78 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



follow at a run when the first few evenings I fetched 

 them in myself; the young lambs gambolling and 

 frolicking along, with here and there a playful young 

 mother ; the old ewes following tame and confiding 

 at my heels, until within twenty yards of the enclo- 

 sure, when they would make a rush for it, with its 

 comfortably furnished troughs of chopped cabbage, 

 corn, mangold, and cut hay. I have ever since had 

 a low thatched shed) about a hundred yards in 

 length, open to the south, built upon fir pillars, just 

 the space of a hurdle apart, and about a hurdle 

 high ; so that in a few moments the side may be 

 closed up, or left open for the sheep to stray in and 

 out at their own sweet will. Inside there is fixed a 

 line of deep rain shoots along the wall) about eighteen 

 inches from the ground, protected at the same time 

 that they are supported by a rim of sawn fir-pole, to 

 which rings are fastened every yard. This' affords 

 an ample manger for their corn and chaff. The floor 

 is excavated to the depth of a foot or more, and filled 

 with fine-sieved ashes or burnt clay, on which a light 

 covering of chaff or chopped straw is strewn, being 

 continually removed as it gets soaked. This carted 

 out in spring is a famous mixture to compound with 

 superphosphate for the turnip drills. Should it grow 

 too high it is cleared away sooner and thatched over, 

 a new supply of ashes being laid. This is at least as 

 profitable a mode in regard to the manure as keep- 

 ing them on sparred boards over a V pit ; pleasanter 

 certainly for sheep and attendant, and probably more 

 healthful. Arthur Young, who argues well against 

 folding sheep, except in countries where the flocks 



