The directions for the management of sheep, given by Varro, Columella, Virgil, and other writers on rural affairs, all tend to show the pains taken by the Romans to improve the breed of sheep, and especially to produce wool of the finest quality.
The first of these authors (De Re Rustica, L. ii. Præf.) mentions his own flocks of sheep in Apulia. It appears from his account that every man was obliged to report the number of his sheep to the publican and to have them inscribed in a register, the earliest allusion, to a code of laws, which may probably have been in some respects similar to that now called "La Mesta" in Spain. Varro further speaks expressly of the summer and winter migrations of the flocks; and to show the great distances to which they were conducted on these occasions, he states that the sheep of Apulia were taken every year to pass the summer in the mountains of Samnium, and sometimes even in those of Reate[1].
Of the nature and circumstances of these annual migrations we are enabled to form some judgment, not only from the animated description already quoted from Dr. Holland in relation to Albania, but still more distinctly from the following accounts by the Honorable Keppel Craven, one of which relates to the first group of mountains mentioned by Varro, the other to the second.
In the year 1818 Mr. Craven visited a large farm a few miles to the south of Foggia, and consequently not far from the site of the ancient Arpi in Apulia. He mentions the following particulars.
"Above 200 persons were employed, and resided on the spot. The stock of
sheep consisted of 8000, divided into several flocks; to which those of cows, goats,
and buffaloes, together with a set of brood mares and a suitable quantity of poultry,
bore an equivalent proportion. All the cattle are guarded by large milk-white
dogs of the Abruzzo breed. These animals are very handsome and resemble the
Newfoundland species, but have sharper noses; they are very intelligent and
equally fierce. The flocks are tended by natives of Abruzzo, who also undertake
the care of milking them, as well as making the cheese, &c.; they are assisted
by their wives and children, who accompany them in their yearly migrations to
and from the mountains. These shepherds are clothed in the skins of the animals
- ↑ De Re Rustica, L. ii. c. 1. p. 161. ed. Bip. See also, c. 2. p. 167.
