will cost 7s. per rood: this size gives 9 roods, which at 7s. makes its cost £3, 5s. 4d., including the quarrying and carriage of the stones-a trifling outlay compared to the permanent advantage derived from it on a hill-farm. The opening into the stell should be from the side towards the rising ground-and its width 3 feet, and of the whole height of the wall, as seen in the figure; or it is sometimes a square of 3 or 4 feet, on a level with the ground, through which the sheep enter, while persons obtain access, in such cases, by means of stile-steps over the wall. Such a structure as this should supersede every antiquated form; and it will easily contain 10 score of sheep for weeks, and even 15 or 16 score may be put into it for a night without being too much crowded together.

1032. Stells should be fitted up with hay-racks all round the inside, as in fig. 60, not in the expensive form of circular wood work, but of a many-sided regular polygon. It is a bad plan to make sheep eat hay by rotation, as recommended by Lord Napier and Mr Little, but condemned by Mr Fairbairn, as the timid and weak will be kept constantly back, and suffer much privation for days at a time. Let all have room and liberty to eat at one time, and as often as they choose. The hay-stack should be built in the centre of the stell, as in fig. 60, on a basement of stone, raised inches above the ground to keep the hay dry. A small stack, 5 yards in diameter at the base, 6 feet high in the stem, with a top of 6 feet in height, will contain about 450 hay-stones of hay, which will last 200 sheep 33 days, about the average duration of a long storm; but upon that base a much greater quantity of hay might be built. The interior circumference of the stell measures 160 feet round the hay-racks; and were 8 or 9 six-feet hurdles put round the stack, at once to protect the hay and serve as additional hay-racks, the hurdles would afford 47 feet more-which together give 1 foot of standing room at the racks to each of 200 sheep at one time.

1033. Stells form an excellent and indispensable shelter for sheep in a snow-storm, when deprived of their pasture; but it has occurred to me that, in want of stone-stells, very good stells or chambers might be made of snow of any form or size desired. Even around the space occupied by sheep, after a heavy fall of snow, a stell might be constructed of the snow itself, taken from its interior, and piled into walls as wide and high as required. Such a construction would remain as long as the storm endured. A new storm could be made available for repairs, and, even after the ground was again clear, the snow walls would remain as screens for some time after. A small open drain or two, in case of a thaw, would convey away the water as the snow melted.

1034. As long as the ground continues green, natural shelter is as requisite as stells, these consist of rocks, crags, braes, bushes, heather, and such like. To render these as available to sheep as practicable, the ground should be cleared of all obstructions around them, and

bushes planted in places most suited to their growth, such as the whin (Ulex europœa,) in poor thin clay, and it is a favourite food of sheep in winter; the broom (Genista scoparia,) on rich light soil; the juniper (Juniperus communis,) in sandy soil; the common elder (Sambucus nigra,) in any soil, and it grows well in exposed windy situations; the mountain ash (Pyrus aucuparia,) a hardy grower in any soil; and the birch when bushy (Betula alba,) grows in any soil, and forms excellent clumps or hedges for shelter, as well as the hazel (Corylus avellana,) and the common heaths (Erica vulgaris and tetralix,) when they get leave to grow in patches to their natural height in peaty earth. I shall advert to the protection of mountain land when we come to speak of shelter.

1035. There are other modes of protecting hill sheep from the severities of the weather besides stells, and which may be regarded as more personally comfortable to them than any other; and one of these is what is termed bratting, which is done by covering the sheep with a cloth as an apron or brat. In tracing the origin of this practice, Mr M'Turk of Hastings Hall in Dumfriesshire, observes that, "After exhausting every practicable means of yielding protection and shelter to sheep on the hills, by the erection of stells, &c., it was still found that a more constant and effectual method was necessary, and salving was resorted to, as the cheapest and most likely way of attaining three important objects-namely, defence from the cold, security from the ravages of the scab, and the destruction of vermin. It has long been known to those interested in the management of sheep, that more protection is afforded by bratting than the use of any salve; but, until of late years, salving was considered necessary, at the same time, to destroy vermin; but this double expense was too considerable to admit of a profitable return. There was another difficulty connected with bratting, which rendered it exceedingly inconvenient and unpopular. The practice was to sew the brat to the wool upon the animal, which, in hands little accustomed to the use of the needle, was both awkwardly performed, and attended with great trouble and loss of time. Never could cloth be obtained for brats at so cheap a rate as at present, while, at the same time, substances have been discovered which effectually destroy vermin, and entirely obviate the necessity of smearing, at not more than one halfpenny per head, or one-tenth of the expense of smearing. Cloth, well suited for the purpose, may be made from the refuse wool of carpet manufactories, as thick and warm as a blanket, and at only a 6d. per yard. If sacking is employed it may be had for 4d. per yard.

