14 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



AUCTust 3, 1827. 



CATTLE AND SHEEP IN PASTURES. 



Careful graziers make it a rule, however exten- 

 sive tlieir farms may be, to ride round and see 

 every beast in every enclosure at least once a 

 day. Plagued with flies, suffering from thirst or 

 want of food they are very apt to break through 

 fences, and commit trespasses, which at this seas- 

 on are more than commonly injurious on account 

 of the state of the crops. 



FOLDING SHEEP. 



Mr Arthur Young says, " in respect to folding 

 sheep, a very great change has taken placa on in- 

 closed farms in the practice of the best farmers, 

 especially in Norfolk. They are now fully con- 

 vinced, that it is an unprofitable practice, except 

 where the openness of downs and common fields 

 renders it necessary for the purpose of confine- 

 ment. The number of sheep that may be kept on 

 a farm, without folding, is much greater than can 

 be supported with it. This is a very essential 

 point. There is a deduction from the farmer's 

 profit, in the injury done by folding, to both ewe 

 and lamb, vhich has been estimated, by experi- 

 enced judges, at from 2s. Cd. to Js. per ewo ; so 

 that a farmer should consider well before lie 

 adopts a practice which, from a multitude of ob- 

 servations is pronounced unprofitable. Mr Bake- 

 well used to call it robbing Peter to pay Paul. 



"lam perfectly persuaded, that it would have 

 been impossible for mo to have kept on the same 

 land, nearly such a stock as I iiave done, if in one 

 parcel with folding. I do not conceive that the 

 fields would have carried three-fourths, so manag- 

 ed. When sheep are kept in numerous parcels it 

 is not only driving to and from fold that affects 

 them, but they are, in fact, driving about in a sort 

 of march all day long, when the strongest have 

 too great an advantage, and t!ic flock divides into 

 the head and tail of it, by which means one part 

 of them must trample the food to be eaten by an- 

 other. All these points are the very reverse of 

 ibeir remaining perfectly quiet in small parcels. 



" I attended, tlirough the course of a summer, 

 many gentlemen over my fields, with i. view to 

 examine whether the sheep had seemed to have 

 rested only on spots, to the too great manuring of 

 such ; or on the contrary, to have distributed 

 themselves more equally ; and it was a pleasure 

 to find, that they seemed generally to have spread 

 in every part, if not equally, at least nearly so. — 

 The improved countenance of several old lays fed 

 in the same manner convinced me as well as my 

 liailiff", that the ground had unquestionably been 

 improved considerably. 



Folding in littered yards is described by Dick- 

 son (Complete Farmer, art. Sheep,) as combining 

 all the advantages of folding on arable lands with- 

 out any of its disadvantages. By this practice the 

 sheep arc confined in a yard well and regularly 

 littered with straw, stubble or fern ; by which 

 means the flock is said to be kept warm and 

 healthy in a bad season, and at the time a surpris- 

 ing quantity of manure accumulated. A great 

 improvement on this method, it is said, would be, 

 giving the sheep all their food (e.^cept their pas- 

 ture) in sucli yard. 



But even this method of folding sheep, though 

 warmly recommended by some celebrated English 

 agriculturists, is condemned by others. The wri- 

 ter of the uri. .lariculture in the Supplement tothe 

 British Encyclopedia says " that such a method 

 may be advantageous in particular cases, it would 



be rash to deny ; but generally it is not advisable 

 either on account of tlie sheep, or any alleged ad- 

 vantage from the manure they make." 



We believe that folding, or crowding them to- 

 gether in close pens may be very injurious to their 

 health ; and doubt whether, in general, any bene- 

 fit derived from their manure can compensate for 

 forcing them in large flocks into comparatively 

 small yards, pens, or enclosures, especially in warm 

 weather. Still, in our climate, they sometimes re- 

 quire, or at least are the better, for occasional 

 shelter. Sheep are so well clothed by nature that 

 they rarely if ever sulFer from cold, provided they 

 are kept dry. But foul air and moisture are very 

 injurious to this animal. Tlie opinion of Mr Law- 

 rence appears to us to be correct, who says, " To 

 every farm yard ought to be attached a sheep- 

 yard or home fold, completely fenced in, and either 

 totally or in sufficient part surrounded with sheds 

 composed of any cheap material. The sheds to 

 be closed up, having windows for the admission of 

 air, to as great an c.\-tent as may be judged neces- 

 sary, the remaining space to be left open. The 

 whole to be divided into pens for the needful sep- 

 aration of tlie flock. The bottom to be littered, 

 and I think it is better for the health of the sheep, 

 that their manure should be frequently cleared 

 away, rather than suffered to remain a whole sea- 

 son as is usually practised. On extensive sheep 

 farms, there should be as many of these covered 

 folds, in the most convenient situations, as are ne- 

 cessary in order to completely secure the whole 

 flock. The most convenient part of these folds or 

 enclosures, must ever be reserved for the first 

 ewes expected to lamb ; and thither they must, 

 after selection, be driven and confined in good 

 time ; and so on in succession, by wliich a numer- 

 ous train of risks and mischiefs may be avoided. 

