Book VI. PERMANENT Px\STURES. 907 



growth, which it is desirable that the grass should attain before being stocked, must 

 in some degree be determined by the condition and description of the animals to be 

 employed in consuming it ; whether they are only in a growing state or approaching to 

 fatness ; whether milch cows or sheep, or a mixture of animals of different species. It 

 conveys no very precise idea respecting these points, though the remark itself is just, to 

 say that the herbage should not be allowed to rise so high as to permit the coarser plants to 

 run to seed ; and that it is bad management to suffer store stock to be turned upon a full 

 bite. {Marshars Yorkshire, \o\.ii. p. 129.) 



5826. The great objects to be aimed at are, that the stock, of whatever animals it may consist, should be 

 carried forward faster or slower, according to the purposes of their owner ; and that no part of the herbage 

 should be allowed to run to waste, cr be unprofitably consumed. But nothing but careful inspection of 

 the land and of the stock, from time to time, can enable any grazier to judge with certainty what are the 

 best measures for attaining these objects. " Fatting cattle," says Marshal, " which are forward in flesh, 

 and are intended to be finished with grass, may require a full bite at first turning out ; but for cows, 

 working oxen, and rearing cattle, and lean cattle intended to be fatted on grass, a full bite at the first 

 turning out is not requisite. Old Lady-day to the middle of April, according to the progress of spring, ap- 

 pears to me, at present, as the best time for shutting up mowing grounds and opening pastures." {Marshal's 

 Yorkshire, vol. ii. pp. 152, 153.) 



5827. In regard to the state of the growth of pastures when first stocked, some distinction should be made 

 between new leys and old close swards. To prevent the destruction of the young plants, whether of 

 clover or other herbage, on the former description of pasture, which would be the consequence of stocking 

 them too early, especially with sheep, they should be allowed to rise higher than would be necessary in the 

 case of old turf; and to secure their roots from the further injury of a hot summer, it is advisable not to 

 feed them close in the early part of the season, and probably not at any time throughout the whole of 

 the first or second season, if the land is to be continued in pasture. The roots of old and firm sward, on the 

 other hand, are not in so much danger, either from close feeding or from the heats of summer ; and they 

 are in much less danger from the frosts and thaws of winter. 



5828. With regard to the stock which should be employed, all soils rather moist and of 

 such a quality, as is the case with rich clays, as to produce herbage suited to the fat- 

 tening of cattle, will, in general, be more advantageously stocked with them than with 

 sheep : but there can be no other rule for the total exclusion of sheep, than the danger 

 of the rot ; nor any other general rule for preferring one kind of stock to another, than 

 their comparative profits. (^Sup- art. Jgr.) 



5829. Whether the stock should be all of one or of different kinds is another question to 

 be discussed. 



5830. With regard to a mixed stock, the sentiments and practice of the best graziers seem to be in its 

 favour. " It is generally understood that horses and cattle intermixed will eat grass cleaner than any 

 species will alone, not so much from their separately affecting different grasses, as from the circumstance 

 of both species disliking to feed near their own dung." {MarshaVs Yorkshire, vol. ii. p 154.) " Some few 

 graziers follow the old custom of keeping only one kind of stock upon the same ground, whilst others, we 

 think, with more propriety, intermix with oxen and cows a few sheep, and two or three colts in each 

 pasture, which both turn to good account, and do little injury to the grazing cattle. In some cases sheep 

 are a real benefit, by eating down and destroying the ragwort (Senfecio JacobaeV), which disgraces some of 

 the best pastures of the county, where oxen only are grazed." {Northumberland Report, p. 126. ) In Lin- 

 colnshire, where grazing is followed to a great extent, and with uncommon success, as well as in most 

 other districts, the practice seems to be almost invariably, to keep a mixed stock of sheep and cattle on 

 the same pasture {Lincolnshire Meport, p. 174.), in proportion varying with the nature of the soil and the 

 quality of the herbage. 



5831. To estimate the number of animals that may be depastured on any given extent 

 of ground is obviously impossible, without reference to the particular spot in question ; 

 and the same difference exists with regard to the propriety of feeding close, or leaving 

 the pastures rough, that prevails in most other parts of this subject. Though there is 

 loss in stocking too sparingly, the more common and dangerous error is in overstocking, 

 by which the summer's grass is not unfrequently entirely lost. On rich pasture lands in 

 the neighbourhood of Banbury, in Oxfordshire, one ox and two sheep are calculated as 

 stock sufficient for one acre. 



58.32. With respect to the size of enclosures, small fields are much to be preferred to 

 large ones, for heavy stock. 



5833. Besides the advantages of shelter, both to the animals and the herbage, small fields enable the 

 grazier either to separate his stock into small parcels, by which means they feed more at their ease, or to 

 give the best pastures to that portion of them which he wishes to come earliest to market. The ad- 

 vantages of moderate-sized enclosures are well known in the best grazing counties ; but the subdivisions 

 are in some instances much more minute than is consistent with the value of the ground occupied with 

 fences, or necessary to the improvement of the stock. In all cases, says Marshal, where fatting cattle or 

 dairy cows make a part of the stock, and where situation, soil, and water will permit, every suit of 

 grazing grounds ought, in my idea, to consist of three compartments : one for head stock, as cows or 

 fatting cattle; one for followers, as rearing and other lean stock; and the third to be shut up to freshen 

 for the leading stock. {Marshal's Yorkshire, vol. ii. p. 158.) 



5834. Large enclosures are in general best adapted for sheep. These animals are not only impatient of 

 heat and liable to be much injured by flies, in small pastures often surrounded by trees and high hedges, 

 but they are naturally, with the exception perhaps of the Leicester variety, much more restless and easily 

 disturbed than the other species of live stock. " Sheep," says Lord Kaimes, " love a wider range, and 

 ought to have it ; because they delight in short grass : give them eighty or ninety acres, and any fence will 

 keep them in ; confine them to a field of seven or eight acres, and it must be a very strong fence that keeps 

 them in." {Gentleman Farmer, p. 203.) Though fields so large as eighty or ninety acres can be advisable 

 only in hilly districts, yet the general rule is nevertheless consistent with experience, in regard to all our 

 least domesticated varieties. 



58.35. With respect to the propriety of eating the herbage close, or leaving it rather in an 

 abundant state, an eminent agriculturist observes, that there seems to be a season, some 

 time during the year, when grass lands, particularly old turf, should be eaten very close, 



