i S PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part IIT. 



Subski i. 1. Rearing and Management ofSheeji on rich gmfi ami arable Lands. 



7166. The most general sheep husbandry on rich lands, or where turnips and other 



green food is raised for winter consumption, is to combine the breeding and feeding 



branches, leaning to «.:ti , li according to the returns of profit. 



71i>7. ./ method wry common among arable farmers, and which is attended with the least trouble and 

 hazard, li that of purchasing a store Bock, as lambs, wethers, and what are termed crones, or old ewes ; 

 some or the last soil often proving with lamb, may be fattened off with them to good account It is like- 

 wise often the case ih it ewes are disposed of in lamb, nr with lambs by tiinr sides, in what arc termed 

 couples, in w 1 1 it-ii circumstani es it ia frequently a good practice to make annual purchases of them, in 

 order to the flattening of both, and selling them in that state within the year. In the purchasing ol sheep, 

 which l- often done from very distant fairs and markets, much care and circumspection ia necessary, 

 whatever the sort or intention with which they are bought may lie. In these cases much advantage, 

 especially when at a considerable distance, may be derived by employing a salesman on the spot 



7 I 'is. The treatment if the lambs is the first consideration in the mixed sheep hus- 

 bandry. 



Tlii!'. Lambs are either suckled or fattened on grass, or sold in autumn as lean stock. With regard to 

 those that have been suckled or fattened in the house, much attention is required to have them early, to 

 their being well, regularly, and very cleanly kept and suckled, as well ;b to the ewes being of the right 

 sort, and the best milkers that can be provided, and to their being fully supplied with food of the most 

 nourishing and succulent kinds. Their tails and udders should have the wool well clipped away from 

 them, in order that they maj be preserved in a perfectly clean state The lambs also require, especially 

 towards the Close Of their fattening, to have regular supplies of barley, wheat, and peas-meal, ground 

 together in combination with tine green rouen hay When these have been sold oft', the lambs which 

 have been fattened on the bc*t grass land will be ready to succeed them at the markets, in the Spring and 

 summer months, and these will be followed by the sale of the store lambs, at the different autumnal fairs. 



7170. The selection or setting of the lamb-stock is the first business of sheep manage- 

 ment after the lambs have been weaned. 



7171. // is generally performed in the month Qf July or August, at which period the fairs for the sale of 

 lambs mostly take place. And as at this tune the whole are collected together for drawing into different 

 lots, it is a very suitable period for selecting or choosing those that are to supply such deficiencies in the 

 breeding Hocks. In Ins Calendar Of Husbandry, Young has remarked, that in making this selection the 

 farmer or his shepherd usually whatever the breed may be rejects all that manifest any departure from 

 certain signs of the true breed : thus, ill a Norfolk Hock, a white leg, and a face not of a hue sufficiently 

 dark, would be excluded, however well formed; in the same manner a white face on the South Downs ; 

 in Wiltshire, a black face would be an exclusion, or a horn that does not fall back ; in Dorsetshire, a horn 

 that does not project, &c. 



7172. The selection of the grown stock generally takes place after the lambs are weaned, 

 or, at all events, before tupping season, though wethers may be drawn out of the flock 

 at any time. A certain number of old ewes or crones are removed every year, and these 

 as well as the wethers are fed off for the butcher, either on grass, artificial herbage, or 

 roots, according to the situation and circumstances of the farm, and season of the year. 



7173. Tlie shearing of sheep is an annual operation, which includes several preparatory 

 measures and after-processes. These are, washing, separation, catching, clipping, mark- 

 ing, and tail-cutting. 



7174. The proper time for clipping or shearing sheep must be directed by the state of the weather and 

 the climate in the particular district, as by this means the danger of injury by cold from depriving the 

 sheep of their coats at too early a season, and from heat by permitting them fro continue on them too 

 long, mav be avoided in the best manner : but another circumstance that should likewise be attended to 

 in this business, is that of the wool being fully grown or at the state of maturity ; as where the clipping 

 precedes that period, it is said in the Annals of Agriculture to be weak and scarcely capable of being spun, 

 and if protracted later.it is yellow, felted, and of an imperfect nature. It has been stated, that for the 

 more warm .sheltered situations in the southern parts of the kingdom, the beginning or middle of June, 

 when the weather is tine, may be in general the most proper; but in the more exposed districts in the 

 northern parts of the island, the middle or latter end of the same month may be more suitable, provided 

 the season be favourable. But with the fattening sheep in the enclosures, it will mostly be necessary to 

 perform the work at an earlier period in every situation, as the great increase of heat from the setting 

 in of the summer weather, added to the warmth of the fleece, becomes very oppressive and injurious to 

 them in their feeding. There never can be any difficulty in ascertaining the proper time for shearing, 

 because the separation of the old wool from the new is always distinctly marked in a thriving sheep; and 

 tins happens earlier or later according to the age and condition of the animal Hence, from the beginning 

 of .May, or earlier, till the first week of July, shearing goes on in different districts ; beginning with the 

 fat Leicester wedders, and ending with the small nursing ewes of the Highland districts. From the middle 

 of May to the middle of June is the busiest period. 



717V Sheep-shearing in Romney Marsh commences about midsummer, and finishes about the middle 

 of July. Those who shear first think they escape the effects of the fly, and those that shear late appre- 

 hend they gain half a pound weight in every fleece, by the increased perspiration of the sheep. In early 

 shearing, the wool has not the condition which it afterwards acquires; but the hot weather occasions a 

 good deal of trouble in detecting the fly The lambs that are sold in Smith field market are, we believe, 

 seldom or ever shorn All over the north of England, and throughout Scotland, lambs are never shorn. 

 They lose their lint fleece when about fifteen months old. 



7176". Clipping of the coarse soiled wool about the thighs and docks, some weeks before 

 the usual time of washing and clipping the sheep, is an excellent practice; as by this 

 means the sheep are kept clean and cool when the season is hot, and with ewes the udders 

 are prevented from becoming sore. 



7177. In separating for the purpose of washing, the flock is brought to the side of the 

 washing-pool, and there lambs and sheep of different kinds, fit to be washed, are put into 

 separate fields ; and such lambs as are too young to be clipped are not washed, but con- 

 fined in a fold or enclosure of any kind, at such a distance from the washing place as that 

 they may not disturb their mothers by their bleating. The object of washing is simply 



