718 = 452 
Pastoral Husbandry. 
Sheep on cold On the cold uplands of North Derbyshire, and other countie; 
uplands. where no corn (except oats) can be grown, and the land is there 
fore nearly all grass, white-faced long-wool led sheep, of a coars( 
Leicester type, are kept, and suit the climate much better thai 
other breeds. 
They are wiiltered on the pastures, a little fodder being givei 
them whenever required before lambing. They are afterward 
fed with cotton-cake, and oats with chaff ; and in some district 
brewers' grains, obtained and pitted the previous autumn, ar 
freely given until, in those late districts, there is sufBcien 
pasturage. 
The sheep, when shorn, yield from 7 to 10 lbs. weight c 
strong wool, rams often cutting a much greater weight. Th 
lambs are weaned in July or August, and are either wintered s 
home or put out to ley for the winter on grass-farms, in 
dairy district within 10 or 20 miles, where the climate is mildf 
and no summer stock of sheep is kept. Ten shillings is pai 
for the keep of the lamb from the 6th of October to the Gth ( 
April, hay being given only when the ground is covered wit 
snow. The lambs generally do better than they would at homi 
where the cold winter is apt to stunt their growth ; they g 
back to the farm for another summer's grazing, and are sol 
with the draft ewes in October, to be fattened in the turni] 
feeding districts. 
In past years the high price of strong wool has made th 
farming very profitable. 
Great increase Great changes have taken place in the last thirty years in tl 
in the use of pastoral husbandry of this country. The population and the ra 
imported loods , ii- i -n r\ i ■< • \ • 
for stock and wages have both increased rapidly. Uur labouring populatK 
in the demand are much greater meat consumers than those of any other natio 
for fresh meat. '^Q^e of the land of this country has been laid to grass ; an 
by the purchase of imported foods for stock, a larger amount 
meat has been produced. But, in spite of this increased impc 
and production, the price of meat has ruled higher. The great( 
obstacle to successful cattle or sheep breeding and feeding h 
been the great losses sustained from infectious disease, althoa 
it has been proved by experience that these diseases may 
suppressed and kept under control, if not altogether stamped o j 
The recent improvements in the mode of conveying del 
meat, in artificially cooled compartments of the steamboat 
rail way- truck, promise eventually to supersede the conveyarl 
of live animals, being not only less costly and avoiding mul 
cruelty and suffering to the animals, but preventing the trail 
mission of those diseases which have been so disastrous to l| 
stock farmers of this and other countries. 
