead geese or deceased
pea-cocks."
"And what difference will it make to you," retorted Axius, "if I do
serve you fish or fowl which has come to an untimely end: for in no
event could you eat them unless they were dead: but I beg you," he
added, "matriculate me in the school of villa husbandry and expound to
me the theory and the practice of it."
Merula accepted the invitation cheerfully.
Of the Roman development of the industries of the steading
-
"In the first place," he said, "you should know what kind of
creatures you may raise or feed in or about a villa, either for your
profit or for your pleasure. There are three divisions for this study:
poultry houses, warrens and fish ponds.
"I include under the head of poultry houses the feeding of all kinds of
fowls which are usually kept within the walls of a steading: under the
head of warrens not merely what our great grandfathers meant--places
where rabbits were usually kept--but any enclosure adjoining a villa
in which game animals are enclosed to be fed. In like manner I include
under the head of fish ponds all those places in which fish are kept
at a villa either in fresh or salt water.
"Each of these divisions may be separated into at least two parts: thus
the first, that with respect to poultry houses, should be treated with
reference to a classification of fowls as between those which are
content on land alone, such as pea-cocks, turtle doves, thrushes; and
those which require access to water as well as land, such as geese,
widgeons and ducks. So the second division, that relating to game, has
two different classifications: one which includes the wild boar, the
roe buck and hares; the other bees, snails and dormice.
"The third, or aquatic division, likewise has two classifications, one
including fresh water fish, the other salt water fish.
"In order to secure and maintain a supply of these six classes of stock
it is necessary to provide a force of three kinds of artificers,
namely: fowlers, hunters and fishermen, or else you may buy breeding
stock from such men, and trust to the diligence of your servants to
rear and fatten their offspring until they are ready for market.
Certain of them, such as dormice, snails and chickens, may, however,
be obtained without the aid of a hunter's net, and doubtless the
business of keeping them began with the stock native to every farm:
for the breeding even of chickens has not been a monopoly of the Roman
augurs, to make provision for their auspices, but has been practised
by all farmers from the beginning of time.[166] From such a start in the
kind of husbandry we are now discussing, the next step was to provide
masonry enclosures near the steading to confine game, and these served
as well for shelter for the bee-stand, for originally the bees were
wont to make their hives under the eaves of the farm house itself.
"The third division, that of keeping fish, had its origin in simple
fresh water ponds in which fish taken in the streams were kept.
"There have been two steps in the development of each of these three
conveniences; the earlier distinguished by the ancient simplicity,
the later by our modern luxury. The earlier stage was that of our
ancestors, who had but two places for keeping poultry: one the court
yard of the steading in which chickens were fed and their profit
derived from eggs and pullets, the other above ground, for their
pigeons were kept in the dormers or on the roof of the farm house.
"Now-a-days, on the contrary, what our ancestors called hen-houses are
known as ornithones, and serve to house thrushes and pea-cocks
to cater to the delicate appetite of the master: and indeed such
structures now have larger roofs than formerly sufficed to cover an
entire farm house.
"Such has been the progress in respect of warrens also: your father,
Axius, never saw any game but rabbits, nor did there exist in his time
any such extensive enclosures as now are made, many jugera in extent,
to hold wild boars and roe bucks. You can witness," he said, turning
to me, "that you found many wild boars in the warren of your farm at
Tusculum, when you bought it from M. Piso."
In respect of the third class, who was there who used to have any kind
of a fish pond, except of fresh water, stocked merely with cat fish
and mullets, while today our elegants declare that they would as soon
have a pond stocked with frogs as with those fish I have named. You
will recall the story of Philippus when he was entertained at Casinum
by Ummidius: a pickerel caught in your river, Varro, was put before
him, he tasted it and forthwith spat it out, exclaiming "May I perish,
but I thought it was fish!"[167]
As the luxury of this age has enlarged our warrens, so has it carried
our fish ponds even to the sea itself and has herded shoals of sea
fish into them. Have not Sergius Orata (goldfish) and Licinius Murena
(lamprey) taken their cognomens from fishes for this reason? And who
does not know the fame of the fish ponds of Philippus, of Hortensius,
and of the brothers Lucullus?
"Where, then, Axius, do you wish me to begin?"
Of aviaries
-
"I prefer," replied Axius, "that you should begin with the
sequel--postprincipia, as they say in the camps--that is, with
the present day rather than with the past, because the profits from
pea-cocks are greater than those from hens, I will not dissemble that
I wish to hear first of ornithones because the thrushes which are
kept in them make the very name sound like money: indeed, the 60,000
sesterces of Fircelina have consumed me with avarice."
"There are two kinds of ornithones," replied Merula; "one for
pleasure, like that so much admired which our friend Varro here has at
his villa near Casinum: the other for profit, such as are maintained
commercially, some even indoors in town, but chiefly in the Sabine
country which abounds in thrushes. There is a third kind, consisting
of a combination of the two I have mentioned, such as Lucullus
maintained at his Tusculan villa, where he contrived a dining room
under the same roof as his aviary to the end that he might feast
delicately, satisfying two senses, now by eating the birds cooked and
spread on a platter, now by seeing them flying about the windows: but
the truth is that he was disappointed, for the eyes did not take as
much pleasure from the sight of the flying birds as the nostrils were
offended by their odour."
a. For profit
-
"But, as I gather you would prefer, Axius, I will speak of that kind
of ornithon which is established for profit, whence, but not where,
fat thrushes are served.
"For this purpose is built a dome, in the form of a peristyle, with
a roof over it and enclosed with netting, sufficiently large to
accommodate several thousand thrushes[168] and blackbirds; indeed, some
also include other kinds of birds, such as ortolans and quail, which
sell for a good price when fat. Into this enclosure water should be
conducted through a conduit and so disposed as to wind through the
aviary in channels narrow enough to be cleaned easily (for if the
water spreads out it is quickly polluted and rendered unfit to drink)
and draining like a running stream to find its vent through another
conduit, so that the birds may not be exposed to the risk of mud. The
door should be low and narrow and well balanced on its hinges like
the doors they have in the amphitheatres where bulls are fought: few
windows and so placed that the birds cannot see trees and wild birds
without, for that makes the prisoners pine and grow thin. The place
should have only so much light as may be necessary to enable the birds
to see where they are to perch and to eat and drink. The doors and the
windows should be lightly stuccoed round about to keep out rats and
other such vermin.
"Around the wall of the building on the inside are fastened many
perches where the birds can sit, and another such convenience should
be contrived from poles set on the ground and leaning against the
walls and tied together with other poles fastened transversely at
regular intervals, thus giving the appearance of the rising degrees of
a theatre. Down on the ground near the drinking water you should place
the birds' food, which usually consists of little balls of a paste
made out of figs and corn meal: but for twenty days before you intend
to market your thrushes it is customary to feed them more heavily,
both by giving them more food and that chiefly of finer meal.
"In this enclosure there should also be cages with wooden floors which
may serve the birds as resting places supplementing the perches.
"Next to the aviary should be contrived a smaller structure, called the
seclusorium, in which the keeper may array the birds found dead, to
render an account of them to his master, and where he may drive the
birds which are ready for market from the larger aviary: and to this
end this smaller room is connected with the main cage by a large door
and has more light: and there, when he has collected the number he
wishes to market, the keeper kills them, which is done secretly, lest
the others might despond at the sight and themselves die before they
are ready for market.
"Thrushes are not like other birds of passage which lay their eggs in
particular places, as the swan does in the fields and the swallows
under the roof, but they lay anywhere: for, despite their masculine
name (turdus) there are female thrushes, just as there are male
blackbirds, although they have a purely feminine name (merula).
