118 



me important. For the management of the other disorders of 

 sheep recourse must be had to other authorities. I shall only 

 add that, in respect to many of them, their causes or occasions 

 are to be found in the improper treatment which the sheep re- 

 ceive. Sometimes they are fed to repletion ; at other times 

 they are as narrowly stinted. Their food is sometimes of the 

 best, and often, of the worst description. What flesh they gain 

 in summer is frequently lost by the severity of their usage in 

 winter. But few persons take pains to cultivate a supply of 

 succulent food for them, but confine them entirely to dry fod- 

 der ; whereas ewes in milk particularly require some succulent 

 food. 



6. General Management. — The success of one shepherd 

 of my acquaintance is so remarkable that I deem it proper to 

 record even some minute circumstances in his management. 

 He allows one hundred acres of pasture to three hundred sheep. 

 The propriety or expediency of such proportions must, it is 

 obvious, depend upon the quality and condition of the land, 

 and the character of the sheep placed upon it. At the lambing 

 season, he gives the ewes a small quantity of oil meal and oats, 

 and is sure to salt them once a week. The oil meal he regards 

 as very useful. His ewes in lambing, and with their lambs 

 after lambing, are perfectly sheltered in a warm and close stable, 

 and his lambs are all numbered by him on the side as they come, 

 and are fed every evening, late in the evemng. from a bottle 

 with cows' milk. Being numbered, he is not so likely to miss 

 serving them. By this extraordinary care and attention he is 

 saved from any loss of lambs, and they come into the pasture 

 vigorous and active. The preparation for marking his sheep 

 and lambs consists of three parts of rosin ; one part of tallow ; 

 and lamp-black as much as needed. 



In washing sheep before shearing he recommends to begin 

 with dipping in succession the whole flock ; and, after they 

 have stood some short time, to wash them thoroughly one by 

 one, where it can be done, in running or falHng water. The 

 condition of, and price always obtained for, his wool nre con- 



