266 



NEW ENGLAND FAEIMER. 



June 



sweetest mutton, weigliing fifty pounds per 

 quarter, and in a large flock gave fleeces whose 

 average weight was eight pounds each. 



The improvement of Cotswolcls is no less 

 remarkable, and the once bleak and ban-en 

 hills from whence they take their name, have 

 been so improved by the culture of sheep upon 

 them, that they attain a greater weight at 

 twelve and fourteen months, than they for- 

 merly did at three and four years old ! 



If not greatly overstocked, pastures which 

 were decidedly poor when sheep entered upon 

 them, have gained in fertility from year to 

 year. A portion of a farm in Northfield, 

 IVIass., was proverbial during many years for 

 the abundance and richness of its feed. It 

 had been pastured for a long time, alternately 

 with cattle and sheep. One half this pasture 

 was sold, fenced off and fed by cows. In a 

 few years the part sold had essentially deteri- 

 orated, while the other, fed as it had been, re- 

 mained as productive as ever, although both 

 pieces wei'e grazed by about the same amount 

 of stock. 



We are well acquainted vnth a pasture near 

 the sea coast which many years ago was an 

 exceedingly foul piece of land — abounding 

 with a great variety of bushes, among which 

 were the barberry and many climbing plants, 

 and so closely laced and intertwined by the 

 wild rose, that they formed an almost impene- 

 trable jungle. Twenty years afterwards we 

 saw the same pasture with a flock of sheep on 

 it grazing upon a close, compact turf, covered 

 with short, sweet grasses, and loithout a weed 

 or bush of any kind iipon it ! 



"How has this reclamation been accom- 

 plished?" we inquired, as we stood looking 

 upon it. 



"i>^y tlie sheep,'''' said our informant. 

 "Without plowing and seeding?" we asked. 

 "Yes, hij the sheep alone,'''' was the I'eply. 

 The pastiu'e was quite uneven and rocky, 

 but the sheep had exterminated every vestige 

 of wild plants, and clothed the surface with 

 fresh, rich, perpetual herbage. 



In a report by a committee of the House of 

 Lords, in England, in 1829, it was said : "All 

 farmers testify that sheep raising is absolutely 

 indispensable to successful farming ; their ma- 

 nure is necessary to preserve the fertility of 

 the soil ; and that without them the whole 

 kingdom would in a few generations be re- 

 duced to utter barrenness and sterility." 



Their importance, in this point of view, seemed 

 to be generally conceded by the members of 

 the gi'eat Wool- Grower''s Convention, which 

 Ave attended at Columbus, Ohio, in the winter 

 of 1864. 



A report in the Plymouth County Transac- 

 tions, says : "Some of the finest examples are 

 afforded here of the effects of feeding sheep 

 upon pastures that have become exhausted of 

 nutritious grasses, and grown to bushes, brakes, 

 briars and moss. I have seen pastures that 

 had become almost worthless, but now green 

 and smiling as a lawn, with every niche among 

 the rocks covered with the richest pasture 

 grasses, and not a blackberry vine, wild rose 

 bush, mullein, or other worthless plant hi 

 sight." 



In a report by Dr. Joseph Reynolds, of 

 Concord, Mass., on this subject, he says: 

 "Experience shows that sheep walks, instead 

 of becoming exhausted, uniformly grow better, 

 and that one of the most effective means of 

 destroying the bushes and mosses, and bring- 

 ing back white clover and sweet grasses to an 

 exhausted pasture, is to tm-n upon it a flock 

 of sheep." 



Mr. Richard S. Fay, long a member of the 

 old Massachusetts Society, and of the Board 

 of Agriculture, who gave the most intelligent 

 attention to the culture of sheep, said he had 

 "constantly under his eye a one hundred acre 

 lot upon which cattle a few years ago coidd 

 not live, that now maintains in good condition 

 a large flock of sheep ; and the improvement 

 of the pasture has been so great that a dozen 

 head of cattle, besides the sheep, do Avell upon 

 it." Mr. Fay's pasture was a rather dry and 

 very rocky piece of land, and was reclaimed 

 entirely by the sheep. 



This change, however, can only be effected 

 gradually. It will not do to turn a large flock 

 upon the pasture, and keep them there, but 

 enough to cause the sheep to crop the bushes 

 because they cannot get all the grass they tvaiit. 

 This may be done at first for a week at a time, 

 or longer, as circumstances may exist. In 

 this way the sheep commence the destruction 

 of the bushes at once, by eating off their 

 leaves. As these disappear, the sun and air is 

 let into the sod, the rich waste of the sheep 

 falls upon it, scattered everywhere in minute 

 portions, and it soon springs into wonderful 

 fertility, "bringing the richest perpetual grasses 

 and gradually driving out all the useless plants. 