"All birds are divided as between those which are of passage, like
swallows and cranes, and those which are domestic, like chickens and
pigeons: thrushes are birds of passage and every year fly from across
the sea into Italy about the time of the autumn equinox, returning
about the spring equinox. At another season doves and quail do the
same in immense numbers, as may be seen in the neighbouring islands of
Pontia, Palmaria and Pandataria, for there they are wont to rest a few
days on their arrival and again before they set out across the sea
from Italy."
b. For pleasure
"So," said Appius to Axius, "if you enclose five thousand thrushes
in such an aviary as Merula has described and there happens to be a
banquet or a triumph, you will gain forthwith that sixty thousand
sesterces which you so keenly covet and be able to lend the money out
at good interest." And then, turning to me, he added, "Do you tell us
of that other kind of ornithon, namely: for pleasure merely, for it is
said that you have constructed one near Casinum which surpasses not
only the original built by the inventor of such flying cages, our
friend M. Laenius Strabo of Brundisium (who was the first to keep
birds confined in the chamber of a peristyle and to feed them through
the net), but also the vast structures of Lucullus at Tusculum."
"You know," I said, "that there flows through my estate near
Casinum[169] a stream which is both deep and clear and fifty-seven feet
wide between the masonry embankments, so that it is necessary to use
bridges to get from one part of the property to the other. On the
upper reach of this stream is situated my Museum[170] and at a distance
of 950 feet below is an island formed by the confluence of another
stream. Along the bank for this distance is an uncovered walk ten feet
broad and between this walk and the field is the location of my aviary
enclosed on both sides, right and left, with high masonry walls. The
ornithon itself is built in the shape of a writing tablet with a
capital on it, the main quadrangle being forty-eight feet wide and
seventy-two feet long, the capital semi-circular with a radius of
twenty-seven feet. To this a covered walk or portico is joined, as
it were across the bottom of the page of the tablet, with passages
leading on either side of the ornithon proper which contains the
cages, to the upper end of the interior quadrangle [adjoining the
capital]. This portico is constructed of a series of stone columns
between which and the main outside walls are planted dwarf shrubs,
a net of hemp being stretched from the top of the walls to the
architrave of the portico, and thence down to the stylobate or floor.
The exterior spaces thus enclosed are filled with all kinds of birds
which are fed through the net, water being provided by a small running
stream. On the interior sides of the porticos, and adjoining them at
the upper end of the interior quadrangle, are constructed on both
sides two narrow oblong basins. Between these basins a path leads
to the tholus, or rotunda, which is surrounded with two rows of
columns, like that in the house of Catulus, except that I have
substituted columns for walls. Beyond these columns at the end is
a grove of large transplanted trees forming a roof of leaves, but
admitting light underneath, as that is entirely cut off by the high
walls on the sides. Between the exterior row of columns of the
tholus, which are of stone, and the interior row, which are of pine,
there is a narrow space, five feet in width. The exterior columns are
filled in with a transparent net instead of walls, thus permitting the
birds to look out upon the grove and the wild birds there but without
escaping: the interior columns being filled in with the net of the
main aviary. The space between the two rows of columns thus enclosed
is equipped with perches for the birds in the form of many rods let
into all the columns in ascending array like the degrees of a theatre;
and here are enclosed all kinds of birds, but chiefly singing birds,
like nightingales and blackbirds, for whom water is conducted by means
of a small canal and food is supplied under the net. [Under the
lantern of the tholus is a basin of water: and around this] a foot
and nine inches below the stylobate or pedestal of the interior row
of columns, runs a stone platform. This is five feet in width and two
feet above the level of the basin, thus affording a space on which
my bird guests may hop about from the cushions to the little columns
[which are there provided for them].[171]
"The basin is immediately surrounded with a quay a foot in width
adjoining [but below the level of] the platform and has a little
island in the middle. Around the platform and the quay are contrived
docks for ducks. On the island is a little column arranged to turn
on its axis and carrying a wheel-shaped table with hollow drum-like
dishes fashioned at the ends of the spokes two and a half feet wide
and a palm in depth. This is turned by a boy whose business that is,
so that meat and drink is put before all my bird guests in turn. From
the elevation of the platform, where mats are usually placed, the
ducks go out to swim in the basin, and from this streams flow into
the two basins I have already described, and little fish may be seen
darting from one to the other, while warm or cold water may be turned
on the guests from the circumference of the revolving table, which I
have described as equipped with spokes.
"Within the dome is an arrangement to tell the hours by marking the
position in the heavens of the sun by day and Hesperus by night: and
furthermore, as in the clock which [Andronicus] Cyrrestes constructed
at Athens, the eight winds are depicted on the dome, and, by means of
an arrow connecting with a vane, the prevailing wind is indicated to
those within."[172]
As we were talking an uproar was heard on the Campus Martius. While
this did not astonish old parliamentary hands[173] like ourselves, who
knew the enthusiasm of an election, yet we were anxious to know what
it meant, and at this moment Pantuleius Parra came up and told us that
while the votes were being sorted some one was caught stuffing the
ballot box[174] and had been haled before the consul by the supporters
of the rival candidate. Pavo rose to go, for it was understood that
he who had been arrested was the campaign manager of Pavo's own
candidate.
Of pea-cocks
-
"Now that Fircellius is gone you can speak freely of pea-cocks,"
said Axius, "for if you should say any thing to their disadvantage in
his presence, you might perchance have a crow to pluck with him on
account of his relationship."[175]
"Within my memory," said Merula, "the practice of keeping commercial
flocks of pea-cocks has largely developed and it has so developed
that M. Aufidius Lurco is said to derive an income of sixty thousand
sesterces per annum from them. If you keep them for profit it is well
to have somewhat fewer males than females; while the contrary is true
if you keep them for pleasure, for the pea-cock far surpasses his hen
in beauty. With us they are fed in the country, but abroad it is said
that they are kept on islands, as at Samos in the grove of Juno and at
Planasia, the island of M. Piso. In setting up a flock age and beauty
must be considered, for nature has given the palm of beauty to the
pea-cock among all the birds. The hens are not fit for breeding under
two years of age, nor when they are aged. They are fed all kinds of
grain but chiefly barley. Scius makes a practice of feeding them a
modius of barley apiece for the month before they begin to breed, his
purpose being to make them more productive. He expects his overseer to
raise three pea fowl for every hen, and he sells them when matured for
fifty deniers ($10) a piece, a price such as one never obtains for a
sheep.[176]
"Furthermore, he buys eggs and sets them under dunghill hens,
transferring the young pea fowls so hatched to the shelter set apart
for their kind. This house should be built large enough for the number
of pea fowl to be kept and should be equipped with separate roosting
places smoothly stuccoed, so that snakes and such vermin may not be
able to get into it: and, furthermore, it should have attached to it
a run in which the pea fowl may feed on sunny days, and both these
places should be kept clean, as this kind of fowl demands. The keeper
should make the rounds often with a shovel to collect and preserve
their manure, which is not only fit for use in agriculture but serves
also as bedding for your pea chicks.
"It is said that Q. Hortensius was the first to serve pea-cocks at
dinner, on the occasion of his inauguration as an augur, an evidence
of prodigality which was more approved by the luxurious than by good
men of simple manners: but many others quickly followed his example,
so that the price of pea fowl was raised until an egg sold for five
deniers ($1) and a pea fowl itself readily for fifty ($10), thus a
flock of an hundred of them easily yields an income of forty thousand
sesterces, ($2,000), or even sixty ($3,000), if, as Abuccius advises,
one obtains three chickens from every pea hen."