1036. "When intended for bratting hoggs, the cloth should be three-quarters wide, and two feet will be sufficient to cover one Black-faced hogg. 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 in width to cover the back and sides instead of 24, and it can be cut off as long as the largest sheep requires. The brat should come as far down the sides as to cover the widest part of

the ribs and all the back, from the tail to the back of the neck. Instead of fitting the cloth to every sheep, the best plan is to select a sheep of the average size of the class, and measure and cut the quantity of cloth required. When the cloth has been applied to the animal, and its proper dimensions ascertained, the parts should then be marked to which the different straps and strings are to be sewed, to hold it in its proper place. A strap is fixed to one of the front corners, in a direction to pass beneath the throat, and be sewed to the other corner; and other straps are intended to pass under the belly. These straps are only sewed at first at one end, and the other end is sewed after the brat is fitted on, so as to keep it tight in its place. The straps should be of a soft material, that they may not chafe or injure the skin when the sheep is moving about. When made, the brats are dipped in coal tar, the better to resist the wet and rotting, and if taken care of will last, thus prepared, for five seasons. They ought to be made early in summer, to have time to be dried before November, when they are used. They remain on the sheep, but not longer than the beginning or middle of April, according to the state of the weather, and the condition of the flock. A person accustomed to the use of the needle, can make a brat in five minutes, and fit it on in less than other five.

1037. "A woollen brat with strings will not cost more than 5d., a flaxen one about 3.; but the former will last much longer, and answer better. To enable the shepherd to identify the brats, when not in use, they should be branded with the farm mark in white paint. The sheep are bathed for the destruction of vermin, and the wool should regain its wonted appearance before the brat is fitted on. The prices are,-for

Small woollen brats Larger

5d. to last for 5 years.

the shoulder; b immediately in front of the kind legs; c under the middle of the belly; whilst d and e pass unnoticed under the wool across the breast, and those from the hind corners at ƒ may pass behind the hind legs, and be sewed below to the ties of b.

1039. It occurs to me to suggest that this thick woollen cloth might be rendered waterproof, and the strings to fasten on the brats might be of vulcanised India rubber, which while yielding to the motions of the animal, will cause the brat always to adhere firmly to its body.

1040. "We have found from our own experience," says Mr M'Turk, " and we have not heard the fact doubted by any one conversant with the management of sheep, that no salve hitherto tried has afforded a degree of protection equal to bratting, when thus secured to the animal. We are therefore entitled to conclude that, under this treatment, the flock will be in higher condition, and if so, the clip of wool will be greater, and the loss by death considerably lessened, and affording the means of bringing some of the more reduced of the old ewes through the winter, which could not have otherwise survived in a high and exposed district. When the brat is taken off in April, the wool will be found to have retained the yolk, and will appear quite yellow. When examined, it will be found to be sappy and sound, and free from the defect that wool-staplers call husky and pinny, that is, dry and brittle, which occasions much loss in the manufacture. When washed, its natural whiteness is unimpaired, we would even say increased, from the soap employed in the bathing, and the yolk which is retained."*

6

Flaxen

33

2

Bathing to destroy vermin

Fig. 61.

A BRATTED SHEEP.

tie a passes below the belly, immediately behind

are few localities which possess greater facilities for irrigation, though on a limited scale, than the highland glens of Scotland. Rivulets meander down those glens through haughs of richest alluvium, which bear the finest description of natural pasture plants. Were those rivulets subdivided into irrigating rills, the herbage of the haughs might be multiplied many fold. Such being the condition of those glens, I cannot too earnestly draw the attention of hill-farmers to the utility of converting them into irrigated meadows; and though each meadow may be of very limited extent, the grass will be most valuable when converted into hay. One obstruction only exists to their formation, the fencing required around them, to keep the stock off while the grass is growing for hay. But the exertion of fencing should be made for the sake of the crop protected by it. Besides places for regular irrigation, there are rough patches of pasture, probably stimulated by latent water performing

a sort of under-irrigation to the roots of the plants, which should be mown for hay; and to save farther trouble, this hay should be ricked on the spot, fenced with small hurdles, around which the sheep would assemble at stated hours, feed through the hurdles in frosty weather from the rick, and wander again over the green sward for the remainder of the day; and when the snow came, the stells would be their place of refuge and support. As the hay in the stack is eaten, the hurdles are drawn closer around the stack, to allow the sheep again to reach it.

