Sheep pasture

“ We may partly account for it by considering their analogy to the goat, and their propensity to scale rugged eminences; but I think these movements rather indicate an anxiety to change a pasture already exhausted of variety, for fresh fields, and herbage abounding in that miscellaneous provision which nature apparently reckons essential for them. Shepherds own as much, and will tell you that frequent change of pasture is the soul of sheep husbandry, though they see no reason why sheep should not be kept for many successive weeks on a patch of turnips. ”

“ The hemlocks, beeches, yellow birches and maples have stayed behind in the region of cow pastures. Here where sometimes the deer come and where mountain sheep ought to find pasturage, only the hardiest of pasture people have dared to take their stand. The firs and spruces have come up, growing stockier and more gnome-like at every hundred-foot rise, until above the head walls of the ravines they shrink to low-growing shrubs not knee high, except where they have cunningly taken advantage of some hollow. Even there they rise no higher than the shelter that fends them from the north wind. ”

“ They are gallant hares, and the scent lies thick right across another meadow and into a ploughed field, where the pace begins to tell; and then over a good wattle with a ditch on the other side, and down a large pasture studded with old thorns, which slopes down to the first brook; the great Leicestershire sheep charge away across the field as the pack comes racing down the slope. ”

“ Pasturage being thus free to all, Sheep had a higher comparative value than is the case with ourselves, who have to pay in some way for their keep. There is a proverb in the Talmud which may be curtly translated, "Land sell, sheep buy."
The value of a good pasture-ground for the flocks is so great, that its possession is well worth a battle, the shepherds being saved from a most weary and harassing life, and being moreover 148 fewer in number than is needed when the pasturage is scanty. ”

“ The rules for pasturing sheep in winter and spring differ from the summer rules in this, that at those seasons the flock is not driven to pasture until the hoar frost has evaporated and they feed all day long, one watering about noon being enough. ”

“ A rank succulent pasture taints the flesh, or renders it insipid and unpleasant, while a dry aromatic herbage communicates a delightful flavour, and enables people versed in the pleasures of the table easily to discriminate between turnip-fed and grass-fed mutton; and again, between the latter, and that which has spent its existence on the hills. In Touchwood's Syllabus of Culinary Lectures, appended to the Cook and Housewive's Manual, by Mistress Dods, we are briefly informed, that "the black-faced, or short-sheep, are best for the table, though more depends on the pasture than the breed." ”

“ This is about all there to say on the subject of feeding sheep, so I pass to the consideration of breeding. The rams which you are about to use for breeding should be separated from the flock for two months before the season, and fed heavily by giving them a ration of barley when they come into the stable from the pasture: it will make them stronger for their duty. ”

“ The store lambs are at this period sent to good pasture, or, where the farm cannot afford it, are summered at a distance; that is to say, the farmer pays so much a head for permission to feed his flock, during a couple of months, on another person's ground, at the end of which period they are turned upon the pasture which has just been vacated by the gimmers, they having been sent to join the older ewes. ”

“ In respect of cattle kept for all these purposes, which it is customary to feed in the barn yard, it should be added that you should keep as many and only as many as you need for carrying on the work of the farm, so that more easily you can secure diligent care of them from the servants whose chief care is of themselves. In this connection the keeping of sheep is preferable to hogs not only by those who have pastures but also by those who have none, for you should keep them not merely because you have pasture, but for the sake of the manure. ”

“ Frequent change of Pasture necessary.—Sheep ought never to be permitted to remain too long on one pasture:—Great benefit will be derived from their removal from time to time to different parts even of the same farm, by which arrangement a change of herbage will be ensured. No animal can be kept for any length of time in health, if restricted to one unvarying routine of diet. ”

“ Still, they should be cultivated on every farm where cattle, hogs, or fowls, are kept. [Pg 315]
PASTURES.
These are very important to all who keep domestic animals. The following brief directions for successful pasturing are essential. It is very poor economy to have all your pasture-lands in one field, or to put all your animals together. Pasture fields in rotation, two weeks each, allowing rest and growth for six weeks: first horned cattle, next horses, then sheep. Horses feed closer than cattle, and sheep closer than horses; each also eats something that the others do not relish. ”

“ When sheep are fed continually in the same locality distinction must be made in the times of feeding them according to the seasons: thus in summer they are driven out to pasture at day break because then the dewy grass is more appetizing than at midday, when it is dry. ”

“ Watch the ox and sheep in the pasture. They crop the grass without stopping, without a moment’s rest; they chew very slightly, very hastily, and then swallow; one mouthful does not wait on another. It is the time for filling the paunch without losing a bite by prolonged chewing. Later, in the hours of repose, there will be leisure for bringing up again the food swallowed and for grinding it to the proper fineness. ”

“ The pasture they have never seems to satisfy them. It is the pasture in the other field that interests them. In this they are very human. [Pg 272] But giving them a wider range makes the chore of bringing them home at milking time more important and this summer I undertook to train Sheppy to the work with a rather peculiar result. As he is a pure-bred sheep dog he always goes to the farthest off in the bunch as soon as he is sent after them. ”

“ He is feeding them on pasture land far from cultivated fields and human dwellings. Hills impervious to the plough, and patches of vegetation interspersed through rugged stony tracts, have in all countries and ages constituted the appropriate pasture for flocks of sheep. ”

“ To give sheep sufficient variety, it would be better to divide their range into smaller ones, and change them as often at least as once a week. They seek a favorite resting-place, on a dry, elevated part of the field, which soon becomes soiled. By removing them from this for a few days, rains will cleanse, or the sun dry it, so as again to make it suitable for them. More sheep may be kept, and in better condition, where this practice is adopted, than where they are confined to the same pasture. ”