Of pigeons
-
In the meanwhile an apparitor came to Appius from the Consul and
said that the augurs were summoned. As Appius went out from the _villa
publica_, a flock of pigeons flew in, whereupon Merula said to Axius:
"If you had established a [Greek: peristerogropheion] you would think
that these were your pigeons, although they are wild, for it is the
custom to keep both kinds in a [Greek: peristerotropheion]. One is the
wild dove (or, as some call them the rock dove, or saxatilis), such
as live in the towers and dormers (columines) of a farm house,
whence they get the name columbae, because, on account of their
natural timidity, they seek the highest places on the roof. On this
account wild doves usually frequent towers, to which they may fly
from the fields of their own accord, and return.[177] The other kind of
pigeons is tamer and are wont to seek their food at the very threshold
of a house. This kind is usually white in colour, the wild variety
being mottled but without any white. From these two stocks a third or
mixed variety has been developed for commercial profit and these are
collected in the place which some call a peristereon (pigeon house),
and others a peristerotropheion (place for raising pigeons), where
there are often confined as many as five thousand at a time.
"A pigeon house is made like a great dome, with arched roof, a narrow
entrance, and grilled windows or with wider lattices on all sides so
that the interior may be well lighted and yet no snake or other such
pest may have access. The walls and the dome within and the edges of
the windows without should be smeared with light stucco to keep out
rats and lizards, for nothing is so timid as a pigeon. A round nest
should be provided for each pair of pigeons and these should be
arranged in close order so that there may be established as many as
possible of them ranked from the ground to the very dome. Each nest
should have a door no bigger than necessary to enable the pigeons to
go in and out but within should be of three palms in diameter. Under
each rank of nests should be fastened planks two palms broad for the
use of the pigeons as a vestibule on coming out. Water should be led
into the pigeon house, both for them to drink and to bathe in, for
pigeons are very clean birds. For this reason the keeper of the
pigeons should sweep out the house several times a month, for that
which soils it has so great a. value in agriculture that some writers
even claim that it is the best of all manures. Furthermore, the keeper
in these rounds may tend any pigeon which is ailing, remove any which
are dead, and take out such squabs as are fit for market. Likewise,
those which are setting should be transferred to a particular place,
separated from the others by a net but from which the mothers may
be free to get out of doors: which is done for two reasons: first,
because if they become weary or decrepit from being cooped too long,
they will be refreshed by the free air when they go abroad: secondly,
because they serve as decoys for other pigeons, for their squabs will
always bring them home themselves unless they are struck down by a
crow or cut off by a hawk. Pigeon breeders rid themselves of the
last mentioned pests by planting in the ground two rods smeared with
birdlime and bent in one upon the other, and then tie on some bait
so disposed that when the hawk falls upon his prey he finds himself
entangled in the birdlime and is taken.
"It may be noted that the pigeon has a homing instinct, as is proved by
the practice of many in letting pigeons loose from their bosoms in the
theatre expecting them to return home, for if they did not return the
practice would not persist.
"The food for pigeons is placed in mangers fastened around the walls
and filled from the outside by means of conduits. They thrive on
millet, wheat, barley, peas, beans and vetch. This regimen should be
followed also, as far as possible, in the care of the wild pigeons,
which live on the towers and the roofs of the barn.
"In equipping a [Greek: peristereon] pigeons of good age should be
secured, neither squabs nor veterans, and as many males as females.
Nothing is more prolific than the pigeon, for in forty days they
conceive, lay, hatch and raise a brood, and they keep this up nearly
all the year, stopping only from the winter solstice until spring.
Squabs are hatched in pairs, and as soon as they have grown up and
have strength breed with their own mothers. Those who fatten squabs in
order to sell them dearer, make a practice of isolating them as soon
as they are covered with feathers, then they cram them with white
bread which has been chewed:[178] in winter this is fed twice a day, in
summer three times a day, morning, noon and night, the midday meal
being omitted in winter. Those which are just beginning to have
feathers are left in the nests, but their legs are broken, and, in
order that they may be crammed, the food is put before the mothers,
for they will feed themselves and their squabs on it all day long.
Squabs which are reared in this way become fat more quickly than
others and have whiter flesh.
"A pair of pigeons will commonly sell at Rome for two hundred nummi,
if they are well made, of good colour, without blemish, and of good
breed: some times they even bring a thousand nummi, and there is
a report that recently L. Axius, a Roman of the equestrian order,
declined that sum, refusing to sell for less than four hundred
deniers."[179]
"If I could procure a fully equipped [Greek: peristereon]," cried
Axius, "as readily as I have bought a supply of earthen ware nests, I
would have had it already on the way to my farm."
"As if," remarked Pica, "there were not many of them here in town. But
perhaps those who have pigeon houses on their roofs do not seem to you
to be justified in calling them [Greek: peristereonas] even though
some of them represent an investment of more than one hundred thousand
sesterces. I advise you to buy out one of them and learn how to pocket
a profit here in town, before you build on a large scale in the
country."
Of turtle doves
-
"So much for that then," said Axius. "Proceed, please, to the
next subject, Merula."
"For turtle doves," said Merula, "in like manner a house should be
constructed proportioned to the number you intend to feed, and this,
like the pigeon house, I have described, should have a door and
windows and fresh water and walls and a vaulted roof, but in place of
breeding nests the mutules should be extended through the walls or
poles set in them in regular order with hempen mats on them, the
lowest rank being not more than three feet from the floor, the rest at
intervals of nine inches, the top rank six inches from the vault, and
of equal breadth as the mutule stands out from the wall. On these
the doves are fed day and night. For food they are given dry wheat,
usually a half modius for every one hundred and twenty doves. Every
day the house should be cleaned out, that they may not be injured by
the accumulation of manure, and because also it has its place in the
economy of the farm. The best time for fattening doves is about the
harvest, for then the mothers are in their best condition and produce
young ones not only in the largest number but the best for cramming:
so that is the time when they are most profitable."
Of poultry
-
"Tell me now, if you please, Merula," said Axius, "what I should
know of raising and fattening poultry and wood pigeons, then we can
proceed to the discussion of the remainder of our programme."
"There are three kinds of fowls usually classed as poultry," replied
Merula, "dunghill fowl, jungle fowl and guinea fowl. The dunghill fowl
are those which are constantly kept in the country at farms.
"He who wishes to establish an [Greek: ornithoboskeion] from which, by
the exercise of intelligence and care, he can take large profits, as
the people of Delos do with such great success,[180] should observe five
principal rules: 1° in regard to buying, what kind and how many he
will keep: 2° in regard to breeding: 3° in regard to eggs, how they
are set and hatched: 4° in regard to chicks, how and by whom they are
reared, and 5°, which is a supplement of all the foregoing, how they
are fattened.
"The females of the dunghill fowl are called hens, the breeding males
cocks, and the males which have been altered capons. Cocks are
caponized by burning the spurs[181] with a hot iron until the skin is
broken, the wound being poulticed with potters' clay.
"He who wishes to have a model [Greek: ornithoboskeion] should equip it
with all three kinds of fowls, though chiefly the dunghill variety. In
purchasing these last it is important to choose fertile hens, which
are indicated by red feathers, black wings, unequal toes, large heads,
combs upstanding and heavy, for such hens are more likely to lay.
