4T4 



On the Theory and Practice of Water -Meadows. 



the amount of stock kept, I will give the account of sheep folded 

 on a small field without other food. The field is under two acres, 

 better land than the rest, but so much out of condition that latterly 

 the hay-crop had been hardly worth cutting. 



Day's keep of 

 a Sheep. 



First penning, sheep put on, but grass too strong to feed, and made 



into hay, say only . . - „ . 3,000 



Second feeding, 400 lambs for eight days, say 240 sheep . . 1 ,920 



Third penning, 250 sheep for ten days 2,500 



Fourth dif to, 250 sheep, fourteen days ..... 3,500 



10,920 



The total amounts to 5 months' keep for 73 sheep on two acres 9 

 thirty-six sheep to an acre. 



The calculation is made for five months, because that is the 

 period for which the wintering of sheep on turnips is reckoned. 

 A thoroughly good crop of turnips is said in Lincolnshire to keep ten 

 sheep an acre for five months. It is difficult to find a standard of 

 comparison upon grass-land, because beasts and sheep are usually 

 grazed together, i know one instance, however, in which sheep 

 were fattened on grass-land in the five summer months at the rate 

 of seven sheep to an acre, and the number was thought to be 

 large. This might be equal, however, to fourteen sheep of mine, 

 which were merely kept in store order. Still the account would 

 stand thus : fourteen sheep kept on an acre of superior grazing 

 land unwatered, thirty-six sheep on an acre of moderate land 

 watered. The very high rate of my sheep to the acre certainly 

 surprises me, but the figures are perfectly accurate. The large 

 number may be partly accounted for by a peculiarity of the 

 management, namely, that the sheep were folded not only for 

 the first time, but every time after, instead of roaming at large. 

 In his report upon Gloucestershire, Mr. Bravender mentions 

 that a farmer who adopted this system found an increase of 

 twenty per cent, in the number of sheep he could keep on his 

 farm. This point seems to deserve attention, independently of 

 irrigation. The allowance of 20 per cent, for folding would still 

 leave the numbers at 14 and 29. But as sheep at turnips 

 are equally folded, the comparative numbers per acre will there 

 stand at thirty-six and at ten, not to mention the expense of culti- 

 vation for turnips, and the absence of labour on water-meadows 

 once formed. This meadow is a very flat one; in fact before it was 

 levelled it appeared to have no fall ; there is a fall however of 3 feet 

 8 inches in 140 yards, or 1 in 114. I mention this because the 

 most doubtful point for our cold counties seems to me to be the 

 slow fall, and hitherto certainly a fall six times sharper, has been 

 thought requisite. On other parts of my new meadows a much 

 lower fall is found sufficient. 



