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SHEEP. 
it has varied, in both kind and degree, according | square,—and this is greatly aided by a rood of 
to the severity of the climate, the nature of the 
pastures, the comparative hardiness of the breed, 
and the comparative enlightenment and_ re- 
sources of the age and country. Six chief kinds 
of protection are at present available in Britain ; 
and two or more of them, in many situations, are 
capable of being combined. One is a simple 
modification of the natural shelter afforded by 
great or abrupt inequalities in the surface of the 
pastures; another is the raising of plantations 
or of stone or turf walls; a third is the construct- 
ing of stells, cotes, and other erectional retreats 
for the flocks ; a fourth is the salving or smear- 
ing of the bodies of the sheep; a fifth is the 
covering them with pieces of cloth in the man- 
ner technically called bratting ; and a sixth is 
the encouraging of such a variety of fleece as, 
while of undiminished value for the market, 
will render the sheep, in a main degree, self- 
protected. The third of these is noticed suffi- 
ciently in the articles Fonp and Surnp Srenis ; 
the fourth, sufficiently in the articles Satvine ; 
and the second, partially in the article Sueurnr ; 
—so that, in this place, we need only to glance 
at the second, and to take brief though sufficient 
notice of the first, the fifth, and the sixth. 
Plantation, especially when aided by walls 
or turf fences, affords excellent protection from 
storms of wind, rain, and snow; for sheep will 
always run to it in the time of need, and are al- 
ways safe while under it. But, in almost all 
cases, it requires to be produced at the expense 
of the landlord; for, though a tenant should 
have a lease of even 19 or 21 years, and should 
plant at the very commencement of it, in the 
best way, on the best land, and with the most 
rapidly growing trees, he could not possibly get 
shelter enough for his flocks before the expira- 
tion of the lease to compensate for his outlay,— 
and would get no winter shelter whatever for a 
considerable proportion of the years. The side 
or quarter of the pastures on which every shel- 
tering plantation should be raised is that where 
the greatest number and greatest force of storms 
prevail throughout the year. The trees most 
suitable, in very exposed situations, are the 
mountain-ash, the Scotch pine, the beech, the 
hawthorn, and the oak, with the larch as a tem- 
porary nurse. The amount of plantation, on the 
very bleak uplands, of a somewhat champaign 
district, or on the moorlands or subordinate 
ranges of a highland or alpine district, ought 
not to be Jess than half an acre at the distance 
of every mile or every three-fourths of a mile or 
every half a mile; for if sheep, when overtaken 
by a storm during the night, do not know of 
shelter within less than half a mile, they will not 
leave their lair to obtain it. The best form of 
plantation, in a glen and extending from the hill 
to the bottom, is the belt or oblong; but the 
best in most other situations, particularly on a 
plateau or on a slowly declining slope, is the 
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turf wall or of any similar erection running di- 
agonally from each corner, 
Modification of natural shelter must vary ac- 
cording to the nature of the ground, and may 
either be very slight or very considerable according 
to circumstances. A few sheep farms have such an 
abundance of dry ravines and abrupt heights, in 
excellently sheltering directions, as scarcely to 
need the aid of any planting or building or other 
similar appliance ; and very many or even most 
possess enough of natural inequality of ground 
to be easily converted into valuable or sufficient 
protection by means of pieces of wall and clumps 
of plantation at the most defective points. 
Where there is much natural shelter, the first 
consideration ought to be, whether the ground 
is dry or wet ; and if wet, it ought to be imme- 
diately drained ; for so long as it is allowed to 
remain in a wet state, it is altogether unfit for 
shelter. A judicious store-farmer, by availing 
himself of the natural inequalities of his ground, 
and erecting here and there a few roods of turf 
wall or coarse stone wall, according to the cur- 
vature and exposure of the surface, may, in most 
cases, double the amount of ‘beild’ at a very 
trifling expense. 
The “bratting” of sheep has been long known, 
but, till of late years, was rendered a very ques- 
tionable or a too expensive method of protection, 
in consequence of the accompaniment of salving, 
the high price of cloth, and the want of skill in 
adjusting the brats. The expense of combining 
salving with bratting was inconveniently great ; 
and the practice of sewing the brat to the wool 
was at once costly, troublesome, and inefficient, 
—and very often resulted in the tearing of the 
fleece, the loosening of the brat, and the tor- 
menting of the animal. But salving—at least in 
the old and expensive forms of it—can now be 
greatly modified ; cloth is now cheap; and an | 
easy and effective method of adjusting the brat 
is now practised. ‘Substances have been dis- 
covered,” says Mr. MacTurk, in the Transactions 
of the Highland Society for 1843, “which com- 
pletely obviate the necessity of smearing, at not 
more than a half-penny per head, or one-tenth 
the expense of smearing. Cloth, very well 
suited for the purpose, may be made from the 
refuse wool of carpet manufactories, equally thick 
and warm as a blanket, and this can be got for 
6d. per yard. If cloth, such as sacks are made of, 
be employed, it may be had for 4d. per yard. 
When intended for bratting hogs, it should be 
three-quarters wide ; and two feet of such cloth 
will be sufficient for covering one hog. When 
intended for old sheep of the best description, 
the brats may be made larger by applying the 
cloth the long way, and we have then 27 inches 
of width to cover the back and side instead of 
24, and it can be cut off as long as the largest 
sheep will require. The brat should always 
come as far down the sides as to cover the widest 
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