"A lusty cock may be known by his muscular carriage, his red comb, a
beak short, strong and sharp, eyes tawny or black, wattles a whitish
red, neck spotted or tinged with gold, the second joint of his legs
well covered with feathers, short legs long spurs, a heavy tail, and
profuse feathers, also by his spirit and his frequent crowing, his
readiness to fight, and that he is not only not afraid of such animals
as do the hens harm, but even goes out to fight them. You must be
careful, however, not to buy for breeding any fowls of the breeds
known as Tanagran, Medean and Chalcidean, for, while they are
beautiful to look at and are fit for fighting with one another, they
are practically sterile.
"If you wish to keep a flock of two hundred, choose an enclosed place
and there construct two large poultry houses side by side and looking
to the East, each about ten by five feet and a little less than five
feet in height, and furnished with windows three by four feet in which
are fitted shutters of wickerwork, which will serve to let in plenty
of fresh air and light and yet keep out such vermin as prey upon
chickens.
"Between the two houses should be a door by which the gallinarius who
takes care of them, may have access. Within the houses enough poles
are arranged to serve as roosts for all the chickens: opposite each
roost a nest should be set in the wall. In front of the house should
be an enclosed yard to which the fowls may have access in the day time
and where they can dust themselves,[182] and there should be constructed
the keeper's house, which should be equipped all about with nests,
either set into the walls or firmly fastened to them, for the least
disturbance injures eggs when they are setting.
"When the hens begin to lay, straw should be spread in their nests and
this should be renewed when they begin to set, for in such bedding
are bred mites and other insects which will not suffer the hen to be
quiet, with the result that the eggs are hatched unequally or rot.
"A hen should not be allowed to set on more than twenty-five eggs,
although such is her fecundity that she lays more than that in a
season. The best time for hatching is from the spring to the autumn
equinox. Eggs laid before or after this season, or the first eggs laid
by a pullet, should never be set. Hens used for setting should be
old rather than young, without sharp beaks and claws, for those so
equipped are better employed in laying than in setting. Hens a year or
two years old are better fitted for laying.
"If you set pea-cock eggs under a hen, you should wait ten days before
adding hen eggs to the nest, to insure them all hatching together, for
the period of incubation of chicken eggs is thrice seven days and that
of the eggs of pea-fowl is thrice nine. Sitting hens should be shut up
day and night, except for a time in the morning and evening, when they
are let out to eat and drink.
"The keeper should make the rounds every few days and turn the eggs,
so that they may be kept warm all over. It is said that you can tell
whether an egg is fertile or sterile by putting it in water: for if it
is sterile it will float, while if it is fertile it will sink. Those
who shake their eggs to ascertain this fact make a mistake for thereby
they destroy the germ in them. It is also said that you can tell a
sterile egg by the fact that it is transparent when held against the
light.
"To preserve eggs they should be rubbed with fine salt or soaked for
three or four hours in brine, and then cleaned off or packed in chaff
or straw. Care should be taken to set eggs only in uneven numbers. The
keeper can tell whether an egg is fertile or not four days after it is
set, by holding it to the light, when he should throw it out if it is
found to be empty and substitute another for it.
"The new hatched chickens should be taken from every nest and given to
a hen who has only a few to care for. When in this way a setting hen
has less than half her eggs left unhatched, they should be taken from
her and put under another hen which has eggs still unhatched. It is
not well to give more than thirty chicks to a hen. Chicks should
be fed for the first fifteen days in the dust to protect them from
injuring their tender beaks on the hard ground: their diet being
crushed barley mixed with cress seed and soaked in wine, for prepared
in this way the grain is digestible. They should be kept away from
water in the beginning. When they begin to have feathers on their legs
the mites should be carefully picked off their heads and necks, for
these banes often destroy them. Deer's horn should be burnt around
their coops to keep snakes away, for the very smell of those vermin is
fatal to young chickens. They should be allowed to run in the sun and
to scratch in a dung heap, which serves to develop them. This rule
applies not only to young chickens but also to the entire [Greek:
ornithoboskeion], and should be practised all summer and even in
winter on mild and sunny days. A net should be stretched over the
chicken yard to keep the fowls themselves from flying out and to
protect them from hawks and other birds of prey. Fowls should be
protected from heat as well as cold, for both are harmful to them.
When the chicks have got their feathers it is best to accustom them to
follow one or two hens, leaving the other hens free to go to laying,
in which occupation they are more useful than in rearing chicks.
"A hen should be set after the new moon, for those which begin earlier
seldom hatch many chicks.
"They hatch usually in twenty days.
"And now since I have discussed the dunghill fowl at some length, I
will make up to you by brevity with respect to the other kinds of
fowls.
"Jungle fowl are rarely seen at Rome, and then usually in cages. They
resemble guinea chickens more than dunghill fowls. When perfect in
form and appearance they are often carried in the public processions
with parrots and white blackbirds and other such rarities. They do not
usually lay or raise their chickens on a farm, but in the forests. The
island of Gallinaria, which lies in the Tuscan sea off the coast of
Italy, opposite the Ligurian mountains (and the towns of Intermelii
and Alba Ingannua) derives its name from them, though some maintain
that the name comes from dunghill fowl which were carried to that
island by sailors and have there run wild. Guinea fowl (gallinae
africanae) are large, mottled and have their humps in their backs.
The Greeks call them [Greek: meleagrís].[183] They are the last fowls
which the culinary art has introduced to our dining tables, on account
of their gamy flavour.[184] By reason of their rarity they sell for a
high price.
"Of the three kinds of fowls, the ordinary dunghill fowl is used
chiefly for cramming. For this purpose they are shut up in a small
confined and darkened coop, because both exercise and light are
enemies of fat. Any large chickens may be selected for this operation,
not necessarily of that breed which the peasants call Melica
incorrectly, for as the ancients said Thelis when they meant Thetis,
so the country people still say Melica for Medica. This name was given
at first to the fowls which were imported from Medea on account of
their great size and then to all of that breed, but now the name is
given indiscriminately to all large fowls by reason of their general
resemblance. After the feathers have been pulled from their tails and
wings they are crammed with balls of barley paste, with which may be
mixed darnel meal, or flax seed soaked in soft water. They are fed
twice a day but care must be taken to see that the last meal is
digested before another is put before them. After they have been fed
and their heads have been cleaned of mites, they are shut up again.
This process is kept up for twenty-five days, when they will be fat.
"Some cram them on wheat bread soaked in water, or even in wine of
good flavour and bouquet, claiming that they are thereby made fat and
tender in twenty days.[185]
"If in the process of cramming the fowls lose their appetite from too
much food, the ration should be reduced daily during the last ten days
in the same proportion as it was increased during the first ten days,
so that the ration will be the same on the twentieth as on the first
day.
"Wood pigeons are crammed and fattened in the same way."
Of geese
-
"Let us now pass," said Axius, "to that tribe which cannot live in
the barn yard all the time, or even on land, but requires access to
ponds. I mean those whom you philhellenes call amphibia. I understand
that you call the places in which geese are kept by the Greek name
[Greek: chaenoboskeion], and that Scipio Metellus and M. Seius have
several large flocks of geese."
"It is Seius' practice," said Merula, "to maintain his flocks of
geese[186] in accordance with the five rules I have laid down for
poultry, namely: with respect to choice of individuals, breeding,
eggs, goslings and the process of cramming.
"On the first point he requires the slave who buys his geese to select
them of good size and of white plumage, because they reproduce their
own qualities in their goslings. This is necessary for there is
another kind of geese of variegated plumage, which are called wild,
and do not flock freely with the other kind and are domesticated with
difficulty.
