Book VII. FOLDING OF SHEEP. lOfil 



artificial shelter is provided immense losses sometimes take place on mountain farms. The sheep are 



buried many feet deep in the snow ; and though the shepherd, 

 °"4 with such assistants as he can procure, armed with poles and 



spades, and aided by the sagacity of his dog, may dig out a few, yet 

 the greater number perish. While the sheep remain in artificial 

 shelters of any kind they must of course be fed ; and the only 

 convenient food in such cases is hay, straw, or dried spray (the 

 latter seldom resorted to in this country , which should be put 

 into baskets, or racks. [Jig. 894.) The Kyeland breed of sheep in 

 Herefordshire, and some of the flocks in the Highlands of Scot- 

 land, are put under cover nightly throughout the year : a prac- 

 tice which has probably originated in security, and been continued 

 as matter of convenience and habit. 



Sect. V. Folding of Sheep. 



7208. Cutting or folding is a practice more or less extensively followed with particular 

 breeds and in particular districts, but now generally on the decline. 



7209. Jt was formerly thought to be indispensably necessary to the success of the farmer in different dis- 

 tricts ; but of late a different opinion has prevailed, except in particular cases, and it is considered as 

 merely enriching one field at the expense of another. The practice may, however, be beneficial where 

 there are downs, heaths, or commons. Folding has been chiefly confined to England, and a small part of 

 Wales and Ireland. The object is to enrich the arable land ; but as this is done at the expense of the 

 pasture, it is truly, as Bakewell expressed it, " robbing Peter to pay Paul " 



7210. The sheep best adapted to the fold are those of the more active, short-woolled varieties, such as the 

 Norfolk, Wiltshire, and South Down breeds ; the heavy long-woolled kinds being less hardy, and some of 

 them, as the Leicesters, much too valuable for a mode of treatment that converts them into dung carriers. 

 The following calculation by Marshal will show, that though, in open lands, the practice may be in some 

 cases tolerated on the ground of conveniency or expediency, it can possess no recommendation as a pro- 

 fitable mode of management in other circumstances. 



7211. This morning ^September 22. 1780), measured a sheep-fold, set out for six hundred sheep, con- 

 sisting of ewes, wedders, and grown lambs. It measures eight by five and a half rods, which is somewhat 

 more than seven rods to one hundred, or two yards to a sheep. 



7212. August 29. 1781. Last autumn made an accurate experiment, on a large scale, with different 

 manures for wheat, on a sandy loam, summer fallowed. Part of an eighteen acre piece was manured with 

 fifteen or sixteen loads of tolerably good farm-yard dung an acre; part with three chaldrons of lime an 

 acre; the rest folded upon with sheep twice ; the first time at the rate of six hundred sheep to a quarter 

 of an acre as in first minute), the second time thinner. In winter and spring, the dung kept the lead ; 

 and now, at harvest, it has produced the greatest burden of straw. The sheep-fold kept a steady pace 

 from seed-time to harvest, and is now evidently the best corned, and the cleanest crop. The lime, in 

 winter and spring, made a poor appearance, but after some showers in summer it flourished much, and 

 is now a tolerable crop, not less, I apprehend, than three quarters of an acre. 



7213. From these data the value of a sheep-fold, in this case, may be calculated. It appears from the 

 first minute, that one hundred sheep manured seven square rods daily. But the second folding was 

 thinner ; suppose nine rods, this is, on a par of the two foldings, eight rods a day each folding. The dung 

 could not be worth less than half a crown a load, and the carriage and spreading ten shillings an acre ; 

 together fifty shillings an acre ; which quantity of land the hundred sheep teathed twice in forty days. 

 Supposing thein to be folded the year round, they would, at this rate, fold nine acres annually ; which, at 

 fifty shillings an acre, is twenty-two pounds ten shillings a hundred, or four shillings and sixpence a head. 

 In some parts of the island, the same quantity of dung would be worth five pounds an acre, which would 

 raise the value of the teathe to nine shillings a head ; which, at two-pence a head a week, is more than 

 the whole year's keep of the sheep. It does not follow, however, that all lands would have received equal 

 benefit with the piece in consideration ; which, perhaps, had not been folded upon for many years, per- 

 haps never before ; and sheep folds, like other manures, may become less efficacious the longer it is used 

 on a given piece of land. [Marshal's Rural Economy of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 29.) 



7214. To fold on land in tillage all the year is nearly impracticable ; and where it could be done, the 

 manure would be greatly diminished in value from rain and snow, to say nothing of the injury to the 

 sheep themselves. So that the estimate of four shillings and sixpence, or nine shillings a head, is evi. 

 riently in the extreme. 



7215. According to Arthur Young [Farmer's Calendar), the same land will maintain one fourth more 

 stock when the animals are allowed to depasture at liberty, than when confined during the night in folds. 

 The injury to the stock themselves, though it is not easy to mention its precise amount with any degree 

 of accuracy, cannot well be doubted, at least in the case of the larger and less active breeds, when it is 

 considered that they are driven, twice a day, sometimes for a distance of two, or even three miles, and 

 that their hours of feeding and rest are, in a great measure, controlled by the shepherd and his boy. 

 When they are kept in numerous parcels, it is not only driving to and from the fold that affects them, 

 but they are in fact driving about in a sort of march all day long, when the strongest have too great an 

 advantage, and the flock divides into the head and tail of it, by which means one part of them must 

 trample the food to be eaten by another. All this points the very reverse of their remaining perfectly 

 quiet in small parcels. 



7216. The result of Parkinson's experience is, " that were the pasture sheep of Lincolnshire to be got 

 into a fold once a week, and only caught one by one, and put out again immediately, it would prevent their 

 becoming fat." ^Parkinson on Live Stock, voL i. p. 367.) The only sort of folding ever adopted to any 

 extent by the best breeders is on turnips, clovers, tares, and other rich food, where the sheep feed at their 

 ease, and manure the land at the same time. 



7217. Folding in littered yards is described by Dickson [Complete Farmer, art. Sheep) as combining all 

 the advantages of folding on arable lands without any of its disadvantages. By this practice the sheep 

 are confined at night in a yard well and regularly littered with straw, stubble, or fern ; by which means 

 the flock is said to be kept warm and healthy in bad seasons, and at the same time a surprising quantity 

 of manure accumulated. A great improvement on this method, it is said, would be, giving the sheep all 

 their food (except their pasture) in such yard, viz. hay and turnips : for which purpose they may be 

 brought up not only at night, but also at noon, to be baited ; but if their pasture be at a distance, they 

 should then, instead of baiting at noon, come to the yard earlier in the evening, and go out later in the 

 morning. This is a practice, he savs, that cannot be too much recommended ; for so warm a lodging is a 

 great matter to young lambs, and will tend much to forward their growth : the sheep will also be kept in 

 good health ; and, what is a point of consequence to all farms, the quantity of dung raised will be very 

 great If this method is pursued through the months of December, January, February, March, and 

 April, with plentv of litter, one hundred sheep will make a dunghill of at least sixty loads of excellent 

 stuff, which will amply manure two acres of land ; whereas one hundred sheep folded (supposing the 

 grass dry enough; will not, in that time, equallv manure an acre. 



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