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 

 bemu r removed as they may be wanted. 



8HEBP-PEN& The divisions made by the 

 small movable gates or hurdles which are 

 set up to keep sheep in some particular spot. 

 They are usually formed 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 alxuit 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 oi' 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 (Rumex acetosella}. 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- 

 ers are dioBcious, 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. acetoxa. See SORRKL. 



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 BKIIRT. 



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 



have a minute's time hang heavily on hi. 

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

 which will furnish him with sufficient employ 

 ment throughout the day, particularly in tha. 

 lambing season, or where there are two fc "Jcs at 

 work ; nor will he want opportunity I:T the 

 ' 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 (Scandix Pecten 

 Veneris). This is a troublesome annual weed, 

 j 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 (Thlaspi,fromthlao, 

 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 pinnatifid. 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. arvensis), 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 asunder-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. 



SHORE WEED (Littorella, from littus, the 

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

 plantain shoreweed (L. lacustris) is a pretty 

 little perennial sub-aquatic, indigenous to Eng- 

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

 the root, which is fleshed and tap-shaped, 

 throws up many long, linear, channelled leaves. 

 The flowers are whitish-green. 



SHORT-HORNS. See CATTLE. 



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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