"The best time for breeding geese is at the end of winter and for
laying and hatching from the beginning of February or March until the
summer solstice. They breed usually in the water, diving to the bottom
of the stream or pond.[187] A goose lays only three times a year: and
each one should be furnished with a coop about two and a half feet
square and bedded with straw: each of their eggs should be marked for
identification, for they will not hatch any eggs but their own. They
are usually set on nine or eleven eggs, never more than fifteen, nor
less than five. In cold weather they set for thirty days, in warm
weather twenty-five. When they are hatched the goslings are suffered
to remain with their mother for five days, and then daily, when the
weather is fine, they are driven out to the meadows or to the ponds
or some swampy place. The gosling houses may be built either above or
below ground, but never more than twenty should be housed together and
care must be taken lest the floor be damp and that they are bedded on
chaff or some thing of that kind, and that the house is so constructed
as to keep out weasels and other beasts which prey on goslings. Geese
are fed in wet places and it is the practice to sow especially for
their food supply, using for this purpose any kind of grain, but
particularly that salad plant called endive[188] which keeps green
wherever there is water, freshening at the mere contact of water
however dry it may be. This is gathered to be fed to them, for if they
have access to the place where it is growing they will destroy the
plant by trampling on it, or else kill themselves by eating too much
of it, for they are greedy by nature. For this reason they must be
watched, as often in feeding their greediness leads them to seize a
root and to break their own necks in attempting to pull it from the
ground: for the neck is weak, as the head is soft.
"If there is none of this plant they should be fed barley or some other
grain. When the farrago season is on, feed that to them, but in the
same manner as I have described in respect of endive. While they are
setting they may be fed ground barley soaked in water. The goslings
may be fed for the first two days on barley cake (pollenta) or raw
barley, and for the next three days fresh water cress chopped fine in
a dish. When they are of an age to be kept by themselves in flocks of
twenty, in the kind of house I have described, they are fed on barley
meal or farrago or some kind of young herbage cut up.
"For cramming, goslings are picked out when they are about six months
old, and are shut up in the fattening pen and there are fed three
times a day as much as they will eat, of crushed barley and flour
dust mixed with water, and after meals they should be made to drink
copiously. Kept on this diet they will be fat in about two months.[189]
After every meal the feeding place must be cleaned, for, while geese
like a clean place, they never leave any place clean in which they
have been."
Of ducks
-
"Whoever wishes to keep a flock of ducks and to establish a [Greek:
naessotropheion], should choose for it, above all others if it is
possible, a swampy location because that is most agreeable to the
ducks, but, if not, then a situation sloping to a natural lake or
pool, or to an artificial pond, with steps leading down to it,
practicable for the ducks. The enclosure where they are kept should
have a wall fifteen feet high, such as you saw at Seius' villa, with
only one door opening into it. All around the wall on the inside
should run a broad platform on which are built against the wall the
duck houses, fronting on a level concrete vestibule in which is
constructed a permanent channel in which their food can be placed in
water, for ducks are fed in that way. The entire wall should be given
a smooth coating of stucco to keep out polecats[190] and other animals
of prey, and the enclosure should be covered with a net of large mesh
to prevent eagles from pouncing in and the ducks themselves from
flying out.[191]
"For food they are given wheat, barley, grape marc, and some times even
lobsters and other such aquatic animals. The pond in the enclosure
should be fed with a large head of water so that it may be kept always
fresh.
"There are other kinds of similar birds, like teals and coots which may
be fed in the same way.
"Some even keep partridges, which, as Archelaus writes, conceive
when they hear the voice of the male bird. By reason of the natural
abundance and the delicacy of their flesh, these last are not crammed
like those domestic fowls I have described, but they are fattened by
feeding in the ordinary way.
"And now, as I think that I have completed the first act of the drama
of the barn yard, I am done."
Of rabbits
-
At this point Appius returned and, after an exchange of questions
and answers as to what had been said and done during his absence, he
said: "Here beginneth the second act of those industries which are
wont to be practised at a villa, namely of those enclosures which are
still known as leporaria from their ancient special designation.
Today a warren no longer means an acre or two in which hares are kept,
but some times forests of vast extent in which troops of red deer
and roe deer are enclosed. Q. Fulvius Lippinus is said to have forty
jugera enclosed in the neighbourhood of Tarquinii[192] where he keeps
not only those animals I have named but wild sheep as well. Parks
of still larger extent are found in the territory of Statonia (in
Etruria) and in certain other places: indeed, in transalpine Gaul T.
Pompeius has so great a game preserve that the enclosure is about four
miles in extent.[193]
"It is the practice to keep in such enclosures not only the animals
I have named, but also snail houses and bee hives and jars in which
dormice are fed, but the care and the increase and the feeding of all
these things are easy, except in the case of bees. Who does not know
that a leporarium should be enclosed with masonry walls which are
at once smooth and high the one to keep out wild cats and badgers and
other such beasts: the other to prevent wolves from getting over.
Within should be coverts where the hares may lurk in the day time
under bushes and grass, and trees with broad spreading branches to
ward off the attacks of the eagle.
"Who does not know also that if he introduces only a few hares of both
sexes in a short time the place will be full of them, for such is
the fecundity of this quadruped that two pair are enough to stock an
entire warren in a short time. Often a mother who has just had her
litter is found to be big with another: indeed, Archelaus says that if
you want to know how old a hare is you have only to count the number
of openings in her belly, for without doubt there is one for every
year of her life.
"It has recently become the practice to cram hares as well as poultry,
and for this purpose they are taken out of the warren and shut up in
small hutches where they are fattened. There are three kinds of hares:
the first, our common Italian kind, which has short front legs and
long hind legs, the upper part of the body dark coloured, the belly
white, and long ears. Some say that our hare conceives a second time
while it is still big. In transalpine Gaul and Macedonia they grow to
a great size, but in Spain and in Italy they are not so large. The
second kind is native in Gaul near the Alps, and is white all over the
body: these are brought to Rome, but rarely. The third kind is native
in Spain and is like our hare in every way except that it is smaller
and is called rabbit (cuniculus).[194] L. Aelius thinks that the hare
(lepus) gets his name from his swiftness, as it were that he is
light of foot (levipes), but I think the name is derived from the
ancient Greek, because the Aeolians of Boeotia call him [Greek:
leporis]. The rabbits derive their latin name of cuniculi from the
habit of making underground burrows to hide in [for cuniculus is a
Spanish word for mine]. If possible you should have all these three
kinds in your warren. I am sure you already have the first two kinds,"
Apius added, turning to me, "and, as you were so many years in Spain
doubtless some rabbits followed you home.""
Of game preserves
-
Then addressing himself again to Axius, Appius continued:
"You know, of course, that wild boars are kept in game parks, and that
those which are brought in wild are fattened with as little trouble as
the tame ones which are born in the park, for you have doubtless seen
at the farm near Tusculum, which Varro here bought from M. Pupius
Piso, wild boars and roe bucks assemble at the sound of the trumpet
to be fed at regular hours, when from a platform, the keeper scatters
mast to the wild boars and vetch or some such forage to the roe
bucks."
"I saw this done," put in Axius, "more dramatically when I was a
visitor at the villa of Q. Hortensius in the country near Laurentum.
He has there a wood of more than fifty jugera in extent, all enclosed,
but it might better be called a [Greek: theriotropheion] than a
warren; there on high ground he caused his dinner table to be spread,
and while we supped Hortensius gave orders that Orpheus be summoned:
when he came, arrayed in his long robe, with a cithara in his hands,
he was desired to sing. At that moment a trumpet was sounded and at
once Orpheus was surrounded by a large audience of deer and wild boars
and other quadrupeds: it seemed to be not less agreeable a spectacle
than the shows of game, without African beasts, which the Aediles
provide in the Circus Maximus."
