16 



Management of Sheep. 



dry, and are inferior in quality towards the end of the season ; the 

 sheep become tired of them, and are very restless ; but in every 

 instance where the turnips have been hilled/' they are found to 

 do exceedingly well to the last day. Some breeders prefer keeping 

 their lamb-hogs until the late fairs, and allow them to take the 

 best of their young seeds ; others reserve them entire for the ewes 

 that are suckling the couples and wether-lambs. In some instances 

 the lambs are not castrated until the first week in August, to 

 produce extra size and constitution, when they are either cas- 

 trated, or what is termed ^'traped," and are rarely known to 

 falter or decline eating their food after the operation. 



The ewe-lambs are drafted early in the winter, and the culls 

 placed with the wether-lambs to be sold in the spring, — the best 

 being reserved for the flock, and kept entirely upon turnips. 

 The flock-ewes are inspected and drafted early in the summer, 

 and are removed from their lambs about the first week in June, 

 when they are prepared for the autumn fairs, and fetch high 

 prices, breeders from the surrounding districts being anxious to 

 procure them. In the southern or Grantham district, the wether- 

 lambs are kept upon moderate food during the winter, it being 

 the practice to sell them as shearlings in the autumn, when they 

 are purchased by the graziers for wintering upon their grass-land, 

 or for feeding off coleseed, where the land is intended to be sown 

 with wheat, which is a growing practice. 



The New Oxfords are termed long- wools, but more from the 

 circumstance of their not coming under the denomination of 

 Leicesters than from their extra wool-bearing properties. They 

 are bred principally in Oxfordshire and the surrounding districts, 

 particularly in the neighbourhood of Broadwell, the residence 

 of Mr. Charles Large ; Charlbury, the residence of Mr. Smith ; 

 and Sevenhampton, the residence of Mr. Handy,— the most emi- 

 nent breeders, and to whom great credit is due for their exertions 

 in raising this valuable breed to its present high state of perfection. 

 They are of large dimensions, and have a great propensity to 

 fatten, arising chiefly from their wide frame, quietude, and open 

 texture of flesh, which is of quick growth, and consequently ex- 

 pands itself more rapidly than many other qualities ; but they do 

 not possess that exactness of form peculiar to smaller animals, 

 though they have a better carriage. For many years the male 

 animals have been eagerly sought after, with a view to increase 

 the size and frame of other long-woolled breeds. 



The Cotswolds are a breed chiefly found in the same district of 

 country as the New Oxfords, but more particularly upon the 

 Cotswold hills, in Gloucestershire, whence they derive their 

 names ; they are also frequently called " Gloucesters." Their 

 general properties so nearly resemble the New Oxfords, with the 



