2/4 FOLDING SHEEP. [MAT. 



tion, which leads me to remark the effect I observed 

 in several of my own fields. 



I attended, through the course of a summer, 

 many gentlemen over the fields, with a view to 

 examine if the sheep had seemed to rest only on 

 spots, to the too great manuring of such, or, on 

 the contrary, had distributed themselves more 

 equally ; and it was a pleasure to find, that they 

 seemed generally to have spread in every part, if 

 not equally, at least nearly so ; and the improved 

 countenance of some old lays, fed in the same man- 

 ner, when examined in autumn, convinced me, as 

 well as my bailiff, that the ground had been un- 

 questionably improved. They had carried a bad 

 appearance for some years, but they were now of a 

 rich verdure, and as full of worm-casts as if they 

 had been dunged. I rolled them heavily in No- 

 vember, but they soon became rough again by 

 worms : they have now a greener and more fertile 

 appearance by far than ever they wore before. 



The whole of this circumstance belongs to this 

 method of dividing flocks, to the exclusion of fold- 

 ing : the fold is valuable, but so is this improve- 

 ment of the grass land, and may, for what I know, 

 nearly equal it : when in addition we include the 

 ter number of sheep kept, and tlie favour done 

 to them by lotting them alone, there remains in 

 my mind no further question of the fact. 



It is common for flock farmers in open countries 

 to say, they have not the power to manage so ; 



which 