Of snails
-
And turning to Merula, Axius continued: "Appius has lightened
your task, my dear Merula, so far as concerns the matter of game, and
briefly the second act of our drama may be brought to an end, for I
do not seek to learn any thing about snails and dormice, which is all
that is left on the programme, for there can be no great trouble in
keeping them."
"It is not so simple as you seem to think, my dear Axius," replied
Merula, "for a place suitable for keeping snails[195] I must be not only
in the open air but entirely surrounded by water, otherwise you will
be kept running not only after the children but also the parents which
you have supplied for breeding."
"In other words," said I, "they must be enclosed by water to save the
maintenance of a slave catcher."
"A place which is not baked by the sun and on which the dew remains is
preferable," continued Merula. "If the place you use for your snails
is not supplied with dew naturally, as often is the case in sunny
situations, and there is no available shady recess, such as is found
under rocks or hills whose feet are laved by a lake or a stream, then
you must supply dew artificially. This may be done by leading into the
snailery a pipe on the end of which is fixed a rose nozzle, through
which water is forced against a rock so that it scatters in spray. The
problem of feeding snails is small, for they supply themselves without
help, finding what they require as they creep over the level ground
and also while clinging to the sides of a wall, if no running water
prevents their access to it. On the hucksters' stands they keep alive
a long time, as it were chewing their own cud, all that is done for
them being to supply a few laurel leaves and scatter a little bran
over them: so a cook never knows whether he is cooking them alive or
dead.
"There are many kinds of snails, such as the small white ones, which
come from Reate: the large variety which are imported from Illyricum,
and the medium size which come from Africa: but they vary in size in
certain localities of each of those countries. Thus, there is found in
Africa a variety which are called solitannae of so great size that
their shells will hold ten quarts:[196] and so in the other countries
I have named they are found together of all sizes. They produce an
innumerable progeny, which at first are very small and soft but
develop their hard shell with time. If you have large islands in the
enclosure you may expect a rich haul from your snails.
"Snails are fattened by placing them in a jar smeared with boiled must
and corn meal, on which they feed, and pierced with holes to admit the
air, but they are naturally hardy."
Of dormice
-
"Dormice[197] are preserved on a different systern than snails, for
while the one is confined by barriers of water, the other is kept in
by a wall which must be coated on the inside with smooth stone or
stucco to prevent their escape. Young nut trees should be planted in
the enclosure, and when these are not bearing, mast and chestnuts
should be thrown in to the dormice, for that is what makes them
fat. Roomy cages should be provided for them in which to rear their
young.[198] Little water is necessary, for dormice do not require much
water, but on the contrary affect dry places. They are fattened in
jars which are usually kept indoors. The potters make these jars in
different shapes, but with paths for the dormice to use contrived on
the sides and a hollow to hold their food, which consists of mast,
walnuts and chestnuts.[199] Covers are placed on the jars and there in
the dark the dormice are fattened."
Of bees
-
"It remains now," said Appius, "to rehearse the third and last
act of our drama of the husbandry of the steading and to discuss the
keeping of fishes."
"The third, indeed," exclaimed Axius, "shall we deprive ourselves of
honey because in your youth you never drank mead in your own house,
such was your practice of frugality?"
"He speaks the truth," said Appius, to us, "for I was indeed left a
poor orphan with two brothers and two sisters to provide for, and it
was not until I had married one of them to Lucullus without portion
and he had named me his heir that I began to drink mead in my own
house and to supply it to my household: but there never was a day when
I did not offer it to all my guests. But apart from that, it has been
my fortune, not yours,[200] Axius, to have known these winged creatures
whom nature has endowed so richly with industry and art, and that you
may appreciate that I know more than you do of their almost incredible
natural art, listen to what I am to say. It will then be for Merula
to develop the practice of the bee keeper, or, as the Greeks call it,
[Greek: melittourgia], as methodically as he has his other subjects.
"To begin then,[201] bees are generated partly by other bees and partly
from the decaying carcase of an ox: so Archelaus in one of his
epigrams calls them
'flitting offspring of decaying beef,'
and else where he says,
'wasps spring from horses, bees from calves.'
"Bees are not of a solitary habit like eagles, but are of a social
nature, like men, a characteristic they share with daws, but not for
the same reason, for bees live in colonies, the better to work and
build, while daws congregate for gossip. Thus the life of a bee is one
of intelligence and art, for man has learned from them to manufacture,
to build, and to store his food: three occupations which are not the
same but are diverse in their nature, for it is one thing to provide
food, another to manufacture wax and honey, and still another to build
a house. Has not each cell in a honey comb six sides, or as many as a
bee has feet, the art of which arrangement appears in the teaching of
the geometricians that of all polygons the hexagon covers the largest
area within a circle.[202] Bees feed out of doors, but it is at home
that they manufacture that which is the sweetest of all things,
acceptable to gods and men alike: for honey comb is offered on the
altars and honey is served at the beginning of a dinner and again at
dessert.
"Bees have institutions like our own, consisting of royalty, government
and organized society. Cleanliness in all things is their aim: and so
they never alight in any place where there is filth or an evil odour,
or even where there is a strong savour of such an unguent as we may
consider agreeable. For the same reason if one who approaches them is
covered with perfume,[203] they do not lick him as flies do, but they
sting him, and by the same token no one ever sees bees crawling on
meat and blood and grease, as flies do. And so they only settle in
places of sweet savour. They do a minimum of damage because in their
harvesting they leave what they touch none the worse.[204] They are not
so cowardly as not to resist who ever attempts to disturb them, and
yet they are fully conscious of their own weakness. They are called
the Winged Servants of the Muses, because when they swarm they are
quickly brought together by the music of cymbals and the clapping of
hands: and as men assign Helicon and Olympus to be the haunts of the
Muses, so nature has attributed the flowery and uncultivated mountains
to the bees. They follow their king[205] wheresoever he goes, supporting
him when he is tired and even taking him upon their backs if he is
unable to fly, so do they wish to serve him.[206] As they are not idlers
themselves, so do they hate those who are, and thus driving out the
drones, they exclude them from the hive, because they are of no
service but merely consume honey: and it happens that a few bees,
buzzing with wrath, will drive out a number of drones.
"They smear every thing about the entrance to the hive with a gum which
is found between the cells which the Greeks call [Greek: erithakae].
They live under the discipline of an army, taking turns in resting and
all doing their equal share of work, and they send out colonies and
carry out the orders of their leaders, given with the voice, but as it
were with a trumpet: and in like manner they have signs of peace and
of war.
"But, Merula, now in my course I pass on the torch to you, as our
Axius here is doubtless languishing while he has listened to all this
natural history, for I have said nothing of profit."
"I do not know," said Merula, "whether what I can say on the subject
of the profit to be derived from bees will satisfy you, Axius, but I
have as my authorities not only Seius, who takes five thousand pounds
of honey every year from the hives he leases,[207] but also our friend
Varro here, for I have heard him tell of two brothers Veiani, from the
Falerian territory, whom he had under his command in Spain and who,
although their father left them only a small house with a curtilage of
not exceeding a jugerum in extent, nevertheless made themselves rich.
They set bee hives all about the house and planted part of the land
in a garden and filled up the rest with thyme and clover and that
bee plant known to us as apiastrum, though some call it [Greek:
meliphullon], others [Greek: mellissophullon] and still others
melittaena: and by this means they were wont to derive, as they
estimated, an average income of not less than ten thousand sesterces
per annum from honey; but they did this by being willing to wait until
they could sell at their own time and price rather than by forcing the
market."
"Tell me," exclaimed Axius, "where and how I should establish a
bee-stand to make such a handsome profit."
