Cossinius resumed: 

“If you sprinkle your cheese with salt it is better to use the mineral than the marine kind.

“Concerning the shearing of sheep, the first thing to be looked into before you begin is that the sheep are not suffering from scab or sores, as it is better to wait, if necessary, until they are cured before shearing.

“The time to shear is between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, when the sheep begin to sweat (it is the sweat which gives new clipped wool its name sucida).  As soon as the sheep are sheared they are smeared with a mixture[155] of wine and oil, some add white wax and hogs’ grease.  If they are sheep which are kept blanketed, the inside of the blanket should be anointed with this mixture before it is put on again.

“If the sheep has suffered any wound during the shearing, it should be treated with liquid tar.

“Long wool sheep are usually sheared about the time of the barley harvest:  in some places before the hay harvest.

“Some men shear their sheep twice a year, as in hither Spain, investing double work because they think they get more wool, just as some men mow their meadows twice a year.  Careful shepherds are wont to shear on a mat so as not to lose any of the wool.  A clear day should be chosen for the shearing and it is usually done between the fourth and the tenth hours (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) since wool sheared in the hot sun is softer, heavier and of better colour by reason of the sweat of the sheep.  Wool which has been collected and packed in bags is called vellera or velamina, words derived from vellere, to pull, whence it may be concluded that the practice of pulling wool is older than shearing.  Those who pull the wool today make a practice of starving their sheep for three days before, because when they are weak the wool yields more readily.”

“Speaking of shearing,” I said, “it is reported that the first barbers were brought into Italy from Sicily in the year 453 after the foundation of Rome (B.C. 300) by P. Ticinius Menas, as appears from the inscription in the public square of Ardea.  The statues of the ancients show that formerly there were no barbers because most of them have long hair and a heavy beard."[156]

Cossinius resumed: 

“As the wool of the sheep serves to make clothes, so the hair of goats is employed:  on ships, in making military engines and certain implements of industry.  Certain nations, indeed, are clad in goat skins, as in Gaetulia and Sardinia.  Their use for this purpose by the ancient Greeks is apparent, because old men in the tragedies are called [Greek:  diphtheriai], from the fact that they were clad in goat skins:  and it is the custom also in our comedies to dress rustic characters in goat skins, like the youth in the Hypobolimaeus (the Counterfeit) of Caecilius, and the old man in the Heautontimorumenos (the Self Tormentor) of Terence.