338 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



to the stable with no access to grass seldom drop strong 

 foals. 



Pasturing by Tethering. In France, the Channel 

 Islands, Denmark and other countries of Europe it is 

 common practice to tether cows and horses (the latter 

 more rarely) in pastures, letting them eat the grass clean 

 as they advance. Twice daily the tethering stakes are 

 taken up and moved forward, maybe no more than a 

 foot and maybe two feet or more, depending on the 

 length of the tethering chain and the quality of the grass. 

 The practice is a good one where labor is cheap enough 

 to give the animals attention and where the climate per- 

 mits. Water is taken to the cows in some instances ; in 

 other places they are led away to water. This system 

 insures even pasturing of all the land and the deposition 

 of the manure where made. I do not think that we are 

 ready to adopt it yet in America except in places where 

 dairy cows are kept, pastures are rich and there is labor 

 enough to give them attention. In Denmark I have seen 

 ewes tethered behind the cows, eating what they had 

 left, while their lambs running free went forward and 

 ate what pleased them. The results were good, as all the 

 animals throve, though I should suppose that the cows 

 would ordinarily leave too little to keep the ewes well. 



The Hurdling System. The visitor to rural England 

 is amazed to see the wonderful flocks of sheep kept 

 often on comparatively little land. I have seen 2,500 

 Hampshire sheep kept on 1,400 acres of fairly good land 

 in England. Most of these sheep were in hurdles. Brief- 

 ly, the hurdling system is this : The farmer has panels 

 of movable fence; in England they are commonly made 



