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Gentleman's Magazine 1891 part 2 p.127
up by chance a few louk shoots, which the older ones
recognise with pleasure as soon as they see them. The
shepherd himself, if he be a considerate one, also pulls
them up and strews them on the ground, because he is really
anxious for the inexperienced to learn their value. The louk
grass soon makes this value known by the increased
healthiness which it imparts: the clear, bright faces, the
good complexions are very soon to be noticed, and when once
the flock have accepted the new food they begin to thrive
and do well.
The pulling-up of this grass is not a pulling-up by the
roots, but a drawing out of a sheath - a process which is
only possible after February. Birds, moor-game, and others
understand this. Possibly the same sensations which occur to
man from well-cooked asparagus are present with the sheep
and birds; and Nature, being the most correct of cooks, will
not serve her dainties up until they are ready for the
palate. The wily shepherd therefore attempts to present the
soft, juicy end to his saucy youngsters by the method
referred to, and the smart way in which the old hands can
draw out and nobble from the bottom upwards is worth
observing. The moss-crops are the young flowers of the louk,
which are bitten off at a time when the parent stem begins
to be drawn out.
Afterwards the bents succeed, and carry the nibblers through
the summer, at the close of which an adventure awaits many
of them, to which I must now refer.
Those farmers who have not lower grounds suitable for
wintering young sheep are compelled to make terms with
others, who undertake the care of them at a certain price
per head. This custon of "festing," "gisting," or "joisting"
(all these terms I have found confirmed by Halliwell) seems
to have been in use from early times. The period of
agistment commences at Michaelmas, and ends in some places
on the 6th, at others on the 24th, of April. The
sending-away of the young flock is as pathetic and anxious a
matter almost as sending lads away from home to school. The
masters who supply nourishment at from six shillings to
seven shillings per head are as varied in their characters
as are the gentlemen of whose profession Dr. Arnold and Mr.
Squeers are acknowledged types. Sheep are not to all
Yorkshiremen mere representatives of wealth; the farmers
take care of them from goodness of heart as well as from
greed, and while they deeply regret the death of the poor
dumb beasts, they can, when the money-sore is healed, laugh
as heartily over their own mischances as over some humorous
tale at another's expense. I knew one very careful farmer,
so careful that his friends said that, if it were only
sixpence which came into his possession, "it were a
prisoner." This
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