I  attended^   through  the  course  of  a  summer,

b3  many


0  JAKUAAY^

many  gentleitaen  over  my  fields,  with  a  view  to  ex^
amine  whether  the  sheep  had  seemed  to  hav^  rested
only  on  spots,  to  the  too  great  manuring  of  such ;
t>r,  on  the  contrary,  to  have  distributed  themselves
mora  equally ;  and  it  was  a  pleasure  to  iind,  that
they  seemed  generally  to  have  spread  in  every  part^
if  not  quite  equally,  at  least  nearly  so.  The  im-
proved countenance  of  several  old  lays  fed  in  the
same  maiMifer,  when  examined  in  autumn,  con-
vinced me  as  well  as  my  bailiff,  that  the  ground
had  been  unquestionably  improved  considerably:
Those  fields  had  carried  a  very  bad  appearance  for
some  years,  but  they  were,  after  sheep-feeding,  of
a  rich  verdure,  and  as  full  of  worm-casts  as  if  they
h^id  been  dunged.  I  rolled  them  heavily  in  No*
vember,  but  they  soon  became  rough  again  by
worms,  and  demanded  much  rolling  in  spring.
They*  had  afterwards  a  greener  and  more  fertile  ap-
pearance by  far  than  ever  they  wore  before.
The  whole  of  this  circumstance,  the  value  of
whicli  I  shall.be  able  to  appreciate  in*  the  trials  of
future  years,  belongs  to  this  method  of  dividing
ilocks,  to  the  exclusion  of  folding.  The  fold  is
valuable,  but  so  is  the  improvement  of  the  grass
land,  and  may,  for  what  I  know,  nearly  equal  it :
when,  in  addition,  we  include  the  greater  number
of  sheep  that  can  be  kept,  and  the  favour  done  to
them  by  letting  them  alone,  there  remains,  in  my
mind,  no  fiirther  doubt  of  the  fact.
It  is  common  to  hear  flock-farmers  in  open  coun-
tries  say^  they  have  not  the  power  to  manage  so.
