De re rustica (‘on farming’). 1. Of M. Porcius Cato; see DE AGRI CULTURA.
2. Treatise on farming written in dialogue form by M. Terentius Varro when his eightieth year admonished him ‘that he must be packing his baggage to depart this life’. The treatise is in three books and takes the form of conversations, to some extent in a dramatic setting: the first conversation is interrupted by news of a murder, and the third by incidents in an election. Book 1 deals with the farm itself, its buildings and equipment, and the agricultural year in general; book 2 with cattle- and sheep-breeding; book 3 with the smaller livestock on a farm, aviaries, poultry, bees, game preserves, and fishponds. The work is written in a more literary form than that of Cato, and is animated by touches of wit and a feeling for the country life.
3. Treatise by Columella.
