Management of Sheep, 



19 



arrangement for finishing the shearlings, starting their lambs, and 

 preparation for the succeeding wheat-crop. 



The Kents are principally confined to the county whence they 

 derive their name, but are mostly bred and grazed in Romney 

 Marsh ; they were originally a coarse description of animal. A 

 prejudice in their favour still exists with some breeders, although 

 they acknowledge to have received a benefit in crossing with the 

 Leicesters. The principal feature in their management is the 

 entire change the animals undergo, from being bred upon the 

 marsh-lands and sent (about September) to winter upon the up- 

 lands or turnip-soils. They are taken back to the marshy dis- 

 tricts about the beginning of April for the summer, when, the 

 land being exceedingly luxuriant, they are placed very thickly 

 upon it, and remain so during the early part of the summer ; they 

 are afterwards thinned out to other pastures, for the purpose of 

 fattening, which process is completed by the end of the season. 

 The ewes are placed upon the grass-lands for the winter until 

 lambing-time, which commences later than in most other counties, 

 the breeders making no extra provision for them, preferring, in 

 fact, to turn their ewes and lambs at once into their grass- 

 pastures. 



The breeds I have hitherto mentioned comprise the long-wools, 

 adapted to the richest grass-lands and marshes, which yield pro- 

 duce suitable for the finest worsted manufactures ; the Leicesters, 

 for less fertile soils and enclosed arable land (on which the 

 fold is not used), intended to supply a staple of wool for 

 the manufacture of coarse cloths, blankets, carpets, and worsted 

 stockings ; and the fine short- woolled breeds, as the Southdowns, 

 for arable lands, heaths, and sheep-walks on which folding is 

 practised, for producing a staple of wool suitable for the ma- 

 nufacture of cloths of middle qualities. In addition to these 

 there is a hardy race for our mountain and northern districts, 

 such as the Scotch and Cheviot breeds, which, from their uni- 

 formity of character, have become, as it were, indigenous to the 

 locality in which they are found. On the lower hills at the ex- 

 tremity of the Cheviot range they have been frequently crossed 

 with the Leicesters, of which several flocks, originally Cheviot, 

 now possess a great share of their form and fleece ; many have 

 been sent to the highlands of Scotland, where they have suc- 

 ceeded pretty well, but are not found so hardy as the heath or 

 black- faced kind. 



Diseases. 



No department in our sheep husbandry is so little understood, 

 even by practical men, as the various diseases among sheep. It 

 would be a tedious and unprofitable task to enumerate all the 



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