CHAPTER X. 



SUMMER MANAGEMENT CONTINUED. 



LOCALITIES FOR SHEEP— SOIL — HERBAGE — DEDUCTIONS— VARIETY 

 OF HERBAGE— REVIEW OF PREMISES— FREQUENT CHANGE OF PAS 

 TURE— INCIDENTAL DUTIES— REMARKS ON THE LOCALITIES OF 

 ENGLISH SHEEP— GRASSES AND THEIR RELATIVE NUTRITIOUS 

 PROPERTIES— SHADE TREES— WATER— WEANING OF LAMBS— EAR 

 MARKING— WHEAT STUBBLE— OVERSTOCKING— PASTURING IN THE 

 FALL— SORTING SHEEP FOR WINTER QUARTERS. 



LOCALITIES FOR SHEEP. 



On right locality mainly depends the ultimate profits of 

 sheep culture, which, among other prominent circumstances, 

 embraces that of climate, which will be found fully consid- 

 ered in a subsequent chapter. 



Until within the last hundred years no extraordinary at- 

 tention had been paid to sheep husbandry in Great Britain ; 

 but when the nation became aroused to its vast importance, 

 it was discovered that the prominent breeds, with their nume- 

 rous subdivisions, were placed on localities admirably adapted 

 by nature to each. The light-quartered, long-legged, restless 

 Welsh sheep were gambolling upon the mountains, and pick- 

 ing the uncultivated herbage, peculiar to them. The Down 

 sheep were upon the hill slopes feeding upon a soil afford- 

 ing adequate sustenance for a medium-sized breed ; the 

 heavy-quartered, long-wooled varieties were consuming the 

 fat pastures of the plains and valleys ; and the Cheviot and 

 iron-constitutioned black-faced sheep were sustaining them- 

 selves among the heather of the North mountains of Eng- 

 land, and Highlands of Scotland, where other breeds would 

 have perished from starvation and cold. The pliancy of 

 constitution of the sheep, unequalled by any other domes- 

 tic animal, which adaptates it to almost every transition of 

 climate and soil, will account for the difference of conform- 

 ation of the several breeds, as observsd in these varied lo- 



