262 



Sheep Husbandry. 



Vol. V. 



lie complains of might not arise from an unhealthy ex- 

 posure—possibly a northern or eastern current of wind 

 at the time of blossoming. A pf^ar tree that had borne 

 cankered fruit for many years, and which grew at the 

 north-east corner of a house with a southern aspect, a 

 high garden-wall being between it and the northern ex- 

 posure, was completely cured of canker, by erecting a 

 piece of close paling on the top of the wall, high 

 enough to defend it from the piercing winds from that 

 quarter — the shelter of the wall, with a southern 

 aspect, forced the tree into early U-af, and then the cut- 

 ting blasts of the north, operating upon its branches 

 above the wall, produced the most fatal consequences. 



Ed. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Sheep Husbandry. 



Sir, — I atn glad that you have introduced 

 into your pages the subject of sheep hus- 

 bandry. I have ever considered it a species 

 of murder to slaughter, as we do, thousands 

 of " bags of bones," without even the attempt 

 to cover them with flesh, not calculating that 

 if they were to share our care and attention 

 in an equal degree with other kinds of stock, 

 they would, in an equal degree, pay for the 

 labour and expense of feeding : indeed it is 

 melancholy to see the poor, miserable, skinny, 

 long-boned, lantern-jawed objects that are 

 exhibited by hundreds on the shambles and 

 in the wagons every market day, with their 

 backs turned inside out, and the very little 

 fat they can boast driven up into their necks 

 and loins — objects of loathing rather than of 

 longing, and still bearing the name of mut- 

 ton ! call it sheep if you please, but it is very 

 far from mutton, any how. And yet all these 

 carcasses might be made to carry loads of the 

 finest and most delicious food, by the easiest 

 and most convenient modes imaginable, for it 

 is by no means of necessity that they fall into 

 that state of atrophy, which many of them 

 exhibit when exposed, at their best estate, for 

 sale on the shambles; it is but to take com- 

 mon care of them, and treat them with a 

 portion of that kindness which is paid to 

 other stock, and they will never dwindle 

 away into the contemptible things which we 

 60 often witness. 



There is no animal which so soon exhibits 

 the value of care and keep as the sheep, nor 

 is there any other which pays thrice for the 

 food which it eats — namely, in flesh, wool 

 and dung, the value of all which is greatly 

 enhanced by food and shelter — they can be 

 kept and fed on a large scale by those who 

 have no land, being found to thrive in con- 

 finement and under a course of stall-feeding 

 better than almost any other stock; and I 

 have often wondered that mechanics and 

 others in our cities do not feed a sheep or two 

 before winter, as regularly as many do a hog 



or two; there cannot be more wholesome 

 meat, and when it is properly fatted it bears 

 the salt well, and spends better in a family 

 than the very fat pork which we often meet 

 with at the tables of the working classes. 

 They are a fatting stock far more convenient 

 to persons occupying small premises than 

 hogs, are cleaner, quieter and easier fed, re- 

 quiring nothing but that food which is the 

 most easily obtained, and when corn and oats 

 are cheap, as they now are, would prove a 

 profitable as well as a convenient fatting 

 stock to many an industrious city family. 



But it is in the country where the great 

 benefits of a different system of sheep hus- 

 bandry would be felt, and where, if it were 

 better understood, its value would be more 

 highly appreciated ; and I cannot think of 

 any better way that I have in my power to 

 serve the cause which I so much regard, than 

 to copy for your very valuable and interesting 

 work, some observations on this important 

 subject from a late English work ; these, in 

 connexion with your article at page 206, and 

 the drawings of temporary fencing or hurdles 

 in your last, will — or I am much mistaken — 

 set many thinking, and, I trust, be the means 

 of inducing them to practise a system which 

 in Europe has tended more than any thing 

 else to benefit the cause of agriculture. It 

 is there said — 



" Of all domestic animals, sheep are of the 

 greatest importance to the farmer and the 

 community ; they can be reared in situations 

 where scarcely any other animal can subsist, 

 and in their fleeces they supply an article 

 which, by its manufacture, gives employment 

 and the means of living to thousands, and 

 thus contributes to the productive labour, the 

 commercial prosperity and the opulence — the 

 feeding and clothing of the inhabitants of 

 every country where these animals are bred. 

 Sheep husbandry, therefore, well deserves 

 the best attention of the farmer, for from it 

 no small share of his profits arises. But we 

 are too much disposed to manage our sheep, 

 although the most profitable, with less care 

 than any other of our domestic animals; we 

 compel them to bear the storms and hurri- 

 canes of winter, but were we to expend upon 

 them somewhat of the attention we bestow 

 on our horses and cattle, and shelter them 

 from the merciless blasts of rain and snow, 

 and allow them food, the flock would be pro- 

 fitable, instead of, as it often is, a loss. 



With regard to sheltering sheep in winter, 

 and otherwise managing them. Lord Western 

 is surpassed by no breeder in the world ; and 

 any remarks from him, demand the most se- 

 rious consideration of every intelligent sheep- 

 owner; he says, "I have a flock of pure me- 

 rinos, and another of anglo-merinos, of which 

 I have exhibited specimens at the Smithfield 