“ The large tracts of pasture that have so long been deserted, owing to their murderous attacks on the shepherds and the stockhuts, will now be available, and a very sensible relief will be afforded to the flocks of sheep that had been withdrawn from them, and pent up on inadequate ranges of pasture—a circumstance which indeed has tended materially to impoverish the flocks and keep up the price of butcher's meat. ”

“ They are in no want of sheep, but are not overstocked with cows, owing, in a great measure, to their own indolence in not clearing away the woods, which if they would be at the pains to do, they might have sufficient pasture. ”

“ The long meadow, too, seems to reach as far as that same farmhouse, and no doubt will provide pasture all summer for the sheep. Their fleecy white wool will grow long. Then will come sheep-shearing time, and the wool will be sent away to be woven into cloth.
In the picture the light falls strongly upon the backs of the sheep, on the head and shoulders of the man, and on the wooden shoes he wears.
The dog stands there expectant, ready to pursue any wayward sheep. It is wonderful how much these shepherd dogs know, and how much they help their owners. ”

“ If the weather be warm and pleasant, and the nights moderately warm, it is better to have the lambing take place in the pasture; since sheep are then more disposed to own their lambs, and take kindly to them, than in the confusion of a small inclosure. In the latter, sheep, unless particularly docile, crowd from one side to another when any one enters, running over young lambs, pressing them severely, etc.; ewes become separated from their lambs, and then run violently round from one to another, jostling and knocking them about ”

“ There are but few salt-licks in the land; and, as soon after the rainy season as the ground becomes passable, the herders from all quarters drive their cattle across the pasture-lands indifferently to the springs. The dwellers around these places look on quietly, while the cattle and the sheep, flocking up by thousands from all the regions around, tread down and destroy the grass of their pastures. They may complain to themselves about the destruction, but it never occurs to them to drive the strangers away. ”

“ I am told that, not anticipating so long a winter, many disposed of their hay last fall, and now have to drive their cattle out to the "divides,"—hills between rivers—to pasture on the prairie; and this cold wet weather has been very hard on them, many of the weak ones dying. It has been a novel sight, to watch a little girl about ten years old herding sheep near town; handling her pony with a masterly hand, galloping around the herd if they begin to scatter out, and driving them, into the corral. I must add that I have also seen some fine looking cattle. ”

“ The greater part of the pasture is therefore lost, though it might all be beneficially consumed with sheep. A flock of sheep will thrive where cows and oxen would starve, and will go at all seasons of the year to such heights as are inaccessible to black cattle.... In a situation of this kind the very wool of a flock would amount to more than the whole profit to be obtained by black cattle. ”

“ In places the land is too steep or too elevated to be cultivated, and so it is left as pasture for the sheep or "sheep walk"; where cultivation is possible the fields are large and without hedges, like those shown in Fig. 51; during autumn, winter and spring there are many sheep about, penned or "folded" on the arable land, eating the crops of swedes, turnips, rape, vetches or mustard grown for them, or grazing on the aftermath of sainfoin or grass and clover. ”

“ But by all accounts much of the country is unsuited to the pasturage of black cattle, and as cattle and sheep do not thrive well together, the only alternative seems to be the introduction of sheep alone into those districts unsuited for cattle. “More than one-third of the country consists of mountains and declivities too steep and abrupt for black cattle, and the grass they produce too short and fine to afford them a tolerable pasture except in the height of summer. ”

“ Of the sheep and beeves we speak not; all men know the richness of the pasture that springs up from the annually 65 inundated meadows, [78] and the bounty of the nibbling crop that grows on the upland slopes with the wild thyme and the other savoury herbs that turn mutton into venison. ”

“ The propriety of forming the idea of removing with their cattle to the shealings, tending to spare the pasture of the low ground during their time there; but the men continuing their habitation on the level, attending on the farms and other domestic afairs; the shealings detached from each other. The cattle was numerous, that sojourners seized with astonishment, overhearing the bleating of the sheep, and lowing of the black cattle, morning and evening, when they were feeding the young ones from their breasts. ”

“ Scant blue grass is the pasture for sheep. Salt once a week. Raise the floor of your fold from four to six feet above the ground, board it only on three sides, and simply lath it on the south side, and your sheep will be healthy and without distemper. ”

“ For pasture the sheep are driven off several miles northward to a few patches of poor grass.
The chief article of subsistence of these natives is Indian-corn; they have no meat, excepting occasionally mutton. The sheep are raised for their wool, and not for table-purposes. From the wool they manufacture an extraordinarily good and serviceable blanket. ”

“ In the pasture lands frequent herds of many-colored cattle, plump, well-rounded, and high-humped, like the Indian breeds, and mingled flocks of goats and sheep dispersed over the landscape, suggest ideas of barbarous comfort and plenty. ”

“ They wandered at will in the pasture, and were rarely visited oftener than once a week, and that usually on Sunday morning. Then either the farmer or one of his boys would go to the pasture to give the sheep salt and count them. This was the custom among the farmers in that locality, nearly all of whom owned flocks sometimes as small as twenty, but rarely larger than seventy-five, since sheep in New England do not thrive when kept in large flocks. ”

“ He and several other relatives help me in the cultivation of our field. I raise a good many black sheep that pasture on our meadows, as well as half-wild hogs, as vicious as wolves and who never sleep under a roof.... ”