 In feeding, the sheep should be divided into lots, 

 sufliciently small, and properly assorted, as to 

 strength and condition. In grazing abroad, upon 

 enclosures, the practice of division into small 

 flocks of strong and weak, is excellent, and pro- 

 ductive of numerous advantages unattainable in 

 the old system. 



A very strong argument in favour of usually 

 permitting sheep to feed at large in pastures, as 

 well as increasing the numbers of this very useful 

 animal, may be found in the benefit, which the 

 soil receives from their being pastured upon it. — 

 Rlr Young observes (Aniials of .Agriculture, vol. 

 xxvii.) that it is the opinion of many eminent far- 

 mers that nothing recruits poor soils so much as 

 heartily feeding them with sheep for some years, 

 provided the sheep are not folded away from the 

 land, and he himself has practiced upon this prin- 

 ciple with success. The effects of keeping a very 

 full stock of sheep upon the land is that tliey pre- 

 vent ani' seed stems from rising to exhaust the 

 soil, and thereby give to the grass plants, which 

 they constantly keep pared down and bare by their 

 close bites, a habit of malting, and spreading their 

 roots, so as to form a firm turf, and a close growth 

 of delicate grasses. This, like every other valua- 

 ble practice may, no doubt, be over-done, particu- 

 larly during a long, hot, and dry summer ; be- 

 cause, such a season, if the land is much over 

 stocked with sheep, they are under thp necessity 

 of biting so close, that they are apt to destroy the 

 roots of llic grass. In other respects, however, 

 there is no doubt, that botti by tlie mode of eating, 

 and by their dung, grass lands are greatly melio- 

 rated by being fully stocked with tiicse animals. 



As there are very few plants which they do no* 

 cat when yonng, they have a tendency to clear 

 pasture land of almost all noxious weeds, and en- 

 courage the exclusive production of grass." 

 ; Folding sheep on land for the purpose of prc- 

 I [faring a particular spot for turnips is a practice 

 I not without its advantages ; and formerly a turnip 

 I yard, in which sheep or neat cattle had been en- 

 closed for a certain number of nights, was an ap- 

 pendage to almost every farm. But it may well 

 ' be doubted whether sheep are not more injured by 

 , being crowded together in yards, in a season of 

 ; the year, when, if left to themselves, they would 

 {feed principally in the night, than the land or ils 

 owner is benefited by the practice of folding. — 

 Turnips may, we think, be raised with more econ-" 

 or.iy, as a second crop, by ploughing and preparing 

 I stubble or grass land, than by the old method. — 

 {But though sheep should rarely if ever be folded, 

 ! we think they should as rarely be destitute of sheds 

 as other buildings, in which they may obtain shel- 

 ter or remain in the open air at their option. — 

 Sheep, as well as animals in general, are the best 

 judges of their own wants, and seldom make a 

 wrong choice when allowed the liberty of choos- 

 ing. 



FOOD FOR CATTLE. 

 We know of no person in New England, who 

 has been so successful in that branch of rural 

 economy which consists in the breeding and rear- 

 ing of neat cattle as Col. Samiel Jaques, jr. of 

 Charlestown, Ms. and we think tliat he has merit- 

 ed the thanks of the agricultural community for his 

 liberality and public spirit, in communicating the 

 mode by which he has fed his fine stock, with 

 probably less than half the expense which would 

 have been incurred in the common methods of 

 treating the animals. Tae gentleman who fur 

 nished us with the receipt has also laid us under 

 great obligations, and will please to accept our 

 acknowledgements for the favor. 



The following has been used by Col. Jaque? 

 with the best success for feeding cattle. 

 Take Ruta baga, cut fine, 2 bushels 



Wheat bran . . T bushel 



Powdered oil cake . J bushel 



English hay, barley straw, ) ^ , , , 



f u I i e u /■ 7 bushels, 



and salt hay, cut, of each, } 



Water "... 10 gallons. 



Let them be perfectly mixed. Give a bushel of 



the mixture to a cow of the common size every 



night and morning, and proportionably to greater 



or smaller animals. 



JThorthhtrry Pudding. — We are assured by a 

 friend to improvement in domestic economy, that 

 the whortleberry will make a very excellent pud- 

 ding, when properly mixed with flour and water, 

 and a little salt for seasoning, without the addi- 

 tion of milk, butter, eggs, &-c. according to usual 

 mode of making puddings. The whortleberry 

 adds a richness to the other ingredients which su- 

 persedes the necessity of other and more expen- 

 sive materials. 



I Hoio to subdue the Flag, or CaCs Tail Weed 



'There are few weeds which infest our mowing 

 grounds which are more pestiferous, or are geu- 

 j erally consid.'jred more difficult to subdue than the 

 I flag, by some called cat's tail, so common in 

 ' swamps and low meadows. A gentleman assures 

 I us hoivever, that by cutting the plants as close to 

 i the ground as possible in June, in warm and dry 



