295To begin, I decree that the sheep crop grass in soft pens, until leafy summer soon returns, and that the hard ground beneath them be strewn with plenty of straw and bundles of fern, so that the icy frost may not harm the tender flock and bring on scab and ugly foot-rot. 300Next, moving on from here, I bid you supply the goats with leafy arbutus and offer them fresh streams, and set their pens away from the winds, facing the winter sun, turned to the south, at the time when cold Aquarius is now setting and sprinkles the end of the year with rain. 305These too must be tended by us with no lighter care, nor will their usefulness be less, though Milesian fleeces dyed with Tyrian crimson fetch a high price: from them come more numerous offspring, from them plenty of milk; 309the more the pail foams with the udder drained, the more richly will the streams flow when the teats are pressed.
311No less, meanwhile, they shear the beards and grey chins of the Cinyphian he-goat and his long bristles for the use of camps and as coverings for wretched sailors. 314They feed on the woods and the heights of Lycaeus, on prickly brambles and thickets that love high places: and of their own accord, mindful, they return home and lead their young, and can scarcely clear the threshold with their heavy udders. 318So, the less they need mortal care, the more zealously you will keep off ice and snowy winds, and gladly bring them food and leafy fodder, nor will you shut your hay-lofts all winter long. 322But when glad summer, at the summons of the west winds, sends both flocks into the glades and pastures, let us range the cool fields at the first rising of the Morning Star, while the morning is new, while the grass is white, and the dew on the tender blade is most welcome to the flock.
327Then, when the fourth hour of the day has gathered thirst and the plaintive cicadas burst the orchards with their song, I will bid the flocks drink at wells or deep ponds the water running in channels of holm-oak; 331but in the midday heat let them seek out a shady valley, wherever some great oak of Jupiter with ancient trunk stretches its huge branches, or wherever a grove dark with many holm-oaks lies in its sacred shade; 335then give them clear water again and pasture them again at sunset, when cool evening tempers the air, and the dewy moon now refreshes the glades, and the shores echo with the kingfisher, the thickets with the goldfinch.