November 28, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
415 
horned Portland sheep, which resemble the mountain sheep so 
much prized by Welsh farmers. Then we have also the black- 
faced horned sheep of the mountains and the cheviots of the low- 
lands in Scotland. We have thought proper to name these as 
some of the sheep stock peculiar to certain districts, and likely 
to influence our choice in selecting sheep stock for the home 
farm, because we write for the benefit of farms situated in every 
district of the United Kingdom, which of course includes Ireland. 
The breed of sheep generally kept upon the rich soils in Ireland 
are for the most part white-faced, polled, and woolled, whilst 
those called Kerrys and Wicklows are of a similar type with 
the horned Welsh mountain sheep, although natives of the 
mountainous districts of Ireland. 
We shall have to consider the requirements of the home farm 
as in some cases only requiring to keep enough sheep for killing 
to supply the mansion. In other cases we find a considerable 
extent both of arable land, park, and pastures upon which sheep 
must be kept or reared with the view of profit connected with 
the occupation, and from which the sheep, in considerable though 
in varying numbers, must be sold at the market price to the 
butchers ; we therefore propose to divide our subject under two 
headings. First, sheep to be kept and fed for home consumption ; 
and secondly, those to be fattened and sold for profit in the open 
market. 
In the purchase of sheep for consumption we must necessarily 
take sheep of light weights, in order that small joints of mutton 
may be obtained which are so much required in the establish- 
ments of the wealthy ; and it must be remembered that unless 
a breeding flock is kept the animals must be purchased, particu- 
larly as it is desirable to have sheep of two years old and up- 
wards, so that meat of the highest quality and fullest flavour 
may be secured. This may be done upon a home farm where 
there is a sufficient extent of land, both arable and pasture, to 
keep a breeding flock, with the South downs only, as all the 
other breeds of sheep furnish heavy joints of meat at over two 
years of age, except the small mountain breeds, which we have 
before named; but it would not answer to keep breeding flocks 
of these kinds, unless in some special cases, where we find the 
home farm situated in some yales in the mountain districts, in 
which case the small mountain varieties of stock may be reared 
for fattening, but even then they must be brought into the vales 
and enclosed lands for twelve or fourteen weeks’ good feeding in 
sheltered situations. 
It is necessary to consider that our South downs or Sussex 
sheep when well fed will furnish capital mutton of moderate- 
sized joints, still they want the peculiar and venison-like flavour 
of the horned mountain breeds produced by feeding on the hills 
upon the heather, wild thyme, and grasses, the produce of the 
mountain sides. 
_ Upon certain home farms we have for many years brought 
into the southern counties the black-faced horned sheep from 
the mountains of Perthshire, but upon their arrival upon the 
enclosed pastures and park lands they wander about and seem 
lost, and are with difficulty kept within the bounds assigned 
to the home farm. It is in such cases that wire fencing is 
entirely useless to keep mountain sheep within the required 
bounds, and it is just the same when they are put on to the 
arable land for a course of root-feeding, as the wattled hurdles 
are of but lttle use unless they are set up endways; nor is 
yarn netting of any service, for being horned sheep they get 
entangled in the nets and drag down the whole dividing fence 
of the folding upon root crops. The same argument applies to 
other mountain breeds, but not with so much force, because the 
other mountain breeds, and particularly the Portland sheep, are 
of a more docile temper, and instead of taking the Scotch sheep 
from Perthshire we are now taking the Portland sheep in prefer- 
ence for feeding upon the home farm. The same may be done 
with the small Welsh and Irish mountain sheep, because we 
find numerous‘home farms attached to the residences of gentle- 
men distributed over the whole United Kingdom. 
We must now consider, whether we take the horned sheep of 
the mountains or the Sussex downs for fattening, the best mode 
to be observed in feeding and the mode of management as regards 
folding, &c., preparatory to being fed upon root crops, and also 
the time of year when the feeding should commence. In the case 
of mountain sheep they had best be taken and placed in the park 
pastures where the grass is highest in our estimation by its stimu- 
lating and nutritious qualities, which is about the month of August. 