"The apiary," replied Merula, "which some call by the Greek names
[Greek: melitton] and [Greek: melittotropheion], and others
mellarium, should preferably be placed near the house[208] in a
location where there is no echo (for such sounds are deemed to put
them to flight, as timid men are by the din of a battle) and where the
temperature is mild, exposed neither to the heat of summer nor the
cold of winter, giving preferably to the Southeast and near of access
to places where their food is abundant and there is a supply of fresh
water. If there is no natural supply of food available you should
plant such things as best serve bees for pasture, namely: roses,
thyme, bee balm,[209] poppies, beans, lentils, peas, basil, gladiolus,
alfalfa, and especially clover which is of great service to the bees
which are sick, for it begins to bloom at the vernal equinox and lasts
until that of autumn. As clover is the best food for sick bees, so
thyme is the best for making honey, and it is because Sicily abounds
in good thyme that it takes the palm for producing honey. On this
account some men bruise thyme in a mortar and mix warm water with it
and then spray all their nursery plants with it for the sake of the
bees.
"The hives should be set as near the house as convenient: some men even
put them under the very portico for greater safety. Hives are made in
various shapes and sizes and of different material;[210] thus some make
them round out of wicker work: others of frame covered with bark:
others use hollow tree trunks: others vessels of pottery: some even
build them square out of rods, allowing about three feet in length and
a foot in height, but these dimensions should be reduced where you
have not enough bees to fill a hive of that size, for fear that the
bees might become discouraged by too large an empty space.
"The bee hive derives its name alvus, which is the same as our word
for belly, from the fact that it holds food, that is to say, honey;
and it is on this analogy that hives are usually shaped to imitate the
form of the belly, small in the waist and bulging out below. When the
hives are made of wicker work they should be coated evenly within and
without with ox dung[211] so that the bees may not be driven away by
the roughness of their roof. The hives should be so ordered under the
shelter of a wall that they may not be disturbed nor touch one another
when arranged in ranks, for it is the practice to place hives in two
and some times three separated ranks, but the opinion is that it is
better to reduce the ranks to two than to increase them to four. In
the middle of the hive small openings are made on the right and the
left to serve as entrances for the bees, and on top is placed a
practicable cover, which may be removed to give access to the honey
comb. This is best when made of bark, and worst of pottery, because
that is strongly affected both by the cold of winter and the heat of
summer. In spring and summer the bee keeper should inspect each hive
at least three times a month, fumigating them lightly, cleaning
and throwing out dirt and worms. At the same time he should take
precautions to keep down the number of princes, for they keep the bees
from work by stirring up sedition. There are said to be three kinds of
royalties among the bees: the black, the red and the mottled, or, as
Menecrates writes, two: the black and the mottled: and as the latter
is the better it behooves the bee keeper, when he finds both kinds in
a hive, to kill the black one, as he is forever playing politics[212]
against the other king, whereby the hive must suffer, for inevitably
one of the kings will flee or be driven out, in either case taking his
party with him.
"Of working bees the small round mottled variety is considered the
best. The drone, or, as some call him, the thief,[213] is black with a
large belly. The wasp, which has some resemblance to a bee, is not,
however, a fellow labourer, but attacks the bees with his sting,
wherefore the bees keep him at a distance.
"Bees are themselves distinguished as wild and tame. I call those wild
which feed in the forests, and those tame which feed in cultivated
places. The forest bees are smaller in size and hairy but better
workmen.
"In buying bees it behooves the purchaser to see whether they are
well or ailing. The signs of health are a thick swarm, well groomed
appearance and a hive being filled in a workmanlike manner. The signs
of lack of condition on the other hand are a hairy and bristling
appearance and a dusty coat, unless this last is caused by a pressure
of work, for under such circumstances they often wear themselves down
and become thin.
"If the hives are to be transferred from one place to another it is
necessary to choose a fit time to make the move and a suitable place
to receive them. As to time, spring is preferable to winter because in
winter they have difficulty in adjusting themselves to a new location
and so often run away, as they do also if you move them from a good
location to a place where proper pasture is not available. Nor is a
transfer from one hive to another in the same place to be undertaken
carelessly, but that to which the bees are to be transferred should be
rubbed with bee balm, which will serve as a bait for them, and
some pieces of honey comb should be placed in it, not far from the
entrances, for fear that the bees might run away if they found the
larder of their new home empty.
"Menecrates says that bees contract a malady of the bowels from their
first spring pasture on the blossoms of the almond and the cornel
cherry and are cured by giving them urine to drink.[214]
"That gummy substance which the bees use, chiefly in summer to
construct a sort of curtain between the entrance and the hive, is
called propolis, and by the same name is used by physicians in
making plasters: by reason of which use it sells in the Via Sacra for
more than honey itself. That substance which is called erithacen,
and is used to glue the cells together, is different from both honey
and propolis: it is supposed to have a quality of attraction for
bees and is accordingly mixed with bee balm and smeared on the branch
or other place on which it is desired to have a swarm light. The comb
is made of wax and is multicellular, each cell in it having six sides
or as many as nature has given the bee feet. It is said that bees do
not gather from the same plants all the materials which enter in these
four substances which they manufacture, namely: propolis, erithacen,
wax and honey. Thus from the pomegranate and the asparagus they gather
food alone, wax from the olive tree, honey from the fig, but not of
good quality: other plants like the bean, the bee balm, the gourd and
the cabbage serve a double purpose and yield both wax and food: while
the apple and the wild pear serve a similar double purpose but for
food and honey and the poppy again for wax and honey.
"Others again provide material for three purposes, food, honey and
wax, such as the almond and the charlock.[215] In like manner there
are flowers from each of which they derive a different one of these
substances, and others from which they derive several of them: while
they make distinctions in respect of plants according to the quality
of the product they yield,--or rather the plants make the distinction
for them--as with respect to honey, some yield liquid honey, like the
skirwort,[216] and others thick honey like the rosemary. So again honey
of insipid flavour is made from the fig, good honey from clover, and
the best of all from thyme.
"And since drink is part of a bee's diet and water is the liquid they
use, there should be provided near the stand a place for them to
drink, which may be either a running stream or a reservoir not more
than two or three fingers deep in which bricks or stones are placed
in such a way as to project a little from the water, and so furnish
a place for the bees to sit and drink; but the greatest care must be
taken to keep this water fresh, as it is of high importance to the
making of good honey.
"As the bees cannot go out to distant pasture in all weathers, food
must be prepared for them, as otherwise they will live on their supply
of honey and so deplete the store in the hive. For this purpose ten
pounds of ripe figs may be boiled in six congii of water and bits
of the paste thus prepared should be set out near the hives. Others
provide honey water in little dishes and float flocks of clean wool on
them through which the bees may suck without risk of either getting
more than is good for them or of being drowned. One such dish should
be provided for each hive and they should be kept filled. Others again
bray dried grapes and figs together and, mixing in some boiled must,
make a paste of which bits are exposed near the hives during such part
of the winter as the bees are still able to go forth in search of
food.
"When a swarm is about to come out of the hive (which happens when a
number of young bees have matured, and the hive determines to send
their youth out to found a colony, as formerly the Sabines often were
compelled to do on account of the number of their children)[217] there
are two signs by which the intention may be known: one that for
several days before hand, and especially in the evening, many bees
weave themselves together and hang upon the entrance of the hive like
grapes: the other that when they are about to go forth or have already
begun to go they buzz together lustily, as soldiers do when they break
camp. Those who have come forth first fly about the hive waiting for
the others, who have not yet collected, to join them. When the bee
keeper notices this he has only to throw dust on them and at the
same time beat upon some copper vessel to collect them, thoroughly
frightened, where he desires in some nearby place on which he has
smeared erithacen and bees' balm and other things in which they
delight. When they have settled down he should place near them a hive
smeared within with the same baits, and then, by blowing a light smoke
around them, compel them to enter the hive. When thus introduced into
their new abode the swarm makes itself at home cheerfully, so that
even if placed next to the parent hive they will prefer their new
colonial settlement.
