On  the  Farming  of  Somerset. 
721 
The  principal  manures  purchased  are  woollen  rags,  applied  at 
the  rate  of  6 cwt.  per  acre,  costing  30.s'.,  and  lime  also,  at  about 
thirty  to  forty  hogsheads  per  acre,  costing  at  the  kiln  Is.  per 
hogshead.  As  in  other  places  one  hears  “ Nothing  like  yard- 
muck,”  so  here  the  prevailing  impression  is,  that  there  is  no 
manure  like  the  sheepfold.  Both  sayings  may  be  very  true,  pro- 
vided that  there  is  always  enough  of  the  article,  and  that  the 
farm  does  not  pay  too  dear  for  it.  The  farmers  are  no  doubt 
quite  right  in  the  value  they  attach  to  the  treading  of  the  sheep’s 
feet ; but  it  is  still  to  be  considered  that  what  they  leave  on  the 
ground  must  be  obtained  somewhere;  and  that  the  sheep  are 
sometimes  worked  hard  in  their  function  of  dung-carriers,  not  to 
speak  of  what  they  drop  on  the  road. 
The  ordinary  practice  of  the  small  farmers  with  regard  to 
sheep  is  to  buy  lambs  in  August,  to  keep  them  as  a working- 
flock  during  the  winter,  on  the  few  turnips  they  have,  and  sell 
them  in  the  spring:  the  larger  and  better  farmers  buy  them,  and 
put  them  on  swedes  and  vetches,  and  carry  them  on  to  the  fol 
lowing:  winter.  The  average  farms  do  not  maintain  above 
100  sheep  on  100  acres  in  this  fashion,  and  that  for  a part  of  the 
year  only.  The  superior  farmers  keep  large  breeding-flocks,  and 
maintain,  perhaps,  nearly  1000  sheep  on  600  acres,  and  twelve 
working  oxen  besides.  But  they  are  not  fond  of  fatting  off 
sheep  ; they  make  it  their  principal  object  to  sell  their  ewes  in 
lamb  at  Weyhill  fair  in  October,  whence  they  go  up  the  country 
to  drop  their  early  lambs  for  the  London  spring  markets.  The 
Dorset  breed,  or  “ Somerset  horns,”  as  they  are  called,  are  kept 
for  this  purpose,  and  command  a high  price.  Some  of  the 
best  flock-masters  obtain  35s.  or  40s.,  and  even  as  high  as  50s., 
for  their  ewes. 
One  point  which  struck  me  as  defective  in  the  practice  of  this 
district  was  that  there  is  little  or  no  thought  of  fatting  horned 
cattle,  or  consuming  the  straw,  except  by  treading  it  down  as 
litter  for  lean  stock  and  dairy  cows.  In  the  neighbourhood  of 
Milborne  Port,  the  practice  of  muckle-folding  is  adopted ; i.  e , 
the  yard-litter  is  spread  on  the  fields,  and  the  sheep  are  folded 
on  it,  to  tread  it  in. 
This  deficiency,  if  such  it  be,  is  very  important  in  its  bearing 
on  the  state  of  the  labourers,  which  is  very  deplorable  : their 
wages  are  depressed  to  the  lowest  possible  point.  The  causes  of 
this  depression  I will  examine  hereafter;  but  I cannot  leave  this 
district  without  bringing  together  three  facts  which  appear  to  me 
those  of  a half-bred  South  Down  ram.  15^  lbs.  : the  bones  of  younger  animals  would 
doubtless  weigti  less.  1 have  since  met  with  some  information  on  the  subject  in 
Mr.  Morton’s  Cyclopaedia  of  Agriculture : the  amount  of  bone  taken  off  100  acres  by 
growing  stock  is  there  estimated  rather  higher  than  I have  given  it  in  the  text. 
