50 The Great Value of RoiiPii or 



Young speaks highly of this practice, and " scarcely 

 knew a person who tried it that ever gave it up." He 

 had had twenty-five years' experience of its value. 

 Writing in 1771, he says that it was a common practice 

 in Dorsetshire, where the flockmasters placed their great 

 dependence upon it. In 1776 he found that Mr. Maurice, 

 in Shropshire, kept every year 30 acres for the support 

 of his cows and sheep till February. Young found the 

 system in practice in Suffolk. By Mr. Green's account 

 in 1785 he kept the aftermath of some of his meadows 

 for his dairy of twenty cows, and also for sheep and lambs, 

 till his cabbages are done in March, never stocking the 

 ground from mowing till that time. In a letter from a 

 Dr. Parry we are told that he considers rouen to be 

 " a cheap and valuable resource, which never fails except 

 when it is covered with snow. Last year my shepherd 

 was fully convinced that four acres of very indifferent 

 upland rouen given to my ewes and lambs saved at 

 least 3 tons of hay. Rouen supplies a sort of inter- 

 mediate food between the dry and the green." The 

 custom was pursued in Lancashire and Leicestershire 

 by some of the best farmers, who asserted it to be the 

 best and most certain spring food yet known. The 

 autumnal and spring shoots mix, and furnish together 

 more nutritious food than either taken separately. A 

 pasture thus preserved is depended upon as the sheet 

 anchor in preference to turnips, cabbages, or any other 

 species whatever of what is called spring food. This 

 kept grass gives more milk than turnips. Where 

 turnips fail, it is of immense value. A shilling spent 

 in rouen goes as far as a guinea spent in turnips. My 

 sheep, writes Arthur Young, in consequence of this aid, 

 have not known a hungry belly in March and April. 

 An acre of rouen is more valuable than most acres of 

 turnips, which had suffered from the summer drought. 



As an experiment, he put 22 ewes in 7 acres in one 

 field, and 10 hogg rams in 3 acres of another, and these 

 were kept from November to May without any other 



