SHEEP-PENS. 



SHRUB. 



of this kind are usually made low for the sake 

 of warmth in the winter, being mostly a third 

 part longer than they have breadth : they should 

 also be sufficiently large for the quantity of 

 sheep that they are to contain. The side should 

 be lined with boards, and the bottoms be laid 

 in an even manner with stone or some other 

 material, that the litter may be well impreg- 

 nated with the urine of the sheep. The sides 

 exposed to the sun should be lined with mova- 

 ble hurdles, that when it shines the whole 

 may be laid open, to give due refreshment and 

 afford the sheep an opportunity of feeding upon 

 the pasture wherein they stand. They should 

 be well and securely covered with some sort 

 of proper material upon the tops. They are 

 sometimes fixed in particular situations ; but 

 in other cases, which is the more improved 

 method, so constructed as to be capable of 

 being removed as they may be wanted. 



SHEEP-PENS. The divisions made by the 

 small movable gates or hurdles which are 

 set up to keep sheep in some particular spot. 

 They are usually funned on a dry place about 

 the corners where different enclosures of the 

 pasture meet, so as to be convenient for the 

 whole. Pens are useful for examining and 

 selecting the sheep, being divided so as to con- 

 tain about 3 dozen sheep each, as by this means 

 they are always at the command of the shep- 

 herd for any purposes he may have in view. 

 The bottoms should be firm and dry, so that the 

 sheep may not be soiled. 



SHEEP-STEALING. By the 7 W. 4, & 

 1 Viet. c. 90, every person convicted in Eng- 

 land of stealing any horse, mare, gelding, colt, 

 filly, bull, cow, heifer, ram, ewe, sheep, or lamb, 

 is liable to be transported for a term not ex- 

 ceeding 15 years, nor less than 10 years ; or 

 be imprisoned for any term not exceeding 3 

 years. 



SHEEP'S SORREL (Ritmex acetosellu). A 

 perennial species of dock, which in England is 

 found growing abundantly in dry, gravelly 

 fields and pastures. The herb is acrid, with 

 .some astringency. The root is creeping. The 

 stem wavy, slender, often decumbent. Theflow- 

 rs are dioecious, small, separate, in numerous 

 whorled leafless clusters. The leaves lanceo- 

 late-hastate above, but hastate in the lower part 

 of the stem. The acid which they contain is 

 the oxalic, combined with potassa, as a binox- 

 alate ; but it is less used than its fellow-species 

 R. acetosa. See SORREL. 



Dr. Darlington informs us that there are in 

 the United States 10 or 12 additional species 

 of sorrel, but it is difficult to say how many of 

 these are indigenous. 



SHEPARDIA, SILVER-LEAVED. See BUF- 

 FALO BERRY. 



SHEPHERD. The person who has the care 

 and management of a flock of sheep. Mr. Ban- 

 nister says, that it is necessary to have for this 

 employment "a person who is well skilled in 

 the nature and management of sheep, and hath 

 been brought up in that employment from his 

 infancy; who is sober, diligent, and good-na- 

 tured ; qualities essentially necessary in a shep- 

 herd, who, although he may seem to lead a life 

 of indolence, when contrasted with the more 

 laborious servants of the farm, need rarely to 

 125 



I have a minute's time hang heavily on his 

 j hands, if he will be attentive to his business, 

 I which will furnish him with sufficient employ- 

 ment throughout the day, particularly in the 

 lambing season, or where there are two folds at 

 ; work ; nor will he want opportunity for the 

 i exercise of his patience and good temper in his 

 | attendance on the sheep, which is by nature an 

 animal of great obstinacy and perverseness, 

 ! and hath often paid the forfeit of its life to these 

 innate qualities, where the shepherd was a 

 man of a morose and surly disposition." 



SHEPHERD'S NEEDLE (Scatidix Pecten 

 Fcnrm). This is a troublesome annual weed, 

 very common in cultivated fields in England. 

 The root is tapering. The fruit is nearly 

 smooth, with a bushy edge, having a beak 

 from 1 to 2 inches long ; whence the specific 

 name. 



SHEPHERD'S PURSE (Tklaspi,tromthlao, 

 to compress; the seed-vessels are compress- 

 ed). In England this is a genus of worthless 

 plants, the principal species of which is the 

 common shepherd's purse (T. bursa pastoris"), 

 which occurs in almost every part of the globe. 

 It is an annual plant, with a tapering, whitish 

 root, having a peculiar smoke-like scent. The 

 herbage is rough, with prominent hairs. Stem 

 branched, leafy, from 6 to 12 inches high. Ra- 

 dical leaves deeply pinnatilid. Flowers small, 

 corymbose, often tinged with purplish-brown. 

 Pouch inversely heart-shaped, somewhat tri- 

 angular. Seeds about 5 or more in each cell. 

 Small birds eat the seeds and flowers. 



SHEPHERD'S STAFF. See TEASEL. 



SHERARDIA (named by Dillenius in ho- 

 nour of his patron, W. Sherard, LL.D., consul 

 at Smyrna). This is a genus of uninteresting 

 plants. One species, the blue sherardia, or 

 little field-madder (S. urveasis), is indigenous to 

 England, where it grows in fallow fields, or 

 among corn, on a light or gravelly soil. The 

 plant is annual; herbage generally hairy; 

 stems several, branched, spreading, mostly de- 

 cumbent, 3 to 6 inches long. Leaves whorled, 

 pale-green. Flowers pale purplish-blue, in a 

 sessile terminal umbel. 



SHERDS. In gardening, fragments of earthen 

 pots, &c., employed to drain the soil supplied 

 to potted plants, and also as under-draining for 

 gravel walks. 



SHIFTS. See ROTATION OF CROPS. 



SHIM. A tool of the tillage kind, used in 

 breaking down and reducing the more stiff and 

 heavy sorts of land, as well as cutting up and 

 clearing them from weeds. They are made of 

 different forms and constructions, to suit dif- 

 ferent purposes. 



SHOCK. See SHUCK. 



SHOREWEED (Liitarella, from littua, the 



shore, in allusion to its place of growth). The 



plantain shore weed (L. lacustris} is a pretty 



little perennial sub-aquatic, indigenous to Eng- 



! land, flowering in June. It has no stem; but 



j the root, which is fleshed and tap-shaped, 



j throws up many long, linear, channelled leaves. 



The flowers are whitish-green. 



SHORT-HORNS. See CATTU. 



SHRUB. A small, low, dwarfish, woody 

 plant, resembling a tree, which, instead of one 

 single stem, frequently puts forth from the 



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