JANUARY. 



many gentlemen over my fields, with a view to ex-' 

 amine whether the sheep had seemed to have rested 

 only on spots, to the too great manuring of such ; 

 or, on the contrary, to have distributed themselves 

 more equally; and it was a pleasure to find, that 

 they seemed generally to have spread in every part, 

 it* not quite equally, at least nearly so. The im- 

 proved countenance of several old lays fed in the 

 same manner, when examined in autumn, con- 

 vinced me as well as my bailiff, that the ground 

 had been unquestionably improved considerably. 

 Those fields had carried a very bad appearance for 

 some years, but they were 5 after sheep-feeding, of 

 a rich verdure, and as full of worm-casts as if they 

 had been dunged. I rolled them heavily in No- 

 vember, but they soon became rough again by 

 worms, and demanded much rolling in spring. 

 They had afterwards a greener and more fertile ap- 

 pearance by far than ever they wore before. 



The whole of this circumstance, the value of 

 which I shall be able to appreciate in the trials of 

 future years, belongs to this method of dividing 

 flocks, to the exclusion of folding. The fold is 

 valuable, but so is the improvement of the grass 

 land, and may, for what I know, nearly equal it : 

 when, in addition, we include the greater number 

 of sheep that can be kept, and the favour done to 

 them by letting them alone, there remains, in my 

 mind, no further doubt of the fact. 



It is common to hear flock-farmers in open coun- 

 tries say, they have not the power to manage so. 



This 