1042. Hurdles are constructed in different forms. Fig. 40 is the strongest and most durable, but also the most expensive hurdle in the first cost. Each hurdle, with its fixtures, consists of 14 pieces-viz. 2 side-posts a, 4 rails b, and 3 braces c d d, which go to form the single hurdle : and 1 stay f, 1 stake g, and 3 pegs at g, h, and i, which are required for the fixing up of each hurdle. The scantling of the parts are the sideposts 4 feet long, 4 inches by 2 inches. The rails 9 feet long, 3 inches broad by 1 inch thick. The braces, 2 diagonals 5 feet 2 inches long, 21 inches broad by inch thick, and 1 upright 4 feet long, and of like breadth and thickness. The stay is 4 feet long, 4 inches broad, and 2 inches thick, and bored at both ends for the pegs; the stake 1 foot long, pointed and bored. The pegs 1 foot long, 1 inch diameter. The cost is 2s. 6d. each with the fixtures.

1043. The preparation of the parts consists in mortising the side-posts, the mortises being usually left round in the ends, and they are bored at equal distances from the joining and stay pegs. The ends of the rails are roughly rounded on the edges, which completes the preparation of the parts; and when the flake is completed, its dimensions are 9 feet in length, and 3 feet 4 inches in breadth over the rails; the bottom rail being 9 inches from the foot of the post, and the upper rail 5 inches from the head.

1044. Another form of flake, more extensively employed, has 5 rails, which are 1 inch square. The ends of the rails are turned round by machinery, and the side-posts bored for their reception, as well as the pegs also by machinery. The bottom rail is 9 inches from the foot of the posts; the spaces between the first and second, and the second and third rails, are each 7 inches, and the two upper spaces are respectively 8 and 9 inches, leaving 5 inches of the post above the upper rail.

1045. These are extensively manufactured in Perthshire, where young larches are abundant. Their price, when sold in retail by fifties or hundreds, is 1s. 9d. to 2s. each, including all the parts, sold in pieces; the expense of putting the parts together is usually 2d. each hurdle, including nails. In Kirkcudbright, flakes of 5 spars, and 6 feet long, sell for 1s. 2d. each.

1046. Where the common crack-willow (Salix fragilis) will grow, every farmer may have poles enough every year for making 2 or 3 dozen

hurdles to keep up his stock. To establish a plantation, large cuttings 9 or 10 feet long should be pushed, not driven, into moist soil, and on being fenced from cattle, will soon shoot both in the roots and head, the latter being fit to be cut every seventh year. Where soil for a willow-planta

tion does not naturally exist, the farmer can buy his hurdles ready made at 16s. the dozen; when made at home they cost 4d. each, and when the shepherd makes them they cost only his time. Hurdle-makers go the round of the country in England, and make at 4d. and mend at 2d. each, finding their own tools.

1047. A very common form of hurdie used in England is shown in fig. 62. It is formed of any sort of willow or hard wood, such as oak-copse, Fig. 62.

THE ENGLISH HURDLE.

ash-saplings, or underwood, such as hazel. It consists of 2 heads a a, 6 slots b, 2 stay-slots c c, and an upright slot d. The slots are mortised into the heads and nailed with flattened finedrawn nails, at 6d. per lb., which admit of being very firmly riveted, upon which the strength of the hurdle mainly depends: 100 poles at 18s. make 36 hurdles, which, including nails and workmanship, cost £1, 11s. 6d, or 10s. 6d. per dozen. Although the horizontal slots are cut 9 feet long, the hurdle, when finished, is only somewhat more than 8 feet, the slot ends going through the heads 1 or 2 inches: 2 hurdles to 1 rod of 16 feet, or 8 to 1 chain of 22 yards, are the usual allow

ance.

1048. A larger kind of hurdle, called park hurdles, worth 2s. each, is made for subdividing meadows or pastures, and are a sufficient fence for cattle. The small hurdles are used for sheep, the larger to fence cattle, whereas the Scotch flakes answer both purposes at once, and are therefore more economical.

