AGRICULTURAL JMUSEUM 101 



wtien winter advances; but though known, this is for 

 ever neglected m practice. 



Sheep, in some vales, particularlv of the southern and 

 western districts, where inclosures are small, and the 

 circulation of fresh air impeded, will pay tittle or nothing 

 duringthe summer montb-s, let the keep be ever so good, 

 owing to the feeat and that instinctive terror which they 

 have of the magiJfot or blowfly. In tlxe three winter 

 morhths again, all men consider themselves fortunate, if 

 their store flock iose nothing in condition. Reasoning 

 on our own knowledge, and on facts long established, 

 need any stronger argument be adfli\ced to show, how, 

 attentive we must hereafter be to such a system, if wc 

 had not at this hour, sheep in every part of the kingdom 

 dying by thousands, of cold and want of keep ? It is 

 cheaper to feed the outside than the inside ; yet plain as 

 all this seems to be, the practice is rarely, if any where, 

 to be found but In Herefordshire; therefore it is, that the 

 Ryeland is next in quality to the Spanish wool ; and 

 Spanish writers themselves confess it 



it must not be su|jposed, that 1 am suggesting costly 

 buildings for the purpose of cotting sheep in the oight 

 time during cold weather; two objections arise to them ; 

 they are not moveable, and may want fresh air, unless 

 high and large, for air and warmth are equally necessary 

 to sheep at these seasons. I^iothing can be more simple 

 than that cot or covered fold I wish to reconjmend for 

 general adoption during the cold months. 



A circular wall 12 feet high, inclosing an area of 10 

 jiards diameter, and on the inside of this wall, a shed, tha 

 roof of which slopes inward with an easy descent to 6 

 feet, will completely shelter a fiock of many hundred 

 sheep ; as may be seen on the farm at Crawley, near 

 ^Voburn, the property ot'his Grace the Duke of Bedford. 

 Another fold yard for, sheep is to be seen at Betshang- 

 er,near Deal, in Kent, composed of the cheapest and 

 rudest materials, situated in a deep chalk-pit. The ex- 

 cellence of the South Down flock occupying it. contrast- 

 ed w^ththe oeconqmy ofitsaccommodalionj cannot failto 



