SHEEP. 



however well-formeJ ; in the fame manner a white face on 

 the South Downs ; in Wiltfhire, a black face would be an 

 exclufion, or a horn that does not fall back ; in Dorfetlhire, 

 a horn that does not projeft, &c. &c. And where the pro- 

 duce is annually fold lean, there is, he maintains, reafon in 

 all this ; for cuftomers who have been ufed to and prefer 

 certain breeds, as having paid them well, are apt to be faf- 

 tidions when they purchafe. Some farmers in this feleftion 

 look chiefly at fize, always keeping the largell frames ; but 

 this is probably erroneous, unlefs they keep very high. It 

 conneds with a queilion by no means afcertained, whether 

 flieep do or do not eat a quantity of food proportioned to 

 their weight ? In general it is a lafer rule to choofe a well- 

 formed lamb, or that indicates the probability of making a 

 well-formed ewe, rather than to feleft for fize. The at- 

 tention that is to be paid to wool in the breeds that pro- 

 duce the carding fort, will depend on the price to be received : 

 if the farmer lives in a diftridl where tlie price of the year 

 is given equally to all flock?, there is little encouragement to 

 leflen quantity for the fake of quality ; retaining, however, 

 ia idea, the faft that botli are attainable, that it is very com- 

 mon to fee coarfc breeched ^zf^ with light fleeces, and thofe 

 of a fine quality heavy in weight. The SpanilTi fleeces, 

 which are finer than any other, are heavier than thofe of our 

 fineft wooUed flieep. With combing wool the importance 

 of the fleece depends ftill more on price ; we have feen it at 

 %s. a tod : and it has lately been 'ifis. Quality is of very 

 little confequence indeed, compared with quantity ; and 

 when wool fells high, no prudent breeder will fet his flock 

 without being governed confiderably by this objeft. And it 

 is added by the fame writer, that the high prices at which 

 new Leicelter and new South Down rams let and fell, has 

 opened a field of fpeculation in flieep-breeding. It is fufiicient 

 to remark, that this fpirit of breeding, whether it fliall 

 prove durable or not, whether mucli money fliall or fliall not 

 be made in it in future, is not what any prudent man begin- 

 ning bufinefs will adventure in, but with great caution : 

 men of fuch imraenfe fortune arc now taking a lead in it, and 

 are in many refpefts doing it on fuch liberal principles, that 

 the wifeft conduct of fuch farmers as he may be fuppofed to 

 addrefs, is to take proper opportunities of converting their 

 experiments to their own (the farmer's) profit. Leave the 

 expence to them ; but, when you can, convert the profit to 

 your own advantage. In fetting a ftock of lambs, there- 

 iore, you may mark a fcore of the belt, for a future ram to 

 be picked up when opportunity offers ; or, better ftill, to 

 fend to the tup of fome ram-letter that takes them in at a 

 reafonable price per head. By es-ery year felecting five or 

 fix per cent, and by every year covering that number by a 

 ram better than your own, the flock mult be on the improving 

 hand ; and this may be done at a very fmall expence. Alfo 

 at this period, befides fiUing up the deficiencies in the ewe- 

 ftock, the increafing or diminifliing the quantity of ftock 

 ufually kept, by referving a larger or fmaller number than 

 that of the old ilieep which are difpofed of, is alfo a point 

 that demands particular notice. Mr. Young has given the 

 following ufeful diredlions on this fubjcft, in his Calendar of 

 Huftjandry. 



