MANAGEMENT OF A BREEDING FLOCK ON THE CHALKS. 



until the drafts of lambs are sent away is the time when most 

 food is wanted, and the quantity required naturally increases 

 daily as the lambs grow and require more. July with the breeding 

 flock is a very different experience to that with the flock a few 

 weeks later. As most farms depend greatly on the arable land for 

 sheep food, the system of farming is very much guided by it. As 

 a matter of fact, on the really good sheep farms the sheep dominate 

 everything ; and not infrequently the shepherd dominates the 

 master, for the shepherd says when a crop shall be sown, how big 

 an area he needs, and elects when he will feed it. This would not 

 be understood in most districts, but, on the whole, it seems to 

 answer well on the Down farms, where a race of very responsible 

 shepherds, with a long ancestry of shepherds, is found. Of course, 

 on land more difficult to farm, it would not do for the shepherd 

 to, as it were, interfere with the cultivation in this manner, because 

 troubles in working the land, and getting the crops in properly, 

 would probably occur. But the chalk downs are the most simple 

 of all soils to work. The soil is light, it is generally thin, so that 

 deep ploughing cannot be done, and it works at any time when 

 not frostbound or when it is not actually raining. The heavy 

 cultivations and tillages associated with stronger soils are not 

 needed, fallowing operations to drag out couch can be done even 

 in winter, and owing to the presence of much lime, turnip and 

 rape crops can be grown in frequent succession. So also can 

 " seeds " crops, vetches or tares. Sainfoin holds the land several 

 years, unless it be too frequently grown. 



Rapid Cropping. The cheapness of tillage operations has another 

 effect the failure of a crop to stand, as, for instance, turnips 

 or rape. It is not regarded in the serious light that it would be 

 where land works less easily, and where the cost is great. More- 

 over, from the ease of putting in a substituting crop after the 

 failure, the loss of time is not so seriously regarded. The fact 

 is, there is little regard for rotation ; a rapid system of cropping, 

 as exigencies demand, dominates ; and, on the whole, on these 

 light soils, such methods are the best. Some sort of skeleton 

 of an idea of a rotation is hazily sketched out, but in froward 

 seasons even this has to be set aside. Of course, the heaviness 

 of the stocking of the land by sheep greatly influences the oppor- 

 tunities for maintaining a rotation, but even when a comparatively 

 light head is kept, the rotation generally solves itself into procur- 

 ing a certain number of corn crops in a given number of years, 

 the fodder and forage crops meanwhile being juggled to meet 

 the flock requirements. The light soils run quickly to a short, 

 knotty twitch or couch ; but should the flock call for keep at 

 some time ahead, thorough cleaning is not always waited for, 

 just enough is got off to allow the crop to produce the needed 