There is then plenty of grass, or ought to be, for them to feed upon 
whilst roaming at large ; and finding that they are in good pastures 
and subject to kind treatment by the shepherd or herdsman they 
soon become accustomed to the overlooker, who after about a 
month or so may venture to entice them into a small enclosure 
or paddock well fenced once a day and offer them food in the 
troughs, and then they will, if only for sake of curiosity, examine 
them. Attractive food should then be put in the troughs, than 
which there is nothing better than carrots in small quantities, the 
aroma from which is exceedingly grateful. In order that the 
carrots as soon as the sheep begin to eat them should not scour 
the animals at this early period, bean meal or barley meal or de- 
corticated cotton cake in meal, about half a pound per sheep per 
day, should be used in conjunction with the roots, the carrots being 
cut into small pieces by passing twice through Gardener’s turnip 
cutter, and the meal strewed over them will prove the best of all 
food, and will have the effect of improving the mutton by raising 
up a good proportion of lean meat as well as fat, for it must be 
recollected that the small-horned sheep are naturally deficient in 
flesh. After this mode of feeding in the paddock has been carried 
out for some little time the animals will become accustomed to 
be driven better, and will respond to the careful attention of the 
shepherd. When the pasture feeding is at an end they should 
be placed upon root-feeding by the shifting fold ; but such is the 
habit of these sheep on their native hills that they seldom 
entirely torget to value their liberty, we therefore under ordinary 
circumstances prefer to paddock-feed them until fit to kill, or to 
keep them in a shifting fold in the field, and to give them rack 
food, the fold being bare where the root crop is stacked or pitted. 
There will be no enticing turnip greens outside the fold to induce 
them to break their bounds. When the animals are settled down 
into close fold feeding they should of course have the best of hay, 
which is composed of Dutch and suckling clover or of sweet- 
scented park hay. This is the only food they will require, 
besides the above named mixture of meal or cake with the roots, 
and whether carrots, Swedes, turnips, or mangold are used nothing 
should remain in the troughs until next day. We do not advise 
the feeding with linseed cake meal, as it appears to us to induce 
fatness without producing a due proportion of flesh, besides which 
we are inclined to the opinion that linseed cake will be more 
likely to destroy the flavour of the meat to a greater extent than 
other food, which was originally obtained by feeding upon the 
heather and herbs of the mountains. After the course of feeding 
we have recommended these sheep will be found when killed to 
give mutton of great excellence, of full flavour, and unless 
fattened beyond the usual period of fifteen or sixteen weeks they 
will not exceed in weight 14 or 15 tbs. perquarter. Before leaving 
this part of the subject we must refer to the forest breeds of sheep 
of the west of England, these being the Exmoor and Dartmoor 
small breed of small-horned white-faced sheep, located in the high 
lands of Cornwall and Devonshire, and when taken into feeding as 
before described they yield very good meat of extremely light 
weights, being when fat seldom over 12 Ibs. per quarter. The 
method of feeding the south down and other breeds of sheep will 
be referred to in our next. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour will be rather severe for some time yet, for until 
the autumn ploughing is done so as to lay the land up high and 
dry for the winter no relaxation for the animals will be possible, 
except now and then a wet day, therefore the horses’ keep must 
be liberal and nutritious. Animals for farm work ought to be 
powerful and capable of drawing from a ton to 24 cwt. each, also 
able to each of them turn a furrow in ploughing—that is to say, 
two horses toa double furrow plough, or one horse to draw a single 
furrow plough ; and in ordinary soils such as sand, loam, gravel, 
and hazel loam or chalk, if the horses are upstanding, and not 
under 164 or 17 hands in height, with weight and strength in pro- 
portion, and in particular if they are of the Clydesdale stamp and 
in good condition, they can do this work without being distressed 
by it if fairly used by the teamsmen. If soils are stronger than 
those named two horses to a furrow will sometimes be necessary, 
but then we prefer such work to be done by steam when it can be 
hired or is kept for use upon the farm. Many farmers will take 
exception to the point here put forward—that of each horse turn- 
ing a furrow in ploughing, but objectors in such cases are often 
acting upon their prejudices or preconceived notions, or otherwise 
they have in use only small light and under-sized animals, and 
perhaps out of condition by not receiving rations of corn, fodder, 
and roots sufficient to keep them in working order, for it must be 
remembered when horses are full of flesh and condition their 
actual weight largely increases their power for work. Some chalk 
carting may now be done, as there are but few farms which do 
not require chalk or lime in some of the fields, even in those 
districts where chalk underlies the surface. It is often said on 
the light chalk hilly soils that it is only to plough a little deeper 
and to bring up chalk to mix with the surface soil; but this isa 
mistake, for that which is near the surface is not chalk but merely 
rubble, it having been robbed of its lime and the other constituents 
of chalk proper by the action of air and water and the roots of 
Jants during a long series of years, and instead of acting as chalk 
1s required to do, it simply makes these light soils more hollow 
and unproductive. It is, however, a matter worth consideration, 
instead of carting chalk when the land rests upon chalk subsoil, 
especially where the surface soil is heayy and sour, as to the 
propriety of sinking wells in the fields, as this work is often done 
by contract, and the chalk when procured by the well-digging 
process is all hand labour and done by contract at so much per 
acre, the men lifting the chalk from a considerable depth, and 
the greater the depth from which it is recovered the softer and 
better it is for manurial purposes. These wells after furnishing 
