198 MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 



do we see tlie true cause of their determination to set tliem 

 at defiance. We may partly account for it by considering 

 their analogy to the goat, and their propensity to scale rug- 

 ged eminences ; but I think these movements rather indicate 

 an anxiety to change a pasture already exhausted of variety, 

 for fresh fields, and herbage abounding in that miscellaneous 

 provision which nature apparently reckons essential for them. 

 Shepherds own as much, and will tell you that frequent 

 change of pasture is the soul of sheep husbandry. ^^ 



In explanation of the philosophy of variety of food, an 

 English author* briefly remarks, — " It is also well worthy 

 of remark, that various herbaceous plants which spring up 

 among others that are esculent, yet are rejected by cattle 

 when off*ered alone, give a higher relish and even salubrity 

 to the fodder with which they are intermixed. As man 

 cannot live on tasteless, unmixed flour alone, so neither can 

 cattle in general be so thrifty by mere grass, without the ad- 

 dition of various plants in themselves too acid, bitter, salt, or 

 narcotic to be eaten alone. Spices and a portion of animal 

 food supply us with the requisite stimulus or additional nu- 

 triment, as the ranunculus tribes, and many others, seasoA 

 the pasturage and fodder of cattle." 



In reviewing the premises set forth appertaining to local- 

 ities, with a view to further practical conclusions and com- 

 ments, it is manifest in the first place, that the sheep cultu- 

 rist must beware of soils too wet, and, consequently, poachy. 

 Lands of this character are found quite to as great an extent, 

 indeed more so, on mountain declivities as in valleys ; it 

 therefore is clearly to the interest of those in possession 

 of such, if they contemplate embarking in sheep hus- 

 bandry, to have them made as dry as possible, by drain- 

 age, before they are stocked. If the adoption of this 

 course does not succeed (as is often the case from being 

 '•' springy"), they should be abandoned for sheep culture, and 

 converted to dairy or other purposes. If persisted in, the 

 owner may expect those consequences which are inevitable, 

 namely, foot-rot and other diseases incidental to such local- 

 ities.! 



It will also have been seen, that the short and yet nutri- 

 tious hebrage of uplands is best adapted to the Merino and 

 Saxon varieties, as being most conservative of those peculiar 



* Sir J. E. Smith. t See Liver and Foot-rot. 



