4C6 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXIX 



It is usually pitched in a square or an oblong form ; and in Kent 

 200 sheep nightly are considered equal to the folding of an acre in a week, 

 the value of the manure being estimated according to the time of the year ; 

 the last folding in autumn, next to the ploughing for wheat, being thought 

 the most valuable*. These, however, are probably Romneys, of which 

 great numbers are sent by the Marsh farmers to be wintered by those upon 

 the uplands, and being of large carcass, may be found sufficient for a light 

 dressing ; but in Sussex and Hampshire 500 Southdowns are thought neces- 

 sary to twenty-eight perches, or from .3000 to .3500 for the manuring of an 

 acre of land per weekf. 



About 400 sheep of a middling size will therefore daily fold twenty square 

 perches, or, in round numbers, forty-five acres in the year, supposing them 

 to be regularly folded. In breeding flocks it may, however, be as well to 

 omit folding for five or six weeks after lambing, as in driving to and from 

 the fold accidents often liappen to the young lambs, by being trampled 

 upon, and they should be left quietly with their dams until they acquire a 

 little strength. 



The value of the manure is usually estimated at from 35.s. to 50s. per 

 acre ; its goodness depending on the food upon which the sheep have been 

 kept ; for if fed upon tares, rape, clover, sainfoin, or turnips, the animals 

 will drop more dung than if kept upon grass only : supposing it, there- 

 fore, to be calculated at the medium sum of 40s. per acre, and only 

 forty acres to be folded in the year, this would leave 80/. sterling, or 4s. per 

 slieep from the flock of four hundred. Whether this profit may be equiva- 

 lent to the loss on wool and flesh is evidently a matter of calculation on 

 the relative modes of management, which may be fairly left to the farmers 

 who severally practise them, as the merits of folding rest entirely on its 

 local application. 



In those counties which contain large districts of uninclosed common 

 land, a practice formerly prevailed to a great extent among farmers of 

 hiring tlie flocks of men who lived by keeping sheep upon the com- 

 mons, for the purpose of folding.^ The price was usually from 1.5'. to 

 Is. 6d. per score, per week — of course, according to the condition of the 

 flock, and the nature of the feed ; but inclosures were carried to such an 

 extent during tlie late war, that the plan has necessarily fallen much into 

 disuse. 



On small farms, with flocks too small for the emj)loyment of a shepherd, 

 or where the ground is too wet to carry sheep upon the fallows, the advan- 

 tage of securing the dung for the arable land may be attained by having a 

 capacious standing fold on some convenient dry spot of pasture, or 

 immediately adjoining the farm-yard, one side of which may form a fence, 

 and the buildings will afford a considerable degree of shelter. That large 

 quantities of dung may be thus collected without any trouble that is worth 

 speaking of, no one can doubt ; and if the fold be well littered with dry 

 leaves, stubble, haulm, or straw, compost of very valuable manure may 

 be thus formed. Thus, in the Annals of Agriculture, an experiment is 

 nientioned of eight score of sheep being penned for six weeks in a 

 standing fold, littered every week with a load of straw. Thev were fed 

 morning and evening with drawn turnips, of which they consumed two 

 acres ; and tliey finally produced twenty-eight large loads of rich manure, 



* Boys' Survey of Kent, second edition, p. 158, 

 t Sussex Report, p. 3-17 ; Hants do. p. 309. 



t In some parts of Buckinghamshire it was so general, that 3000 sheep were hired 

 upon different farms in a small district. — Rep. p. 278. 



