Atticus resumed:  “When sheep are fed continually in the same locality distinction must be made in the times of feeding them according to the seasons:  thus in summer they are driven out[121] to pasture at day break because then the dewy grass is more appetizing than at midday, when it is dry.  At sunrise they are driven to water, to make them more lickerish on their return.  About noon and during the heat of the day they are permitted to lie in the shade of rocks or under broad spreading trees until the fresher evening air invites them to feed again until sunset.[122] A sheep should always graze with the sun behind it, because its head is very sensitive to heat.  At sunset the flock should be given a short rest and then driven again to water, and so brought back to feed again until it is dark, for at that time of day the grass has renewed its pleasant savour.  This routine is usually followed from the rising of the Pleiades until the autumn equinox.

“After the harvest it is of two-fold advantage to turn the flock in on the stubble, as they will fatten on the shattered grain and improve the land for next year’s planting by spreading their manure in the trampled straw.

“The rules for pasturing sheep in winter and spring differ from the summer rules in this, that at those seasons the flock is not driven to pasture until the hoar frost has evaporated and they feed all day long, one watering about noon being enough.

“This is about all there to say on the subject of feeding sheep, so I pass to the consideration of breeding.  The rams which you are about to use for breeding should be separated from the flock for two months before the season, and fed heavily by giving them a ration of barley when they come into the stable from the pasture:  it will make them stronger for their duty.

“The best breeding season is from the setting of Arcturus to the setting of Aquila, (May-July) because lambs begotten later are apt to be born runts, and weak.  As a ewe is pregnant for one hundred and fifty days, this arrangement causes her to drop her lambs at the end of autumn when the temperature is mild and the grass is renewed by the first rains.  During the breeding season the flock should drink only the same kind of water, since a change not only makes spotted wool but injures the offspring.  When all the ewes have been stinted, the rams should be separated from them again, because it injures ewes to be teased while they are pregnant.  Ewe lambs should never be bred before they are two years old, as they cannot earlier produce strong lambs, but will themselves degenerate:  indeed, it is better to keep them until the third year.  To this end some shepherds protect their ewe lambs from the ram by tying baskets made of rushes or something of that kind over their rumps, but it is better to feed them apart from the flock.

“I come now to the consideration of how lambs should be raised.