SHEEP FARMING.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 300, 21 August 1875, Page 2

SHEEP FARMING.

A Sutherland writing to a North Country journal says :— The farmers of Sutherland, pays much attention to the comfort of their sheep stock. They divide their farms into sections, according to natural boundries, and on each section place a hirsel of sheep, all of one sort. This ground is allotted as if it were a farm in itself, with portions preservedAor all the seasons of the year. The wjper portion is generally well sheltered, and being so well preserved all summer, has abundance of all sorts of grass, heather, broom, &c., so that the stock have always a full bite, and even when the snow blows into one quarter, the shepherd, who by this time has all the sheep gathered to one place, moves them about to some part of the ground where the snow has drifted off. The grasses are fattening, and the sheep generally in good condition, and thus better able to withstand the cold. We trust the worst is now over. If there should be a good lambing season, our Southerland sheep farmers will be yet able to maintain their former reputation as to the numbers and quality of their sheep. The young sheep along the coast have been kept at the expense of our hay stacks and stack-yards, but of this there is no scarcity, and if we V get a favorable spring, there will be abundance of keep.