126 



EWE 



EXP 



time idly, if they do not take care 

 to prevent it. Feeding and tend- 

 ing their cattle, if they do it faith- 

 fully, will take some considerable 

 part of each day, if the stock be 

 large. The dressing of hemp and 

 flax requires some time, and ought 

 to be done in winter. Getting 

 home fuel for maintaining fires 

 through the year, and hauling stuff 

 and fitting it for the building and 

 repairing offences; threshing and 

 cleaning of corn and grain, and 

 preparing farming implements, may 

 ail be done at this season. And these 

 things ought to be done at this time 

 of the year, to prevent hurr)- at a 

 more busy season. So that, though 

 our fanners cannot plough, or do 

 an}' thing to the soil in winter, un- 

 less it be sometimes in part of De- 

 cember, they need not be idle. In 

 maritime places they may employ 

 themselves and their teams in get- 

 ting manure from flats and creeks, 

 and drawing it to their hungry high 

 lands. This will turn to very good 

 account, and pay them well for 

 their labour. Holes may be dug 

 in the ice over flats, from whence 

 rich mud may be taken, and drawn 

 upon sleds to the high parts of a 

 farm. And this will be found to be 

 a profitable employment. 



ENCLOSURE,a piece of ground 

 fenced by itself, to prevent the en- 

 trance of cattle, &c. In some pla- 

 ces men farm in common fields. — 

 But this method, pasturing except- 

 ed, is not eligible. Some lose 

 more by it than enough to pay for 

 enclosing. And it is too often the 

 occasion of quarrels, and endless 

 uneasiness among neighbours. 

 EWES, the females of sheep. 



That they may be profitably man- 

 aged, we should keep none for 

 breeders that have not long and 

 fine fleeces. The rest should be 

 killed otf during the first year. — 

 Otherwise the stock will degener- 

 ate ; and a large proportion of 

 their wool will be coarse, or too 

 short, and of little value. 



From the first of October, to the 

 twentieth of November, the rams 

 should be kept from them ; that 

 so their lambs may not come till 

 the twentieth of April, when the 

 ground is most commonly bare,and 

 the grass begins to spring in many 

 places. 



For a few days, or weeks, before 

 yeaning time, they should be more 

 generously fed. Some juicy food, 

 which they are fond of, should be 

 given them, such as turnips, pota- 

 toes, (Sic. that (hey may have plen- 

 ty of milk for their lambs : For it 

 is the opinion of careful observers, 

 that want of milk is the cause of 

 the dying of so many lambs in the 

 first stage of their existence. 



From their first going to pasture 

 to the last of June, or the middle 

 of July, the ewes should have 

 plenty of feed, by means of which 

 the lambs will come forward ra- 

 pidly in their growth, so as to be 

 fit for weaning. Nor will the ewes 

 become so lean, but that they may 

 be fattened in autumn ; which 

 would be otherwise. were the lambs 

 to suck them as long as they are 

 permitted to do in this country. 



EXPERIExMCE. Perhaps no 

 man ever attained to a thorough 

 knowledge of husbandry merely by 

 books, or by oral information. Ex- 

 perience is needful to fix the know- 



