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The Management of Store Flocks.On this, a principal work of sheep farming, I have found it difficult to discover, in the chaotic mass before me, even a passage, (unless on folding) that is entitled to transcription. The following short notices may have their use.

P. 310." The best time for this operation is, eight, ten, or twelve days old. Mr. Ellman cuts off the tails of his lambs at the time of castration: thus a considerable quantity of blood is lost, which he considers as preventing the part from the gangrene." This practice is not less eligible for being pretty common; tho not universal.

P. 314. Mr. Ellman of Shoreham, generally gives his sheep hay, in hoar frosty mornings. He finds that it preserves them from the gall."

P. 353. "Mr. Ellman has a practice, which he thinks answers to him: it is, to clip off the coarsest of the wool on the thigh, and dock a month before washing and shearing, which he sells as locks; the quantity is about 4 oz. per sheep; it keeps them clean and cool in hot weather."-And may assist, perhaps, in the sale of the fleece.

Folding Sheep.-In moveable folds.-P. 346. "Undoubtedly, one of the most valuable practices ever established on the South Downs, and the universal attention paid to it, shews how well adapted the breed is to support bare keep and distant folding; for the position of great numbers of farms, in this respect, is such, as to put the flocks to the severest trials.

"The practice upon the Downs, it appears, is, to fold upon the arable lands: in the winter, upon such as are intended for pease, oats, or turnips. At this season, two folds are thought necessary; one on the Downs, where the sheep are penned in rainy nights, when the arable lands are too wet for them to set on. The early part of the summer, they fold on such lands as are intended for turnips; after which, upon lands which are in rotation for wheat. It is not a common practice to fold upon pasture land, although Mr. Ellman frequently does it soon after lambing time. Folding begins soon after lambing, when the lambs are about a fortnight old, and continue folding, except in very wet weather, till the ewes begin to lamb again; and it may be said that, during the lambing season, they are penned either in the standing fold or in the pastures. But this is Mr. Ellman's mode of management, and not the usual practice of the county, since some of the flockmasters allow their sheep to lay out of the fold on the Downs for three or four months during winter.

"1. Space. Mr. Eliman states, that a flock of 500 sheep will pen 28 square perch each night, which is 50 acres in a

year;

1

year; allowing them to be left out of the fold two months in the year, which is a fair estimate for the best farmers.

"2. Value. This is in proportion as the farmer considers the profit of the fold. It varies from 358. to 42s. per acre, which for 500, is from 872. 10s. to 100 guineas for the 50 acres, which, if we take the average at 947. for the flock, the annual value of the fold will be, per head, 38. 9d. and a small fraction: at 100 guineas, it is 48. 21d per head. Of what great consequence the fold is to the farmer, when the value of it is found to be so high!

"3. Stock. All the sheep, excepting the fat stock, are regularly folded: these are never folded."

In fixed Folds.-P. 349. " In Mr. Ellman's management of his flock, there is a circumstance which should be more universally attended to; not indeed that he is singular in it. He has two or three yards well sheltered, for the sheep to lie down in at night, in very rainy and stormy weather. One contains, including the sheds, 355 square yards. The sheds around it are about four yards wide, and the whole thoroughly well littered. These yards are extremely warm, and preserve many lambs in bad weather; around the whole circumference is a rack for giving hay."

Fatting Sheep.-P. 325. "The South Down wethers are generally turned off to fatten from one to two years old. It is considered as bad policy to keep for profit more than two years and a half; and indeed it is usually allowed, that they pay better at one year and a half old, than at any other age."

Wool.-P. 354. "The weight of the fleece is various, and depends much on the food: about East-bourne it is light; upon rich food it is, of course, heavy-two pounds and an balf is the average."

A Disease of Sheep.-P. 336. "Hoving, or bursting with eating luxuriant plants, clover, rape, &c. Mr. Ellman remarks, that they are never subject to it when the food is wet from rain or dew; an erroneous idea, very common. He always chooses to turn into such crops at such a time; but when quite dry, and the leaf at all withered from a hot sun, the danger is considerable. The remedy: half a pint of lintseed-oil to each sheep, given with a horn, which vomits them directly, and never known to fail."

SWINE.-P. 381. "The hogs of Sussex are either descended from the large Berkshire spotted breed, or from a cross between that and a smaller black, or white breed."

The following experiments on fatting swine are very ingenious; but not well reported.

P. 385. "Lord Egremont has tried a great variety of hogs, and made many experiments, to determine the most

profitable

profitable food, which is barley; the white hog for store and grazing, is the best he has yet tried. They are killed after summer grazing in the park; and it is a most advantageous method: no corn is given: nothing but grass. They are turned out in May, and in October and November brought to the slaughter-house, and die good porkers. This is a curious experiment, and deserves further trial.

