DAMAGE DONE TO GRASS BY SHEEP.

Temuka Leader, Issue 381, 30 April 1881, Page 2

DAMAGE DONE TO GRASS BY SHEEP.

In an address to the Indian Growers Association, Mr B- F. .-rMagee held the following :—“There is one thing about pasturing sheep that has been overlooked, viz., the damage done do the grass by i being run over by the flock. While* I believe, one acre of good grass will keep, five, or maybe, eight sheep well, I do not' believe one hundred acres would keep 500 sheep. Five sheep would probably do but little damage to one acre, even though they were confined to it, as they would make but few tracks over it in a day, and would easily find fresh gra_s every day. But suppose we put 600 acres on a 105-acre lot, if each five sheep would confine themselves to their own particular acre they would do well in summer. But they will not do this, and here is where theory and practice part company. Our five sheep start out to graze, and the 495 go along with them. Now, a. sheepjis a dainty creature, and likes cleam food. So the hiudermost part of the. flock keep pushing ahead, paying little or no attention to what has been already run over, and being in each other’s way, each would go over ten times as much ground, before it filled, as it ought. Going over the trail too frequently, and picking about dung for grass, is, doubtless what makes large flocks so liable to disease.