SPAPnSH SHEEP, MERINOS, ETC, 65 



the property of the agriculturist is most liable to injury. In 

 addition to thfs, the servants of the Mesta, like the servants 

 of Government elsewhere, have little common feeling v^ith 

 tlie inhabitants of the country vrhich they are traversing ; 

 they commit much serious and wanton injury, and they re- 

 fuse all redress. 



" The shepherds and the sheep equally know when the 

 procession has arrived at the point of its destination. It is 

 necessary to exert great vigilance over the flock during the 

 last three or four days, for the animals are eager to start 

 away, and often great numbers of them make their escape. 

 If they are not destroyed by the wolves, there is no great 

 danger of losing them ; for Aey are found on their old pas- 

 ture, quietly waiting the arrivalof their companions, and it 

 would be difficult to make any of them proceed a great way 

 beyond this spot. The shepherds are immediately employed 

 in constructing pens for the protection of the, sheep during 

 the night, and which are composed of ropes made by twist- 

 ing certain rushes together, which grow plentifully there, 

 and attaching them to stakes driven into the ground. They 

 next build, with the brancbes of trees iroughly hewn, rude 

 huts for themselves. 



" When the sheep arrive at their summer pasture, which at 

 first is very luxuriant^ the mayoral endeavors to guard against 

 the possible ill effects of the change from the uncertain and 

 scanty pasturage found on the journey, by giving the flocks 

 a considerable quantity of salt. He places a great many flat 

 stones five or six feet from each other, and strews salt upon 

 them, which is eagerly devoured. This is repeated on sev- 

 eral successive days ; and a case of general inflammation, or 

 hoove, seldom occurs. 



" Duri-ng the summer pasturage the labor is light of the 

 shepherd. The ewes are put to the rams early in August. 

 After their return at the close of autumn, and when yean- 

 ing time approaches, the barren ewes are separated from the 

 others and placed on the poorest pasture. The Merinos are 

 not good nurses, and nearly half of the lambs — or in bad 

 seasons, and when the pasture fails, full three-fourths — are 

 destroyed as soon as they are yeaned. The males are al- 

 ways sacrificed first ; the others are usually suckled by two 

 ewes— for it is a common opinioa in Spain that the mother 

 that fully suckles her lamb would yield less wool ; they are 

 afterwards placed on the best pasture, in order that they 



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