On a farm, fays he, with a given Itationary flieep-walk, 

 it is probably regulated by circumftances that rarely change ; 

 but on incloled farms, where the flieep are fupported by 

 fields alternately in grafs and tillage, variations may eafily 

 be fuppofed, and the queftion of hard or light Hocking, 

 that is of clofe feeding or a head of grafs, then comes in to 

 decide the number kept. If the produce or profit ^fr head 

 is looked to, the condudt to be purfued is evidently to ftock 

 lightly ; but if the return is looked for in corn from fields 



laid down for refrefliment by reft, then clofe feeding is a 

 very material point, and the number kept will depend on 

 it. With all grafles, &c. that do not decline from age, the 

 more flieep you keep the more you may keep, and the more 

 corn you will reap when fuch are ploughed ; a circumftance 

 too important to be forgotten. But the young farmer will 

 remember, that upon this fyftem he mull not have a Jhoio 

 flock, or let the variety of a farm have the leaft influence, 

 with him : if in this v/ay he will have a fomething to talkj 

 of, a fcore or two of pampered favourites, the fewer thel 

 better, for they may coll him more than they are worth. 



And as foon as this has been properly executed, the ewe 

 and wether lambs that are left are moftly fent to the neigh-l 

 bouring lamb-fairs to be fold off^. But where the fairs fofl 

 this purpofe happen later than the above period, as in thej 

 beginning or latter end of September, as is the cafe in fome 

 fituations, it has been advifed by the writer firll mentioned,! 

 that great care be taken to keep them in forcing food, as in 

 ipring tares, early lown rape, good grafs of the right de- 

 gree of bite, &c. &c. in order to promote their growth 

 and increafe their value ; but to fell in Auguft is more 

 beneficial. 



It cannot but be obvious, that in the management of 

 breeding flocks, the lambs come to be difpofed of at dif- 

 ferent periods ; firft thofe that have been fuc.kled or fattened 

 in the houfe, in which fyftem of fattening, much attention 

 is required to have them early, to their being well, regu- 

 larly, and very cleanly kept and fuckled, as well as to the 

 ewes being of the right fort, and the beft milkers that can 

 be provided, and to their being fully fupplied with food of 

 the moft nourifliing and fucculent kinds. Their tails and 

 udders fliould have the wool well clipped away from them 

 in order that they may be preferved in a perfectly clean 

 ftate. The lambs alfo require, efpecially towards the clofe 

 of their fattening, to have regular fupplies of barley, 

 wheat, and peas, meal ground together in combination 

 with fine green rouen hay, &c. See Y^PMili-SucUmg. 



And as foon as thefe have been fold off, the lambs which 

 have been fattened on the beft grafs-land will be ready to 

 fucceed them at the markets, in the fpring and fummer 

 months, and thefe will be followed by the fale of the ftore- 

 lambs at the different autumnal fairs. 



Further, there are different local praflices alfo adopted in 

 different counties, to fuit the particular methods in which 

 their flieep hufbandry is condufted, as well as the particular 

 objefts of it. The following is given as a hint from fir Jo- 

 feph Banks, by the writer of the Lincolnftiire Agricultural 

 Survey, on the flieep fyftem of that extenfive diltrift : that 

 as tups are there always hired by the breeders, the lambs 

 may be faid to be purchafed before they are born ; a year's 

 credit, however, is given on this occafion, they are not paid 

 for till the aftual value can be fairly eftimated ; if, therefore, 

 any one who has hired a tup at a confiderable price, finds 

 the lambs he has got not lufficiently above the ordinary 

 fort to pay him the difference, with mtereft, he complains 

 to the tup-man, who generally views the lambs with him, 

 and makes a fair abatement, which is generally fettled in the 

 price of the hire of the next year's tup ; this regulates the 

 price of letting, and makes the tup-men a moft uleful fet of 

 people. The great mafs of breeders in Lincolnftiire fell 

 their heeder lambs about old Michaelmas time, or a little 

 after : a fucceflion of fairs for that purpofe are held in a 

 village called Partney. Thefe lambs are refold in the fpring 

 at Lincoln fair, under the name of hogs ; at Midfuinmer 

 their owners clip, and then winter them ; the fucceeding 

 fpring they are carried to BoUon, where, in a long fuc- 

 ceflion of markets, they are old to the graziers, with their 



wool 





