Management of Sheep. 



9 



under less favourable circumstances send them to fold regularly, 

 and sell their lambs in a lean state at the same period, that being 

 the season at which the great transfer between the breeders and 

 feeders takes place. Of late years they have also found their 

 way into the more distant counties to be fatted upon the turnip- 

 soils. The ewe trade has also materially increased, they being 

 sought after for the purpose of crossing with the Leicester or 

 Long- Wools; they are then included with the general flock, 

 rarely or never being sent to fold, and make great improvement. 

 When mixed with other breeds, they are found to produce more 

 lambs, and give more support to them, but produce less value of 

 wool and consume more food, which is shown by the following 

 experiment: — On the 1st of November, 1830, 100 Down ewes 

 were placed on the one side of a turnip-field of 7 acres, and 100 

 Leicester ewes on the other; they were each allowed all they 

 chose to eat : on their meeting, the land was measured on both 

 sides, when the Down ewes were found to have eaten a trifle more 

 than 4 acres out of the 7 , the crop being an even one, and 

 the ewes penned across the lands. The subject of folding is 

 peculiar to this breed of sheep. This practice was one of the 

 general objects and amongst the earliest pursuits of our ancient 

 flock-masters, who, from the open state of our island, the 

 absence of artificial manures, and the national importance 

 attached to the flocks, looked upon it as the leading feature 

 of the then pastoral age ; but by the rapid strides in the appli- 

 cation of artificial manures, the old system is fast going out 

 of fashion, it being now rarely practised, except by compulsion 

 upon the downs and heaths, where it is considered better to fold 

 on the land than allow the sheep to roam at large. In the general 

 practice of folding for the purpose of manuring the land for 

 wheat, or otherwise, it is found by repeated calculations that the 

 deterioration of the animals exceeds the return in the shape of 

 manure (when compared with the present price and easy access 

 of the new artificial manures), as the disturbance of the animal, 

 transferring the choice of .their hours of feeding and rest from 

 themselves to the shepherd, and their being kept in large flocks, 

 each affect their domestic habit and constitution : the only true 

 feature is the transfer of the produce of the grass-land to the 

 arable, whereby the breeder may reap the benefit of both. In 

 situations where folding is compulsory, it is far better to have 

 prepared sheep-yards, regularly littered with straw or stubble, 

 where they would raise a large quantity of manure, rest warm 

 and comfortable, and be supplied with cut clover, chaff", hay, or 

 vegetables, than to fold them thickly upon a bleak situation, or 

 more particularly when they are placed a second night in the same 

 unwholesome fold, which is usual when a " good dressing " is 



