Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/432

Rh 398 AGRICULTURE [LIVE STOCK- it is found that sheep invariably come through the hard ships of winter in better condition when thus encouraged to shift as much as possible for themselves, than when fed to the full on hay, and allowed to keep to their shelter all the day. Much vigilance, promptitude, and courage, are required on the part of shepherds in these wild and stormy districts in getting their flocks into places of safety on the breaking out of sudden snow-storms, and tending them skilfully there. In spring advantage is taken of any dry weather that occurs to set fire to the roughest portions of the old heather and other coarse herbage, and this being thus cleared off, a fresh young growth comes up, which yields a sweeter pasture to the flocks for several succeeding years. Careful shepherds are at pains to manage the muir-burning so as to remove the dry effete herbage in long narrow strips, and thus to secure a regular intermixture of old and young heath. The lambing season is one of much anxiety to the master ; and to his shepherds and their faithful sagacious dogs it is one of incessant toil. They must be a-foot from &quot; dawn till dewy eve,&quot; visiting every part of their wide range several times a-day, to see that all is right, and to give assistance when required. The ewes of these hardy mountain breeds seldom require man s assistance in the act of parturition, but still cross presentations and difficult cases occur even with them. Deaths occur also among the newly-dropt lambs, in which case the dam is taken to the nearest stell, and a twin-lamb (of which there are usually enough to serve this purpose) put in the dead one s place. The dead lamb s skin is stript off, and wrapt about the living one, which is then shut up beside the dam in a small crib or parik, by which means she is usually induced in a few hours (and always the sooner the more milk she has) to adopt the supposititious lamb. As the lambing season draws to a close, each shepherd collects the unlambed ewes of his flock into an inclosure near his cottage, and examines them one by one to ascertain which are pregnant. To the barren ones he affixes a particular mark, and at once turns them again to the hill, but the others are retained close at hand until they lamb, by which means he can attend to them closely with comparatively little labour. The lambs are castrated and docked at from 10 to 20 days old. For this and for all sorting and drafting purposes an ample fold and suit of pens, formed of stout post and rail, are provided on some dry knoll con venient for each main division of the flock. To this the flock is gently gathered, and penned off in successive lots of 10 or 12, taking care that each lamb has its own dam with it before it is penned, and to do this with as little dogging and running as possible. The male lambs of the pure blackfaced breed, when designed to be kept as wethers, are not castrated until they are eight or ten weeks old, partly because when this is done sooner their horns have a tendency to get so crumpled as to grow into their eyes, and partly because a bold horn is thought to improve the appearance of an aged wether. On these elevated sheep-walks shearing does not take place until July. It cannot, in fact, be performed until the young wool has begun to grow or rise, and so admit of the shears working freely betwixt the skin and the old matted fleece. The sheep are previously washed by causing them to swim repeatedly across a pool with a gentle current flowing through it. They are made to plunge in from a bank raised, either naturally or artificially, several feet above the surface of the water. This sousing and swimming in pure water cleanses the fleece far more effect ually than could be supposed by persons accustomed only to the mode pursued in arable districts. Shearing takes place three or four days after washing, and in the interim much vigilance is required on the part of the shepherd to prevent the sheep from rubbing themselves under banks of moss or earth, and so undoing the washing. In the case of blackfaced flocks washing is now not unfrequently altogether dispensed with, because the greater weight of unwashed wool more than counterbalances the difference in price betwixt washed and unwashed fleeces. Each man usually shears about 60 sheep a-day. It is neither practicable nor expedient to shear these mountain sheep so closely as the fat denizens of lowland pastures. For this operation each shearer is provided with a low-legged sparred stool, having a seat at one end, or with a bench built of green turf. These are arranged in a row close in front of a pen, in which the unshorn sheep are placed. The shearers being seated, each astride his stool or bench, with their backs to the pen, a man in it catches and hands over a sheep to each of them. The sheep is first laid on its back upon the stool, and the wool shorn from the under parts, after which its legs are bound together with a soft woollen cord, and the fleece removed, first from the one side and then from the other, by a succession of cuts running from head to tail. The fleeces are thrown upon a cloth and immediately carried to the wool-room, where, after being freed from clots, they are neatly wrapped up and stored away. Before the shorn sheep are released each receives a mark or buist by dipping the owner s cypher in melted pitch, and stamping it upon the skin of the animal. To discriminate different ages and hirsels, these marks vary in themselves or are affixed to different parts of the sheep. Once or twice a year all stray sheep found upon the farms of a well-defined district are brought to a fixed rendezvous, where their marks are examined by the assembled shep herds, and each is restored to its proper owner. Weaning takes place in August or early in September. A sufficient number of the best ewe lambs of the pure breeds are selected for maintaining the flock, and are treated in the way already noticed. With this exception, the whole of the lambs are sold either to low-country graziers or as fat lambs to the butcher. The wether lambs usually go to the former, and the ewe lambs of the cross betwixt blackfaced ewes and Leicester rams to the latter. These ewes being excellent nurses, make their lambs very fat in favourable seasons, in which case they are worth more to kill as lambs than to rear. Immediately after the weaning, the ewes which have attained mature age are disposed of, generally to low-country graziers, who keep them for another year, and fatten lamb and dam. To facilitate the culling out of these full-aged ewes, each successive crop of ewe lambs receives a distinctive ear mark, by which all of any one age in the flock can be at once recognised. Section 4. Wool. Wool is such an important part of the produce ol our flocks that it seems proper to offer a few remarks upon it before leaving this subject, although it will fall to be considered under its proper heading. We here insert with much pleasure the following communication received from the late John Barff, Esq., of Wakefield : &quot; I willingly give you a reply to your various inquiries regarding wool, as far as 1 am able. As to the kinds grown in the various counties of the United Kingdom, this I cannot fully answer, as there are some counties wools which have not come much under my inspection ; but generally I may remark that wherever the turnip can be cultivated and has been introduced, the Leicester, Lincoln shire, Cotswold, and the half-breds from Down and Cheviot, are to be found ; and in the same counties, in several instances, you have several kinds, if we except Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, which have entirely the long-wool sheep. The great bulk also of York, Warwick, Oxford, Cambridge, Gloucester, Northampton, and Nottingham shires, have this description of sheep, but they