"In this experiment the hogs ranged over an extensive park."-This must be a mistake.-That experiment was made in a suite of fatting deer paddocks; and altho the pigs had "no corn" given to them, they might pick up the crums which fell from the mangers of the deer. See my SOUTHERN Counties.

P. 386. "In another trial made, they were confined in a cage, exactly fitted to the size of the animal, which was augmented as the hog grew larger; and no more space allowed him, than what was sufficient for him to lie down upon his belly."-Of the result of this trial no mention is made.

"As there were some hogs that we wanted to keep over the summer, seven of the largest were put up to fat on the 25th of February; they were fatted upon barley meal, of which they had as much as they could eat. Some days after, the observation of a particular circumstance" (?) "suggested the following experiment: a hog nearly of the same size as the seven, but who had not been put up with them, because they appeared to be rather larger, but without weighing them, was confined on the 4th of March, in a cage made of planks, of which one side was made to move with pegs, so as to fit exactly the size of the hog, with small holes at the bottom for the water to drain from him, and a door behind to remove the soil. The cage stood upon four feet, about one foot from the ground, and was made to confine the hog so closely, that he could only stand up to feed, and lie down upon his belly. He had only two bushels of barley-meal, and the rest of his food was boiled potatoes: they were all killed on the 13th of April, and the weights were as follow: (81b. to the stone.)

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"The hog in the cage was weighed before he was put in: alive 11 stone 1lb.; he was kept five weeks and five days, and then weighed alive 18 stone 3lb.; he had two bushels of barley-meal, and about eight bushels of potatoes. He was quite sulky for the two first days, and would eat nothing.

"This is a most singular result, and as the hog thus con. fined was so much superior to all the others, though not equally fed, it can scarcely arise from any other circomstance but the method adopted: it is exteremly curious, and deserves to be farther examined in a variety of trials."

RABBITS.-P. 391. "This stock is the nuisance of a county; they flourish in proportion to the size of the wastes, and are therefore productive in Sussex. From Horsham forest and Ashdown, &c. considerable quantities are sent to London."

POULTRY.-Cramming Fowls.-P. 391. "North Chappel, Kindford, &c. are famous for their fowls. They are fattened here to a size and perfection unknown elsewhere. The food given them is ground oats made into gruel, mixed with hogs'-grease, sugar, pot-liquor, and milk; or ground oats, treacle, and suet; also sheep's plucks, &c.; and they are kept very warm: they are always crammed in the morning and at night. They mix the pot-liquor with a few handfuls of oatmeal; boil it: it is then taken off the fire, and the meal is wetted, so as to be made to roll into pieces of a sufficient size for cramming: the fowls are put into the coop two or three days before they begin to cram them, which is done for a fortnight, and then sold to the higlers. They will weigh, when full grown, 7lb. each, and are sold at 4s. 6d. and 5s.; the average weight 5lb.; but there are instances of these fowls weighing double this.

"Mr. Turner, of North Chappel, a tenant of Lord Egremont's, crams 200 in a year. Many fat capons are fed in this manner; good ones always look pale, and waste away." (?)

FISH.-P. 393. "This is an object of some consequence in Sussex. The ponds in the Weald are innumerable; and numbers of them date their origin from that part of the county having once been the seat of an extensive iron manufactory, which has now deserted the country; and the mill-ponds now raise large quantities of fish. A Mr. Fenn, of London, has long rented, and is the sole monopolizer of all the fish that are sold in Sussex. Carp is the chief stock; but tench and perch, eels and pike, are raised. A stream should always flow through the pond; and a marley soil is the best. Mr. Milward has drawn carp from his marl-pits 25lb. a brace, and two inches of fat upon them, but then he feeds with pease. When the waters are drawn off and re-stocked,

re-stocked, it is done with stores of a year old, which remain four years: the carp will then be 12 or 13 inches long, and if the water is good, 14 or 15. The usual season for drawing the water, is either autumn or spring: the sale is regulated by measure, from the eye to the fork of the tail. At 12 inches, carp are worth 50s. and 31. per hundred; at 15 inches, 67.; at 18 inches, 81. and 91.: a hundred stores will stock an acre; or 35 brace, 10 or 12 inches long, are fully sufficient for a breeding pond.”.

PROFIT of FARMING.-There is much good sense in the following remarks. P. 44. "To draw up any detail of the the expenses and profit of farming with accuracy and precision, such as may be relied upon as a medium standard for the whole county, is, I fear, a task so difficult of exe. cution, that it may be thought to border upon impossibility. No farmer, for obvious reasons, will lay open to the view of others a detail of his business; and observation alone is absolutely insufficient, and never to be depended upon. It must be founded on documents, and collected from registered accounts."-Nevertheless, some pages of calculations are offered on the subject.

END

OF THE

SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT.

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