270 History of the English Landed Interest. 



the year. About September every sheep was rubbed over with 

 ochre diluted in water, which, by acting as an absorbent and 

 sucking up the grease of the wool, became incorporated with 

 the waste products of the skin, thus affording a protective 

 dressing against the inclemency of the weather. 



They received no food — so Young, who visited Catalonia in 

 1787, tells us — but what they could pick up for themselves ; 

 most of them were polled with speckled faces ; some, however, 

 were black. As a rule, they were short-legged, with round 

 ribs and straight backs, in good order and flesh, and estimated 

 by this same writer to average from 15 to 18 lbs. a quarter. 

 What satisfied Young most about the management of the 

 Spanish shepherd was that when he wanted to examine a 

 ram, he did not run at it and catch it with his crook, but 

 bade it follow him, which it readily did.^ 



The first, almost the only, object of the Spanish flockmaster 

 was the wool. It was noticed that the fleeces of Andalusia 

 were far coarser than those off the backs of the marine sheep, 

 and this was attributed to the custom of retaining the flocks 

 of the former district in one locality all the year round. 

 Immense pains were bestowed on the process of shearing. 

 Starting as early in the spring as the weather would permit, 

 the sheep on the first day of clipping were packed as close as 

 possible together in a sudatory to promote sweating, and so 

 soften the wool. The old custom mentioned by Columella 

 of soaking the sheep's back and sides at shearing time in 

 oil and wine seems to have been known, if not absolutely 

 practised, and is recommended (with the substitution of beer 

 for wine) by the same writer in the Gentleman' s Magazine as 

 suitable for English sheep. The Spaniards divided their wools 

 into three sorts. The back and belly gave the superfine, the 

 neck and sides the fine, and the breast, shoulders, and thighs 

 the coarse. The fleeces were never piled one upon another, for 

 fear they might rot ; and the sheep, after being shorn, were 

 kept under cover for a few nights in buildings especially 

 erected for the purpose ; in fact, so fearful were their owners 



* Annals of Agriculture, vol. viii. p. 200. 



