MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 173 



the most important factors in sheep husbandry. England is no 

 doubt the most favored country in the world for sheep raising, so 

 far as climatic and geological conditions are considered, her pas- 

 tares being more or less abundant at all seasons of the year. In 

 the summer while our sheep are seeking shade in fence corners, 

 sheep barns or underneath the trees, the English flocks are dis- 

 porting themselves in luxuriant pastures and soiling crops, such . as 

 rape, kale, vetches, etc., and in the winter when our sheep are in 

 the barns or yards, the English sheep are enjoying themselves in 

 the turnip field, rape field, kale field, etc. England is not Amer- 

 ica. English methods do not fit in America. American methods 

 in England would not fit. Our management must be governed by 

 local conditions. 



As I write my memory takes me back to Quebec, where an 

 Englishman was busy pulling turnips and piling them in heaps. 

 The manager of the farm inquired what he was going to do with 

 them. He replied that he would cover them up with the tops and 

 a little earth and keep them until winter, for the sheep. "But 

 you are going to put them in the cellar?" remarked the manager. 

 "No/' was the Englishman's answer, "I am going to feed them in 

 the field as 1 want them. I don't believe in housing my sheep." 



Of course he saw the other side of the question later on when 

 the snow was fence high and the mercury twenty below zero. It 

 is a good thing for English shepherds to have experience in this 

 country, as undoubtedly it makes them the wisest of all shepherds. 



It seems to be rather more of a science to run a flock success- 

 fully in this country than in England. Nature seems to help 

 science in England. She is scarcely so kind and generous to the 

 American flock as she is to the English flock. The lamb is better 

 provided for in England than in this country, for the reason that 

 pastures are "hung up" there early in the fall, especially for the 

 ewes and lambs, and forage crops are always plentiful. 



The hurdling system is a great system in that country. The 

 best pastures are hurdled off for the ewes and lambs, and the hurdles 

 are moved daily or thereabout so that the lambs always feed ahead 

 of the ewes; in other words, the lambs are provided with creeps 

 and have the first run or cream of the pastures, the ewes coming 

 along and eating up what they leave. No special provision is made 

 for water in many English flocks, the pastures being so luxuriant 

 at almost all times, and the supply of roots so abundant that it is 

 unnecessary only on very rare occasions. Then again, on account 

 of the sea breezes which float across the island, salt is not nearly so 

 necessary to the welfare of sheep there as it is in this country. 

 Where sheep are properly managed in that country, their fleeces are 

 extremely lustrous and brilliant. 



The importance of good sires is more seriously considered and 

 better understood in England than most countries. Even the com- 



