84 RURAL ECONOMY IN YORKSHIRE IN 1641. 



Carre on Lady-day mominge, and then on the 2Gth of Marcli 

 the Carre is cleansed, usually before noone, and the gelde sheepe 

 and hogges canyed all of them to field, yett some avtII perswade 

 to rayle them a little before they goe to field, viz. ; the gelde 

 sheepe, which beinge nowe casten downe and sattled what they 

 will, it is a folly to give them haunte of the fresh, which will bee 

 a meanes to make them linger after it and not to labour when 

 they come to field ; whereas, otherwise, they beinge att the lowest 

 woulde mende immediately, the field havinge beene soe longe 

 preserved fresh, and besides better may wee and better is it to 

 make our ewes and lambes succour then all our sheepe. Wee 

 usually take twenty or thirty of om- weakest, youngest, and 

 shearinge lambes and putte them a parte by themselves and 

 make them a fortnights succour after the other bee gone to 

 field : our youngest and last lambe fell (this yeare) the 11th of 

 Aprill, beinge Easter Munday, to accompany which wee drewe 

 out other twenty-one, which weare kept one while in the Bricke 

 close, and another while in the Lords-garth, and lastly in the 

 West-hall East-close, which went not to field till Munday the 

 morrowe after May-day ; for if shearinges shoulde not have 

 good succour, they woulde make nothinge of theire lambes, 

 whearefore the most judicious sheepemen cloute all theire shear- 

 inges, for besides the extraordinary care and charge of preserv- 

 inge theire lambes, they are thereby kept att under themselves ; 

 whereas, if they goe gelde, they are made stouter sheepe, and 

 good breeders for many yeares aftei-wards. Such ewes as are in 

 very high case when they take tuppe bringe allmost allwayea 

 foxecoloured lambes, whose woU in five or sixe moneths turneth 

 white, yett they have allwayes a sandy coloured skinne ; some 

 conceive the reason hereof to bee accordinge to that saj-inge of 

 Aristotle, that the mascuhne seede beinge white, and the femi- 

 nine reade, and allsoe the female beinge (att that time) fatte, 

 and the male leane and lowe, the feminine is soe farre predomi- 

 nant that both skinne and woll take colour from this. Three or 

 fower blacke sheepe doe well in a flocke, to funiish one with 

 woll for grey-stock inges and other uses ; but many blacke sheepe 

 in a keej)inge are neyther seemely nor jn'ofitttible ; for theire 

 woll is usually hairy, scarce vendible; and they themselves 

 oftentimes the worst in the flocke ; yett sometimes one shall see 

 a good blacke ewe, Init seldome a good blacke weather ; wheare- 

 fore fewe men will keepe a tuppe that is blea-faced, or blacke- 

 legged ; you shall have the most blacke lambes in such yeares 

 when diseases are amongst the sheepe, and after hard and ]>adde 

 winteringe. Wee sell our fatte weather skinnes and fatte tuppe 

 akinnes (l)etwixt the 10th of March and St. Hellen-nia.sse) lor 