1049. The hurdles being carted to the field, according to the English mode, they are laid down flat, end to end, with their heads next to, but clear of, the line in which they are to be set. A right-handed man generally works with the row of hurdles on his left. Having made a hole in the hedge, or close to the dyke, for the foot of the first hurdle, with the fold-pitcher, fig. 63, which is an iron dibber, 4 feet long, having a well-pointed flattened bit, in shape similar to the feet of the hurdles, he marks on the ground the place where the other foot is to be in

Fig. 63. inserted, and there with his dibber he makes the second hole, which, like all the others, is made 9 inches deep. With the left hand the hurdle is put into its place, and held upright while lightly pressed down by the left foot on the lowest slot. This being done, the third hole is made opposite to, and about six inches from, the last. The dibber is then put out of hand by being stuck in the ground near where the next hole is to be made; the second hurdle is next placed in position, one foot on the open hole, and the other foot marks the place for the next hole, and so on throughout the whole row. When the place of the second foot of a hurdle is marked on the ground, the hurdle itself is moved out of the way by the left hand, while the hole is made by both hands. When the whole row is set, it is usual to go back over it, giving each head a slight tap with the dibber, to regulate their height, and give them a firmer hold of the ground.

1051. The number of hurdles required for feeding sheep on turnips is one row the whole length of the ridges of an enclosed field, and as many more as will reach twice across 2 eight-step lands or ridges, or 4 four-step lands, that is, 48 feet, or 3 or 4 ridges of 15 feet. This number, whatever it may be, is sufficient for a whole quadrangular field, whatever number of acres it may contain. The daily portions are given more or less in length, according to the number of the flock. Two of these portions are first set, the sheep being let in on the first or corner piece. Next day they are turned into the second piece, and the cross-hurdles that enclosed them in the first are carried forwards, and set to form the third piece. These removes are continued daily till the bottom of the field is reached: both the cross-rows are then to spare, and are carried and set to begin a new long-row, close to the offside of a furrow, and the daily folding carried back over 2 or 4 lands as at first. It is always the top of a field, if there be any difference of the level, where the folding is begun, that the flock may have the driest lair to retire to in wet weather.

1052. "When there is a mixed flock, that is, couples, fattening and store sheep, two folds or pens are always being fed off at the same time,

which only require an extra cross-row of hurdles. The couples have the fresh pens, while the lambs are allowed to roam over the unfolded turnips, by placing the feet of the hurdles, here and there, far enough apart, or by lamb-hurdles made with open pannels for the purpose. The fattening sheep follow the couples, and have the bulbs picked up for them by a boy. The stores follow behind and eat up the shells."* It is never the practice in Scotland to put ewes with their lambs upon turnips, as new grass is considered much better for them, and the only ewe that suckles a lamb on the early part of the turnips in winter is the Dorsetshire. The store-sheep in Scotland-that is, the ewe-hoggs-are always fed as fully as the wether-hoggs that are fattened. In England the entire turnip-stock, ewes, lambs, and wethers, are fattened for the butcher, and sold, if possible, before the turnips are all eaten. They have hay, oil-cake, or corn, either in the field or in the sheep-house, in wet or stormy nights.

1053. An acre of good turnips maintains 5 score of sheep for 1 month.

1054. Nets, by which sheep are confined on turnips in winter, are made of good hempen twine, and the finer the quality of the hemp, and superior the workmanship bestowed on it, the longer will nets last. Being necessarily much exposed to the weather, they soon decay, and if carelessly treated will scarcely last more than one long season. Nothing destroys them so rapidly as laying them by in a damp state; and if rolled up wet even for a few days, they become mildewed, after which nothing can prevent their rotting. They should never be laid by damp or dirty, but washed and thoroughly dried in the open air before being rolled up and stowed away. It is alleged by shepherds that nets decay faster in drought, and exposure to dews and light, in summer than in winter. Several expedients have been tried to preserve nets from decay, among others, tanning, in imitation of fishermen ; but however well that process may suit nets used at sea, it makes them too hard for the shepherd's use in tying the knots around the stakes. Perhaps a steeping in Kyan's or Burnett's solution might render them durable, and preserve their pliability at the same time.

1055. Sheep-nets are wrought by hand only. They are simply made of dead netting, which consists of plain work in regular rows. A shepherd ought to know how to make nets as well as mend them, and cannot mend them well unless he understand how to make them. Net making is a very suitable occupation for women.

