SCOTCH HILL SHEEP. 257 



they come In season, without regard to their botanical " Natural 

 Order." 



Draw-moss, or sheathing cotton sedge, Eriophorum vagmatum, 

 is a most invaluable plant on certain farms, tvhere it exists in 

 quantity. It forms often the backbone of the early spring food 

 of some places, and when sufficiently abundant and forward 

 by the end of February, no fear need be entertained of ewes 

 being in bad condition at lambing time. Many farmers con- 

 sider that a good supply of draw-moss will prepare ewes better 

 for milking and lambing than a full allowance of turnips, and 

 it has the additional advantage that it is their natural food. 

 Draw-moss grows best on very wet mossy land. The plant 

 exists on dry moss land, but is then of no use. Its habits and 

 time of growth are entirely changed. It grows more or less in 

 tufts. As early as January, if the land is sufficiently moist and 

 the weather mild, large handfuls of rounded succulent leaves 

 may be pulled up from these places, 6 or 8 inches long, the part 

 which has not been exposed to the air being beautfully white, 

 and agreeable to the taste. As it shoots up into the light with 

 the advancing season the leaves become green, and fade or 

 wither next " fall" after frost to a uniform brown. The tufts 

 of draw-moss are distinguishable by this at a little distance in 

 winter time from tufts of another plant, deer hair, which is not 

 unlike it in the withered condition, but has a mottled appearance 

 from the presence of different shades of brown on each stem. 

 When the season is cold and backward, or if the land is naturally, 

 or from overdraining, too dry, the "moss" will often not be 

 " come " sufficiently to draw or be of any use till even the end of 

 March or into April, and this on many places makes the difference 

 between a first-rate year and a very bad one. This covers the 

 most critical time of all the year, including the " milk-making" 

 month, March. No subsequent favourable conditions can ever 

 make up for loss sustained at that time. Again, a " black-frost" 

 sometimes comes late in spring, and binds up the land, so that 

 the " moss" will no longer " draw," This, however, is not often 

 so serious, as, if fairly grown, the sheep can do very well for a 

 time on what has risen above the ground, and which breaks of!' 

 short on being pulled. The appearance of the " moss-crop " or 

 flower indicates that the leaves are well forward and will })ull. 

 The flowering spikelet is single and terminal ; when matured into 

 fruit, it has a woolly or cottony a]>pearance. It is distinguished 

 from the worthless common cotton sedge by the latter having more 

 than one flower on the stalk and more cotton on the seed. There 

 are also on the latter very few radical leaves, which constitute 

 the valuable part for sheep, and it only grows well in chokud-up 

 ditches and on land excessively wet, such as a hole from which 

 peats had been cut at one time, and no proper outlet drain made 



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