458 AUGUST. 



stacked and covered during the, winter, and is 

 spread upon meadow- land in January or February. 

 If the season suit (particularly when covered with 

 snow) it will come to a good colour, and make 

 strong coarse cloths. It is much inferior to- hemp 

 pulled in proper time, and water- retted. 



PULL FLAX. 



This also is the season for pulling flax : it is 

 bound in small sheafs, and conveyed to the steep- 

 ing- pit, where it remains about ten days on an ave- 

 rage, and is then grassed. To name the time of the 

 chief works on this crop is sufficient: flax draws 

 the land, and returns no more to it than hemp. 

 I cannot advise the young farmer to have any thing 

 to do with it. If, from singular circumstances, he 

 is inclined to try it, he should procure a man ac- 

 customed both to the culture and dressing. 



SET STOCK LAMBS. 



Fairs for the sale of lambs in several sheep dis- 

 tricts take place in August; and it is, upon the 

 whole, as proper a season as any other, when the 

 whole are collected, to draw into different parcels, 

 is a convenient moment for separating that portion 

 which is meant to be kept for the farmer's own 

 use. The common management of a flock is to 

 sell a certain number of crones every year, and to 

 keep that number of the very best ewe lambs to 

 supply their place in the flock ; and, in making 

 this selection, the fanner or his shepherd usually 



(whatever 



