Cato’s “On Farming” (a translated part of his famous treatise “De Agri Cultura”) is of considerable historical interest. This text, or, more precisely, a practical guide to agriculture, depicts the life of a large Italian economy in republican Rome in the 2nd century BC. Cato himself was a landowner and wrote his treatise in the way that a man with a good knowledge of agriculture could write. No wonder his favorite saying was: “Rem tene verba sequentur” – “know the matter, the words will come by themselves.” Cato’s description of the natural estate in “On Farming” shows a pragmatic, almost capitalist approach to farming. In fact, in this chapter, he seeks to give recommendations on the organization of developed commodity production in order to obtain the highest possible monetary income. Therefore, his advice on how to cultivate such an estate – uti quam sollertissimum habeat – is translated from the idea of ​​the involvement of an agricultural estate in developed commodity-money relations: “so that it is as profitable as possible” (8.2). At the beginning of the chapter, it indicates that the owner can sell not only grown products but also firewood and brushwood from a suburban estate. Based on personal experience, he argues that the estate owner should strive to sell rather than buy. Strict frugality is observed when managing a rural villa: money should be treasured and spent sparingly after careful calculations. Cato recommends receiving income not in pursuit of profit but by minimizing unnecessary expenses. The same views underlie the so-called scale of property profitability as an essential feature of an ideal estate. Cato lists the plots of certain crops in the following order: “If you ask me what would make a farm the first choice, I will say this: varied ground, a prime position and a hundred iugera; then, first the vineyard (or an abundance of wine), second an irrigated kitchen garden, third a willow wood, fourth an olive field, fifth a meadow, sixth a grain-field, seventh a plantation of trees, eighth an orchard, ninth an acorn wood ”(1.7). If, when considering the issue, we proceed from his views on the management of the family economy, it becomes clear that this passage was written not at all in order to show how the house owner can earn more money. This appears to indicate which industries on the estate generate the most savings and avoid unnecessary spending. From this point of view, Cato’s recommendations are ideal: the location of the willow tree immediately after the vineyard and the garden is not accidental, since in this passage a scale of the main and auxiliary industries is given, with the help of which the owner of the estate can collect, preserve and process the crop with the least loss. Application-specific advice on housekeeping is also abundant in Cato’s text. Further, he gives brief recommendations for the arrangement of a suburban economy. First of all, he recommends cultivating, as in an ideal estate, all sorts of grapes (7.1), although for the owner, who is accustomed to counting every ass, the most profitable is a vineyard where the vines wind through the trees (arbustum). Moreover, in general, one needs to approach this issue reasonably and grow everything that suits (7. 1). The suburban economy should have an orchard where apple trees, several varieties of pears, pomegranates, table varieties of quince (7.3), and several types of fig trees (8.1) grow. Olives are good to have two varieties – for pickling and fresh consumption (7.4) and several t