1002 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



being spun, and if protracted later, it is yellow, felted, and of an imperfect nature. It 

 has been stated, that for the more warm sheltered situations in the southern parts of the 

 kingdom, the beginning or middle of June, when the weather is fine, may be in general 

 the most proper; but in the more exposed districts in the northern parts of the island, 

 the middle or latter end of the same month may be more suitable, provided the season 

 be favorable. But with the fattening sheep in the inclosures, it will mostly be necessary 

 to perform the work at an earlier period in every situation, as the great increase of heat 

 from the setting in of the summer weather, added to the warmth of the fleece, becomes 

 very oppressive and injurious to them in their feeding. 



6438. Sheep-shearing, in Romney Marsh, commences about midsummer, and finishes about the middle 

 of July. Those who shear first, think they escape the effects of the fly, and those that shear late, appre- 

 hend they gain half a pound weight in every fleece, by the increased perspiration of the sheep. In early 

 shearing, the wool has not the condition which it afterwards acquires, but the hot weather occasions a 

 good deal of trouble in detecting the fly.* The lambs are generally shorn, especially in the northern dis- 

 tricts, a few weeks after the old sheep, and the operation is termed sherling. The lambs that are sold in 

 Smithfield market are, we believe, seldom or ever shorn. 



6439. Clipping off the coarse soiled wool about the thighs and docks, some weeks before 

 the usual time of washing and clipping the sheep, is an excellent practice; as by this 

 means the sheep are kept clean and cool when the season is hot, and with ewes the udders 

 are prevented from becoming sore. 



6440. In separating for the purpose of washing, the flock is brought to the side of the 

 washing-pool, and there lambs and sheep of different kinds, fit to be washed, are put into 

 separate fields ; and such lambs as are too young to be clipped are not washed, but con- 

 fined in a fold or enclosure of any kind, at such a distance from the washing place as that 

 they may not disturb their mothers by their bleating. The object of washing is simply to 

 free the fleece from dust and dirt of various kinds. In Devonshire and Spain, the short- 

 wooled sheep are not washed. 



6441. In performing the operation of washing, it was formerly the method to have 

 the washers standing up to the breast in the water ; but from the inconvenience 

 and danger of it, the men requiring a large supply of spirituous liquors, and being 

 liable to be attacked with colds, rheumatisms and other diseases, as well as being 

 apt to dispatch the work with too much expedition, so as to leave the wool insuffi- 

 ciently clean; it has been proposed by Young, in his Calendar, to rail off a portion of 

 the water in a stream or pond {Jig. 676.), for the sheep to walk into by a sloping mouth 



at one end (a), and to walk out by another at the other end (b), with a depth suflScient 

 at one part for them to swim ; and to pave the whole -. the breadth need not be more than 

 six or seven feet. At one spot on each side of this passage, where the depth is just 

 suflScient for the water to flow over the sheep's back, a cask or box (c), water-tight, should 

 be fixed, for a man to stand in dry ; the sheep being in the water between them, they wash 

 in perfection, and pushing them on, they swim through the deep part, and walk out at the 

 other mouth, where a clean pen (d), or a very clean dry pasture is ready to receive them ; 

 of course there is a bridge rail- way to the tubs, and a pen at the first mouth of the 

 water (e), whence the sheep are turned into it, where they may be soaking for a few 

 minutes before being driven to the washers. But other more cheap contrivances may be 

 provided, where there is clean water at hand for the purposes. 



6442. After sheep are washed, they should on no account be driven on dry or dusty 

 roads ; but should have a clean hard pasture for a few days, until they are perfectly dry 

 and in a proper condition to be shorn. 



