Book VII. 



MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 



1003 



6443. The common method of catching the sheep, in order to lay it on its back to be 

 shorn, is by the hinder leg, drawing the animal backward with a crook {Jig. 611 a, i, c) 

 to the adjacent shearing place ; the hand holding the leg to be ^^^=*s 677 

 kept low, when at the place it is turned on its back ; or they are 

 moved bodily, or one hand placed on the neck, and another be- 

 hind, and in that manner walked along: the first or common 

 mode he thinks the most safe. Sheep fed on rich pastures, and 

 fleshy, if handled hard and bruised, the parts are liable to fatal 

 mortifications ; an accident which often happens, on which ac- 

 counts pens upon some lands are obliged to be lined with woollen, 

 or many would die from bruises. 



6444. In performing the operation of shearing, the left side of 

 the sheep is placed against the shearer's left leg, his left foot at 

 the root of the sheep's tail, and his left knee at the sheep's left 

 shoulder. The process commences with the shears at the crown 

 of the slieep's head, with a straight cut along to the loins, return- 

 ing to the shoulder, and making a circidar shfiar around the off 

 side to the middle of the belly ; the off hinder leg next : then the 

 left hand holding the tail, a circular shear of the rump to the near 

 huck of the sheep's hind leg ; the two fore feet are next taken in 

 the left hand, the sheep raised, and the shears set in at the breast, 

 when the remaining part of the belly is sheared round to the near 

 stifle; lastly, the operator kneeling down on his right knee, and 

 the sheep's neck being laid over his left thigh, he shears along the 

 remaining side. 



Gi45. The method in Northumberland is to begin at the back part of the head, in order to ?ive room for 

 the shears to make their way down the right side of the neck, to the middle of the breast. The man then 

 sits down upon his right knee, laying the head of the sheep over his left knee bent, and beginning at the 

 breast, clips the underside of the throat upwards to the left cheek ; then takes off the back of the neck, 

 and all the way down below the left shoulder. He then changes to the contrary side, and makes his way 

 down to the open of the right flank. This done, he returns to the breast, and takes off the belly, after 

 which it matters not which side he clips, because being able to clip with either hand, he meets his shear 

 points exactly at tlie middle of the back, all the way, until he arrive at the thighs or legs. He then 

 places the sheep on its left side, and putting his right foot over the neck, and the other forward to the 

 undermost hind leg, clears the right side ; then turning the sheep over, finishes the whole. 



6446. The fleece being removed, is wound up ; that is, deprived of any clotted wool or 

 dirty part, and lapped with the shorn side outwards, beginning at the breech and ending 

 at the shoulders, where the neat wool serves as a bandage. 



6447. Marking is performed on each sheep as soon as the fleece is removed. The 

 object is to identify the individuals as the property of the master. Sometimes initials 

 are impressed, and at other times other marks. They are impressed by stamps, or 

 merely chalked or painted on. A stamp dipped in warm tar is the most durable mode. 

 Some place the mark on different parts of the sheep, according to its age ; others cut thd 

 margin of the ears in> different ways. 



6448. Shortening the tails of the sheep is performed in almost all the sheep districts of 

 the kingdom except in Dorsetshire, which seems to be an useful practice in keeping the 

 animals more clean behind, and of course less liable to be stricken with the fly. It has 

 however been suggested in the ninth volume of Annals of Agriculture, that by this cus- 

 tom the sheep may be rendered less able to drive away the flies. The general prevalence 

 of the practice would, however, seem to prove its being of advantage. There is much 

 difference in the manner of performing the business in different districts in respect to the 

 length, but four or five inches being left, is quite sufficient. It is usually done while 

 the animals are young. In all sheep pastures the hedges should be well cleared 

 from briars, as their coats are often injured by being torn by them. And all sorts 

 of pernicious reptiles should be as much as possible destroyed, and removed from such 

 land. 



6449. The mode of pasturing sheep, or of feeding them on herbage or roots having been 

 described when treating of these crops, the more general practices of rearing and 

 management of lowland sheep husbandry may be considered as developed. Some pecu- 

 liar practices and the mode of fatting lambs will be found in subsequent sections. 



SuBSECT. 2. Of the Rearing and general Management of Sheep on Hillt/ and Mountain- 

 ous .Districts, or what is generally termed Store Sheep Husbandry. 



6450. The best store farmers in Britain, are unquestionably those on the Cheviot liills, 

 which border the two kingdoms, and an account of tlieir management may be considered 

 as applicable to the mountainous districts of the whole kingdom. It is indeed applied 

 by the migrations of the Cheviot and Teviotdale farmers, both in the North Iligh- 

 lands, on the Sutherland estate, and in Wales. No regular system of store farm- 

 ing, as observed by Napier, ( Treatise on Store Farming), appeared previously to his 