1056. All the instruments required in this sort of net-making are a needle and spool. "Needles are of two kinds, those made alike at each end with open forks, and those made with an eye and tongue at one end and a fork at the other. In both needles the twine is wound on them nearly in the same manner-namely, by passing it alternately between the fork at each end, in

the first case, or between the fork at the lower end and round the tongue at the upper end, in the second case; so that the turns of the string may lie parallel to the length of the needle, and be kept on by the tongue and fork. The tongue and eye needle is preferable both for making and mending nets, inasmuch as it is not so liable to be hitched into the adjoining meshes in working; but some netters prefer the other kind, as being capable of holding more twine in proportion to their size." An 8-inch needle does for making nets, but a 4-inch one is more convenient for mending them.

1057. Spools, being made as broad as the length of the side of the mesh, are of different breadths. They "consist of a flat piece of wood of any given width, of stout wood, so as not to warp, with a portion cut away at one end, to admit the finger and thumb of the left hand to grasp it conveniently. The twine in netting embraces the spool across the width; and each time that a loop is pulled taught, half a mesh is completed. Large meshes may be made on small spools, by giving the twine two or more turns round them, as occasion may require."

1058. "In charging your needle, take the twine from the inside of the ball. This prevents tangling, which is at once recommendation enough. When you charge the needle with double twine, draw from two separate balls."*

1059. In joining the ends of twine together, in mending, the bend or weaver's knot is used, and in joining top and bottom ropes together in setting nets, the reef-knot is best, as the tighter it is drawn the firmer it holds.

1060. Sheep-nets run about 50 yards in length when set, and weigh about 14 lb. Hogg-nets stand 3 feet in height, and dinmonts 3 feet 3 inches, and both are set 3 inches above the ground. The mesh of the hogg-net is 34 inches in the side, and of the dinmont 4 inches; the former requires 9 meshes in the height, the latter 8. The twine for the hogg-net is rather smaller than that for the dinmont, but the top and bottom rope of both are alike strong. A nogg-net costs 12s., or under 3d. per yard; a dinmont 10s., or under 2d. per yard, at Berwick upon-Tweed and Coldstream; but they are now sold in the prison of Edinburgh at 7s. 6d., or under 2d. per yard; while in London the charge is 4 d. per yard.

1061. It is imagined that nets will not confine Black-faced sheep on turnips, because they would be broken by being entangled in the sheep's horns; but the objection is unfounded as this anecdote will show: A very extensive feeder of Black-faced sheep, on seeing my Leicester hoggs on turnips confined by nets, expressed a willingness to try them with his own sheep, adducing the great expense of hurdles as a reason for desiring a change. After receiving a pattern net from me to stand 4 feet high, he had others

made like it; and so successful was the experiment, even the first season, he ever after enclosed a large proportion of his Black-faced sheep with nets. There were a few cases of entanglement at first, but the shepherd was constantly with his large flock, and no harm happened to the sheep or nets, and it was remarked that the same sheep never became entangled more than once. They never attempted to leap over the nets, though they would not have hesitated to do so over a much higher wall.

1062. Nets are wrought by machinery. "Netting for fruit trees," observes Dr Bathurst, "is made, I believe, by machinery at the factory of Mr Benjamin Edgington. I do not know that any other nets have as yet been made for general purposes, or of any other description than plain or dead-netting. False meshes, or change of size of spools, have not hitherto been, as far as I know, effected by machinery."+ I have made inquiry of the net-workers in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and find that the use of machinery is entirely confined to the making of fishing nets.

1063. A mode of preserving corn dry for sheep on turnips has been tried with success in Fife. It consists of a box like a hay-rack, fig. 64, in which the corn is at all times kept closely shut

Fig. 64.

a

b

THE CORN-BOX FOR SHEEP ON TURNIPS.

up, except when the sheep wish to eat it, when they get at it by a simple contrivance. Into the box a b the corn is poured through the small hinged lid y. The cover cd, concealing the corn, is also hinged, and when elevated the sheep have access to the corn. Its elevation is effected by the pressure of the sheep's fore-feet upon the platform ef, which, moving as a lever, acts upon the lower ends of the upright rods g and h, raises them up, and elevates the cover c d, under which their heads then find admittance into the box. A similar apparatus gives them access to the other side of the box. The whole machine can be moved about to convenient places by means of the 4 wheels.

1064. The construction of the interior of the box being somewhat peculiar, another, fig. 65, is

+ Ibid. p. 144.