Page:Virgil (Collins).djvu/45

Rh

Of thine ancient laud and honour, opening founts that slumbered long,

Rolling through our Roman towns the echoes of old Hesiod's song."

The Third Georgic treats of the herd and the stud. The poet's knowledge on these points must be strongly suspected of being but second-hand—rather the result of having studied some of the Roman "Books of the Farm," than the experience of a practical stock-breeder. Such a work was Varro's 'On Rural Affairs,' which Virgil evidently followed as an authority. From that source he drew, amongst other precepts, the points of a good cow, which he lays down in this formula:—

An ugly head, a well-fleshed neck,

Deep dewlaps falling from the chin,

Long in the flank, broad in the foot,

Rough hairy ears, and horns bent in."

Such an animal would hardly win a prize from our modern judges of stock. But Virgil, be it remembered, is giving instructions for selection with an eye to breeding purposes exclusively; and an Italian cow of the present day would not be considered by us a handsome animal. Besides, the object of the Roman breeder was to obtain animals which would be "strong to labour,"—good beasts under the yoke; not such as would lay on the greatest weight of flesh at the least