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Farming of Northamptonshire. 



of the soil on which they are fed, for such is the effect of soil and 

 situation, that when animals have been taken from a poor district 

 and put upon a richer pasture, they soon increase both in the size 

 and substance of their progeny; and animals that have been on 

 rich land, and taken from thence to a poor common, lose both size 

 and condition : hence arises the common saying in this county, 

 " That a great part of the breed goes in at the mouth." Welsh 

 sheep are kept on some poor wet grass-land, but not to any con- 

 siderable extent ; in some gentlemen's parks a few are kept for 

 the table. 



When fat lambs are reared, the Leicester ewes are often crossed 

 with a western or horned ram. Mr. Watts, of Scaldwell, and Mr. 

 Sherman, of Milton, are the two principal breeders of rams of this 

 breed. Lambs of this cross are of quick growth, and soon fit for 

 market. There are also many of the half-bred down lambs sold 

 off during the summer. 



The ewes are put to the ram about the first week in October ; 

 ewes for fat lambs about a fortnight earlier. The usual mode is 

 to turn the ram loose amongst 60 or 80 ewes, and to draw them 

 out as they take the ram, to be followed by an inferior one. 

 When the ewes have been with the ram about six or eight weeks, 

 they are generally put on some old grass-land until Christmas, 

 after which they receive some hay, turnips, or oats, up to the 

 lambing season ; the ewe and her produce then run together until 

 June or July, when the lambs are weaned on aftermath or clover- 

 seeds, and the ewes are either folded or put to inferior keep, 

 after being culled over by taking the old ones out, either to be 

 made fat, or sold for raising fat lambs another year. 



The system of sheep-dipping for the destruction of ticks is 

 generally adopted by many farmers in the autumn : a solution of 

 corrosive sublimate, sulphur, and soft soap being used. When 

 the lambs are not dipped, many persons give them a slight 

 dressing with mercurial ointment, for the same purpose, previous 

 to their being put to turnips. 



Sheep are generally shorn in May and June, commencing first 

 with the fat sheep and lamb-hogs, leaving the ewes until 

 last. I have not heard of lambs being shorn in this county, 

 although it is practised in some parts of the kingdom. There is 

 an annual wool-fair held in July at Northampton, and a con- 

 siderable business is done ; buyers coming from Yorkshire and 

 Leicestershire, in addition to the local woolstaplers. 



The diseases of sheep are very various : dysentery, red water, 

 and inflammation of the lungs are the most fatal. Owing to an 

 improved drainage and more attention being paid to the food, 

 the ravages of the rot have of late years been much reduced ; this 

 also applies to those banes of the flock the foot-rot and scab. 



