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their flans, becaufe this gives occafion to the flies io teaze the poor creature in a terrible manner. Some pear their Jambs, the firft year efpecially, behind ; but before the do- ing of this they ought to be carefully tagged, as it is called, that is, their tails and thighs behind mould be well cleared of wool, that the dung may not hang there, which would elfe make them fore, and fubject them to the flies, which would blow them, and make them full of maggots. In Gloucefterfhire they houfe their fheep every night, and litter them with clean draw. Their dung makes this a very good manure for the land, and the wool of the fheep is ren- dered fo much finer by it, that the farmers have a double advantage from the practice.
In Middlefex, and about London, they have Way-hill fheep : thefe come from Hampfhire, Wiltfhire, &c. and lamb very early, before Chriftmas. Mortimer's Hufbandry.
Shearing, in the fea language. See CuEsr-rope.
SHEAT of a plough, a word ufed by our farmers to exprefs a part of a plough, palling through the beam, and faftened to the (hare. The /beat, or, as it is fometimes called, the fore- peat, (there being another timber behind it, called the hinder- peat) fhould be feven inches wide, and is fattened to the beam by the retch, a piece of iron with two legs, and by a wedge driven with it, into the hole in the beam. The angle made by the Jheat, with the beam of the plow, fhould be forty two, or forty three degrees. Tuffs Hufbandry. See the article Plough.
Sheats, in a fhip, are ropes bent to the clews of the fails, ferving in the lower fails to hale aft, or round-off the clew of the fail ; but in top-fails they ferve to hale home, as the word is, or to hale the clew of the fail clofe to the yard-arm. If the main-fail-jZrars are haled aft, it is in order to make a fhip keep by a wind, but when the fore-peats are haled aft, it is that the fhip may fall off from the wind ; and if file will not do it readily, they then hale the fore-fail, by the Jheat, flat in, as near the fhip's fides as they can ; and this they call flatting in the fore-fail. When they fay, eafe the Jheat, they mean veer it, or let it go out gently ; but when the word is, let fy the peat, they mean, let it go all at once, and run out as fail as it can j and then the fail will hang loofe, and hold no wind. In a very great gale, or guft of wind, there is another rope bent to the clews of the main-fail and fore-fail, above the peat-h\oek, to fuc- cour and eafe the Jheat, and this they call a falfe Jheat.
Sheats, in a fhip, alfo, arc thofe planks under water which come along her run, and are clofed into the ftern-poft ; fo alfo that part within board, in the run of the fhip, is called the Jlern-Jheats. The feamen fay, when they would have the /heats of the main or fore-fail haled aft, tally the Jheats.
Falfe Sheat, on board a fhip, is a rope bent to the clews of the main-fail and fore-fail, above the yfotff-block, to fuc- cour and eafe the Jheat in a violent guft of wind.
Overhale the Sheat, in the fea language, a word of com- mand to hale upon the Handing part of the peat.
Sheat anchor, in a fhip. See Anchor.
SHEATHING [Cyd.)~ Sheathing of a pip, is cafing that part which is to be under water, with fomething to keep the worms from eating into her planks. It is ufually done by laying tar and hair, mixed together, all over the old plank, and then nailing on thin new boards ; but this hin- ders a fhip's failing, and therefore of late fome have been Jheathed with milled lead.
It is very well worth the trying what the new ftone-pitch will do in this cafe ; if it will defend from the worm, as perhaps it may, a fhip might be paid with it cheaper than with the crown-pitch ; and it will not crack nor fcale off, as that will do, but keeps always foft and fmooth. It has been found to continue on thirteen months, and to remain very black and foft all the time.
SHEDDING of the hair, in the manege. See Cast.
SHEEP, ovis, in zoology. See the article Ovis.
This is a kind of cattle that is kept at the leaft expence of any to the farmer, and will thrive upon almoft any ground, and for this reafon many prefer them before the larger cattle.
The beft fort of Jheep for fine wool, are thofe bred in Here- fordfliire and Worcefterfhire, but they are fmall, and black faced, and bear but a fmall quantity. Warwick, Leicefterftiire, Buckingham, and Northampton fhire, breed a large-boned Jheep, of the beft fhape, and deepeft wool we have good. The marflies of Lincolnfhire breed a very large kind of peep, but their wool is not good, unlefs the breed be mended by bringing in Jheep of other counties among them, which is a fcheme of late very profi tably followed there.
