Gents Mag 1891 part 2 p.126
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Gentleman's Magazine 1891 part 2 p.126
clearly at the time, one class of herbage comes in as the other dies out. There is on the edge of the brows of the grit formation, in the early bloom of summer, a fine grass called "mountain fesk," to which the young animals must be brought to give them a start in life. They soon take to it, but even when they have eaten the gound bare, and have before them the prospect of starvation, they must be driven off repeatedly and shown other food before they will relinquish the old ground. Yorkshiremen are like their sheep - a real native would almost prefer to die rather than leave the old spot: once "earthed" you cannot drive him from his home! It is perhaps well for us that the silly sheep do not fancy the ling during the summer, when we and the bees enjoy it so much; but, when the "back-end" comes, we - the bees and ourselves - are more indifferent, and they - the sheep - less so. We might here, too, "point a moral": for do we not often neglect, in its glorious beauty, that which we turn to in its withered old age? "That harvest of amethyst bells; what substance is there in it, yearly gathered out of the mountain winds, stayed there as if the morning and evening clouds had been caught out of them, and woven into flowers; 'Ropes of sea-sand' - but that is child's magic merely, compared to the weaving of the heath out of the cloud. And once woven, how much of it is for ever worn by the Earth? What wieght of that transparent tissue, half crystal and half comb of honey, lies strewn every year dead under the snow? No one is less likely than Mr. Ruskin to forget the sheep, and I need not therefore ask his permission to disturb some of this snow. We shall have to bring up some harrows, and with much labour draw them over the white sheet; but fodder is scarce and dear, and if the sheep starve their master is likely to pine too. So this dead, ungathered "harvest of amethyst bells" is garnered under the snow, to feed the hungry flocks and enrich the toiling farmer, after it has performed the proud part of its task for us and for the bees. When the cold season sets in immediatly after the warm weather it affects the sheep with blindness unless special precautions are taken to shelter them in huts. It would be well if in this matter it were more usual for farmers to benefit themslves, while bestowing a greater boon upon their charges, by arranging for some rude shelter to which the flocks "might run and be safe." As soon as the frost and snow begin to disappear the ling becomes drier and less relishing, and we have to inquire what diet Nature provides next. Accident, the old cock birds, and artifice, all conspire to point out the newest dish. In working among the ling the young sheep now begin to pull |
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