bent. In winter and spring, the sheep, if their 
condition seems to demand it, are admitted into 
such of the lower parks as have been cut for 
hay, or pastured during the summer by the 
dairy stock, which is then fed in the house. The 
sheep are let down from the higher ground in 
the morning, but are invariably put out of the 
parks between one and two o'clock in the after- 
noon. In the event of a severe snow-storm, 
they are fed with meadow-hay, which is carried 
out to them. In weaning the ewe-lambs in- 
tended for stock, they are put into one of the 
parks for a week, and then allowed to return to 
their mothers, whom they recognise, but no lon- 
ger attempt to suck. An advantage of this plan 
is, that the lambs follow their dams through the 
winter, and, if there is snow, they are helped by 
them to scrape, so that they do not so often need 
to be fed with hay as when they are kept sepa- 
rate all the winter.” 
The management of the Southdowns varies 
with the nature of the district or farm, with the 
size of the flock, with the subvariety or quality 
of the sheep, and with the resources or particu- 
lar husbandry system of the owner. On the true 
down farms, not only in Sussex, but in Hamp- 
shire, Wiltshire, and Dorsetshire, the old prac- 
tice was to keep them almost wholly on the hill 
pastures during the day-time throughout the 
greater part of the year, and to fold them on the 
arable land at night, and give them there an 
allowance of hay, at least in the months of win- 
ter, and sometimes in most months of the year ; 
and the newer practice, after the introduction of 
the turnip husbandry, and the consequent en- 
largement of the flocks correspondingly to the 
increased supply of winter food, was to treat the 
old sheep in the same way as before, and to de- 
vote the turnips to the support and the prolonged 
feeding of the young sheep; and the expedients 
for meeting the common exigency of the ex- 
haustion of the turnips by about mid-winter or 
the destruction of the remains of them by the 
frosts of January, previous to the period when 
the Swedish turnip was brought into cultivation, 
were, in general, either to make reservations of 
autumnal grass in the manner of ‘fogging,’ or 
to find large supplies of hay, or to regulate or 
diminish the size of the flocks according to the 
prospects of spring-feed. The practices of the 
present day are necessarily far more diversified, 
and range from an imitation of the old system, 
or from the mere giving of hay in winter and a 
few Swedes after lambing, to almost any degree 
of complication arising out of the improved sys- 
tems of mixed and rotational husbandry, par- 
ticularly in the supply of artificial green food for 
both winter and summer, and of several valuable 
and prolific kinds of winter-growing crops for 
spring-feed. The most common artificial sup- 
plies, in aid of the native pastures, or in joint- 
use with them, or in substitution of them, are 
sown grasses, tares, vetches, turnips, Swedes, 
mangel-wurzel, cole, rye, and. mustard. But, in 
all the native upland districts and characteristic. 
pasturing-grounds of the Southdowns, they con- 
tinue to be appropriated specially to downs, 
heaths, and thin arable soils, and are still more 
or less dependent, throughout a great part of 
the year, on the scanty produce of these sheep- 
walks; and they are, in consequence, treated 
from lambing-time onward in methods of pecu- 
liar adaptation to the circumstances of the farm 
or district. “In these situations, they are sent 
regularly to fold, with the exception of those 
put out for fattening. It was originally the 
plan to keep the wether sheep with the general 
flock, and allow them to go to fold until drafted 
for the London market ; more recently they have 
been divided, and fed at a much earlier age,— 
many are fatted at the age of 16 or 18 months. 
With some breeders, who have good meadows 
and other advantages, the ewes and lambs are 
not allowed to go to fold, their system being to 
force their lambs forward for the September fairs, 
when they fetch exceedingly high prices ; others 
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 other long-wools ; they are 
then included with the general flock, rarely or 
never being sent to fold, and they make great 
improvement. When mixed with other breeds, 
they are found to produce more lambs, and give 
more support to them, but to produce less value 
of wool and to consume more food.” 
The management of the Lincoln sheep is very 
much diversified and complicated, and varies 
according to the subvariety, the district, the 
general design, the special husbandry, and some 
particular circumstances. The mode of feeding 
and fattening the store-flocks depends entirely 
upon the soil and situation in which they are 
kept. No breed of sheep vary more in their 
character and management, from the circum- 
stance of their being bred to suit the marsh- 
land or the arable districts. The flocks suited 
to the former districts are most commonly bred 
in the north and north-eastern parts of* the 
county, and possess more the character of the 
‘old style of Lincolns. The breeders of this 
description of sheep make it their study, in set- 
‘ting their flocks, to select those females that 
possess the longest wool, strong bone, and largest 
size, their leading object being to raise a thick- 
fleshed, hardy animal, suitable to their soil and 
climate, which, from its coldness during the 
spring months, is only considered suitable for 
lambs coming rather late in the season. Their 
plan of management during the lambing season 
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