The northern counties in general breed Jheep with long, but hairy wool, and Wales bears a fmall hardy kind of jheep. which has the beft rafted flefh, but the worft wool of all. The farmer fhould always buy his Jheep from a worfe land than his own, and they fhould be big-boned, and have a long greafy wool, curling clofe and well. Thefe Jheep al- ways breed the fineft. wool, and are alfo the moft approved of by the butcher for fale in the market. For the choice of Jheep to breed, the ram muft be young ;
and his fkin of the fame colour with his wool, for the lafribs will be of the fame colour with his fkin. He fhould have a large long body, a broad forehead, round, and well rif- ing, large eyes, and ftrait and fhort noftrils. The polled fheep, that is thofe which have no horns, are found to be' the beft breeders. The ewe fhould have a broad back, a large bending neck, fmall, but fhort, clean and nimble legs* and a thick deep wool covering her all over. To know whether they be found or not, the farmer fhould examine the wool, that none of it be wanting, and fee that the gums be red, the teeth white and even, and the brilket fkin redj the wool firm, the breath fweet, and the feet not hot; Two years old is the beft time for beginning to breed, and their firft lambs fhould not be kept too long, to weaken them by fuckling, but be fold as foon as conveniently may be. They will breed advantageoufly, till they are feven years old.
The farmers have a method of knowing the age of a Jheepi as a horfe's is known by the mouth. When a jheep is one (hear, as they exprefs it, it has two broad teeth before j when it is two fhear, it will have four ; when three, fix 5 and when four, eight : after this their mouths begin to break. The difference of land makes a very great difference inthey2>«/>. The fat paftures breed ftrait, tall Jheepi and the barren hills and downs breed fquare fhort ones ; woods and mountains breed tall and (lender Jlieep, but the beft of all are thofe bred upon new-plowed land, and dry grounds. On the contrary, all wet and moift lands are bad for peep, efpecially fuch as are fubje£t to be overflowed, and to have fand and dirt left on them. The fait marflies are, however^ an exception to this general rule, for their faltnefs makes amends for their moifture ; any thing of fait, by reafon of its drying quality, being of great advantage to Jheep. As to the time of putting the rams to the ewes, the farmer muft confider at what time of the fpring his grafs will be fit to maintain them and their lambs, and whether he has turneps to do it till the grafs comes ; for very often both the ewes and lambs are deftroyed by the want of food ; or if this does not happen, if the lambs are only ftunted in their growth by it, it is an accident that they never recover. The ewe goes twenty weeks with lamb, and according to this it is eafy to calculate the proper time. The beft time for them to yean is in April, unlefs the owner has very for- ward grafs, or turneps, or the Jheep are tidi-Jlieep, where you have not enclofures to keep them in, then it may be proper they fhould yean in January, that the lambs may be ftrong by Mayday, and be able to follow the dam over the fallows, and water furrows ; but then the lambs, that come fo early, muft have a great deal of care taken of them, and fo indeed fhould all other lambs at their firft falling, elfe, while they are weak, the crows and magpies will peck their eyes out.
When Jheep are turned into fields of wheat or rye to feed* it muft not be too rank firft, for if it be, it generally throws them into fcowerings. Ewes that are big fhould be kept but bare, for it is very dangerous to them to be fat at the ' time of their bringing forth their young. They may be well fed indeed, like cows, a fortnight beforehand, to put them in heart. Mortimer's Hufbandry, p. 243. The feeding Jheep with turneps is one great advantage to the farmers, from the crops they raife of them : they foon fatten upon them, but there is fome difficulty in getting them to feed on them ; the old ones always refufe them at firft, and will fometimes faft three or four days, till almoft fa- mifhed, but the young lambs fall to at once. The common way, in fome places, of turning a flock of Peep at large into a field of turneps, is very difadvantage- ous, for they will thus deftroy as many in a fortnight as would have kept them a whole winter. There are three other ways of feeding them on this food, all of their feveral advantages.
The firft way is to divide the land by hurdles, and allow the peep to come upon fuch a portion only at a time, as they can eat in one day, and fo advance the hurdles farther into the ground daily, till all be eaten. This is infinitely better than the former random method, but they never eat them clean even this way, but leave the bottoms and outfides fcooped in the ground ; the people pull up thefe indeed with iron crooks, and lay them before the peep again, but they are commonly fo fouled with the creature's dung and urine, and with the dirt from their feet, that they do not care for them ; they eat but little of them, and what they do, does not nourifh them like the frefh roots. The fecond way is by enclofirtg the peep in hurdles, as in the former, but in this they pull up all the turneps they fuppofe the peep can eat in one day, and daily remove the hurdles over the ground, whence they have pulled up the turneps : by this means there is no wafte, and lefs expence, for a perfon may in two hours pull up all thofe turneps j the remaining (hells of which would have employed three or four labourers a day to get up with their crooks out of the ground, trodden hard by the feet of the peep; and the worft is, that as in the method of pulling up firft, the turneps are eat up clean ; in this way, by the hook, they are wafted,
the