"And now, having told you all I know about the care of bees, I will
speak of that for which the industry is carried on, that is to say, of
the profit.
"The honey is taken off when the hive is full, as may be determined by
removing the cover of the hive, for if the openings of the combs are
seen to be sealed, as it were with a skin, then the hive is full
of honey: but the bees themselves give notice of this condition by
keeping up a loud buzzing within, by their agitation when they go in
and out and by driving out the drones.
"In taking off honey some say that you should be content with nine
parts, leaving the tenth, because if you take it all the bees will
desert the hive: others leave a still larger proportion than I have
mentioned.
"As those who crop their corn land every year obtain good yields only
at intervals, so it is with bee hives: you will have more industrious
and more profitable bees if you do not exact of them the same tribute
every year.
"It is considered that honey should be taken off for the first time at
the rising of the Pleiades, for the second time at the end of summer
before Arcturus has reached the zenith, and for the third time after
the setting of the Pleiades, but this last time beware not to take
more than one-third of the store even if the hive is full, leaving
the other two-thirds for the winter supply, but if the hive is only
partially filled nothing should be taken off. In any event, when a
large amount of honey is to be taken off a hive it should not be done
all at once or ostentatiously less the bees be discouraged. Those
combs which, on being taken off, are found to be partly unfilled with
honey or to be soiled, should be pared with a knife.
"Care must be taken that the weaker bees in a hive are not oppressed by
the stronger, for this diminishes the profit: to this end the minority
party[218] may be colonized under another king. When bees are given to
fighting with one another, you should sprinkle them with honey water,
upon which they will not only cease fighting but will crowd together
and kiss one another: and this will prove the case even more if they
are sprinkled with mead, for the savour of the wine in it will cause
them to apply themselves so greedily that they will fuddle themselves
in sucking it. If the bees seem lazy about coming out to work and any
part of them get the habit of remaining in the hive, they should be
fumigated and odoriferous herbs, like bees' balm and thyme, should be
placed near the hive. Watchful care is necessary to protect them from
ruin by heat or cold. If the bees are overtaken by a sudden rain or
cold while at pasture (which rarely happens for they usually foresee
such things) and are stricken down by the heavy rain drops and laid
low and stunned, you should gather them in a dish and place them under
cover in a warm place until the weather has cleared, when they should
be sprinkled with ashes of fig wood (making sure that the ashes are
rather hot than warm) the dish should then be shaken gently without
touching the bees with your hand, and placed in the sun. When the bees
feel this warmth they revive and get on their feet again, just as
flies do after they have been apparently drowned. This should be done
near the hive so that when the bees have come to themselves they may
return home and to work."
Of fish ponds
-
Here Pavo returned and said: "You may weigh anchor now if you
wish. The drawing of the lots of the tribes to determine a tie vote is
over and the herald is announcing the result of the election."
Appius arose without delay and went to congratulate his candidate, and
escort him home.
Merula said: "I will leave the third act of our drama of the husbandry
of the steading to you, Axius," and went out with the others, leaving
Axius with me to wait for our candidate whom we knew would come to
join us. Axius said to me: "I do not regret Merula's departure at this
point, for I am quite well up on the subject of fish ponds, which
still remains to complete our programme.
"There are two kinds of fish ponds, of fresh water and salt water. The
former are commonly maintained by farmers and without much expense,
for the Lymphae, the homely goddesses of the Fountains, supply the
water for them, while the latter, the sea ponds, are the play things
of our nobles and are furnished with both water and fishes, as it were
by Neptune himself: serving more the purposes of pleasure than of
utility, their accomplishment being rather to empty than to fill the
exchequers of their lords. For in the first place they are built at
great expense, then they are stocked at great expense, and finally
they are maintained at great expense.
"Hirrus was wont to derive an income of twelve thousand sesterces from
the buildings surrounding his fish ponds, all of which he spent
for food for his fishes: and no wonder, for I remember that on one
occasion he lent two thousand murenae to Caesar[219] by weight
(stipulating for their return in kind), so that his villa (which
was not otherwise extraordinary) sold for four million sesterces on
account of the stock of fish.
"In sooth, the inland ponds of our farmer folk may well be called
dulcis, and those other amara.[220]
"A single fish pond suffices us simple folk, but those amateurs must
have a series of them linked together: for as Pausias and other
painters of his school have boxes with as many compartments as they
have different coloured wax, so must they fain have as many ponds as
they have different varieties of fish.
"These fish are furthermore sacred, more sacred, indeed, than those
fish which you, Varro, say you saw in Lydia, (at the same time that
you saw the dancing isles)[221] which came to the shore, where the altar
was erected for a sacrifice, in shoals at the sound of the Greek pipe,
because no one ever ventured to molest them; so no cook has ever been
known to have 'sauced' one of these fishes.[222]
"When our friend Hortensius had those fish ponds at Baulii, which
represented so large an investment, he was wont to send to Puteoli to
buy the fish he served on his table, as I have often seen when I was
visiting him. And it was not enough that his fishes did not supply
his table, but he was at pains to supply theirs, taking greater
precautions lest his mullets (mulli) should go hungry than I do for
my mules in Rosea, and it was not at less cost that he supplied meat
and drink to his stock than I do to mine. For I raise my asses, which
bring such fancy prices, at the cost of one servant, a little barley
and the water which springs from my land, while Hortensius must needs
maintain a fleet of fishermen to keep him supplied with small fry to
feed to his fish, or, when the sea runs high and such deep sea forage
is cut off by a storm, and it is not possible even to draw live bait
ashore in a net, he is fain to buy in the market for the delectation
of the denizens of his ponds the very salt fish which is the food of
the people."
"Doubtless," said I, "Hortensius would prefer to have you take the
carriage mules out of his stable than one of his barbel mules from the
fish pond."
"Yes, indeed," agreed Axius, "and he would rather have a sick slave
drink cold water than that his beloved fish should be risked in that
which is fresh. On the other hand, M. Lucullus was reputed to be so
careless and neglectful of his fish ponds that he did not provide any
suitable quarters for his fishes in hot weather, but permitted them to
remain in ponds which were unhealthy with stagnant water: a practice
very different from that of his brother L. Lucullus, who yielded
nothing to Neptune himself in his care of his fishes, for he pierced
a mountain at Naples, and so contrived that the sea water in his fish
ponds should be renewed by the action of the tides. Furthermore, he
has arranged that his beloved fishes may be driven into a cool place
during the heat of the day, just as the Apulian shepherds do when they
drive their flocks along the drift ways to the Sabine mountains: for
so great was his ardour for the welfare of his fishes that he gave a
commission to his architect to drive at his sole cost a tunnel from
his fish ponds at Raise to the sea, and by throwing out a mole
contrived that the tide should flow in and out of his fish ponds twice
a day, from moon to moon, and so cool them off."
At this moment, while we were talking, there was a sound of foot steps
on the right and our candidate came into the villa publica arrayed
in the broad purple of his new rank as an aedile. We went to meet him
and, after congratulations, escorted him to the Capitol, whence he
departed for his home and we to ours.
So there, my dear Pinnius, is the brief record of our discourse on the
husbandry of the steading.
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