SHEEP. 79 



would not otherwise be confined, and which he states 

 to entail a loss of 2s. 6d. to 4>s. per ewe by compari- 

 son with an unfolded flock, considers it the best 

 practice to confine the flock in sheep-yards well 

 littered at night, "by which means you can keep 

 your flock warm and healthy in very bad seasons, and 

 at the same time raise a surprising quantity of dung ; 

 so great a quantity, if you have plenty of litter, that 

 the profit will be better than folding on the land." 

 This plan he further recommends, in that " so warm 

 a lodging is a great matter to young lambs, and will 

 tend much to forward their growth ; the sheep will 

 also be kept in good health," besides "the quantity 

 of dung, which will be very great." My plan of 

 strewing ashes under them in a water-tight shed, to 

 be drilled in as superphosphate, I am vain enough to 

 think will pay better stillj inasmuch as the manure 

 will go further. But let me testify here, that the 

 oftener I read the more I wonder at this eminent 

 man's gift of management and practical thought. 

 Would that one could meet and listen to the like of 

 Young and Bake well, and a few such ; but there are 

 great men now-a-days, and they not chary of their 

 kind, inestimable, counsel. 



A weak lamb, as a rule, I do not care to nurse, 

 especially if a twin ; just as the Tartar kills an 

 unlikely foal. They seldom come to much, and they 

 give a great deal of trouble. A farmer's wife, bust- 

 ling, jolly, encircled with handmaidens, may have the 

 heart and means to bring it up before the kitchen 

 fire ; but an amateur cannot usually secure such a 

 hospital, especially as there is great danger in feeding 



