38 SHEEP INDUSTRY OP THE UNITED STATES 



This company, represented by eight members, comprised sixteen in- 

 dividuals owning 704 sheep, Capt. Pierce owning 105, the largest, and 

 John Smith but 12, with Cousin Pettingill a good second with but 14. 

 llichard Brown and Widow Stickney owned 24 each. The average 

 number of each person's ownership was 64, which is inconsiderable ex- 

 cess of the average ownership in the colony at that time, which did not 

 exceed 20 or 25. 



A few words in explanation of these rules for folding. The necessity 

 of folding the sheep securely every night came from the great destruc- 

 tion caused by the wolves; and this necessity our forefathers turned 

 to the advantage of their corn land by folding the sheep upon it. 



Having set the day upon which Shepherd Morris was to commence his services, 

 which this year was the 23 of April, and designated the man who was to have the 

 first benefit of folding, who this year was Richard Brown, each one of the company 

 brought to his corn land his share of the materials, a gate for every score of sheep, 

 with which they set up the pen. After remaining there the prescribed time, it was 

 taken down and set up on Cousin Pettingill's land, and thus it passed round from 

 one to another, like a mug of flip at an " ordinary" in olden time, each one receiving 

 upon his corn or corn land the "full benefit" of the top dressing, which 700 sheep 

 could give. Wherever the pen was erected there the shepherd was to have his 

 "dyett," and thus, like a menagerie, or traveling circus, he and his animals were con- 

 tinually in motion. At other times and in other places, the pen was erected on some 

 part of the common land, and was, after a suitable time, removed, and a crop of 

 turnips raised, which, in the fall, were divided pro rata among the owners of the 

 sheep. Turnips at the time, and for half a century afterward, supplied the place of 

 potatoes.* 



Some of the towns did not have sheep enough to herd until near the 

 close of the seventeenth century ; such was the case with Hadley and 

 the upper towns on the Connecticut, where, after shepherds were em- 

 ployed, the sheep were folded at night and the manure was paid for by 

 those on whose land the folds or pens were put up. In Hatneld the 

 sheep were folded in hurdles, or movable pens, which were carried from 

 one place to another. Here the wages of a shepherd were ordinarily 

 12 shillings per week. This town had 273 sheep in 1691, and 291 in 

 1699. The flock in Hadley increased slowly. In Hatneld, the cow- 

 keeper and shepherd enjoyed the privileges of most of the Sabbaths. 

 In 1672 every man that had 3 cattle on the commons was to take his 

 turn in keeping the herd on Sundays. In 1693 the shepherd was to 

 take the sheep every tenth Sunday, and the owners were to guard them 

 nine Sundays in teu.t Haverhill had similar arrangements ; a shepherd 

 for the town flocks in 1652 was allowed 12 shillings and 6 pence per 

 week, to be paid in Indian corn and butter. He was " to keep ye heard 

 faithfully as a heard ought to be kept; if any be left on the Sabbath 

 when ye towne worship, they who keepe ar,e to go ye next day, doing 

 their best endeavore to find them." He was not permitted to turn his 

 flock into the pasture on the Sabbath until the "second beating of the 



* " History of Newbury." Joshua Coffin. 

 t"Judd's History of Hadley." 



