NORTH ISLAND RURAL LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2985, 31 May 1911, Page 16

NORTH ISLAND RURAL LETTER.

By John Sfens.

STORM AND SHEEP, AND SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT, AND A SHEPHERD. We Have nad what the bushmen call a “whip snorter” of a storm, when the Storm King nel-d high revelry and noisy festivity over land and sea. A seafaring man speaks of it as one of the worst gales and cross seas experiences that ha has had for some time. In parts in the north we have had quite a week of easterly or southeasterly weather ; cold and uncomfortable, and pinching for stock where shelter is sparse. _ Where stock are out all the year round in a country such as ours, subject to such sudden climatic changes, the question of shelter should engage the attention of farmers in' general and graziers in particular. Where the country is hilly and undulating, the question of planting shelter may not be so urgent, provided the hills hollows afilord natural breakwinds against storm and tempest, or cutting prevailing winds, lam not only a believer in shelter from raging gales, but my observations lead me to the conclusion that we do not provide sufficient shade during summer. Have you noticed how horses enjoy the ■ friendly protection even of a single shady tree in a paddock during th© scorching heat of a summer sun at midday? A very old friend of mine, who is a close observer of the health, condition, and comfort of his stock, told me some time ago that he carried a percentage of three to two steers in a paddock—where the animals had abundance of shade and shelter—as against another paddock with much ■ better feed, but almost entirely without shade from the sun or shelter from prevailing winds and casual storms. The two paddocks were about the same size, and the areas about 30 acres each. In the paddock with the natural shelter of trees he summered- and wintered 20 head 1 , whereas in the open and unsheltered paddock he only could manage to pull through with ■G head, or- thereabouts. Last week whan the storm was at its height I put on my overcoat, and went out into a bare paddock, then I made for a paddock with a fine belt of trees running along the storm or weather side, and when 1 got within the shelter influence, it positavely, was like transferring myself to another climate. I would strongly advised anyone who doubts my words to put the matter to the test when the next gale comes along. You have only to observe the way stock feed during a storm; invariably they graze with their heads to the leeward.

Then take shade for sheep, which, to my mind, is far more important than shelter. 1 do not profess to be much of a practical man in that I can't give you facts and ftgures, but I have a small gift of observation, and I have in a quiet way a deep and increasing interest in the habits and ways of sheep, and in fact of all animals -tor some time I have been closely watching a small flock of ewes. I overheard ki neighbour say that he never saw sheep improve so rapidly in general condition and appearance. He put it down to the change of pasture. That is only partlv least in my estimation, the change of feed is only one contributinoelement as the grass is not by any means of the highest order, but there is shod!/. It was quite interesting to watch how, during the hottest part of the day, they made lor the shade, and' in contented fashion iie down and quietly chewed their cud" In my opinion, the period of warmth or hot sunshine is the best time of the dajy tor animals to he down and take it easy—think about nothing," and enjoy life. You have noticed that where sheep camp of a night they choose- warm hill tope. In tt-idmg at night, your experience mufcrt have led you to find out that the bottoms of the gullies and dips are much below the temperature of the higher levels. I do not think that sheep like lying down in the hot sun. Of course, I may be open to correction, but I wish to throw out these observations with a view of exciting a little more attention to the wonderfu} habits of sheep. In an open paddock, where the sheep have no shade, I do not n.<vtiee them lying down so contentedly. They will have to rest more at night when the -atmosphere is comparatively cold, and a jrreafer etrain must therefore bear upon their system. Whereas the sheep who have rested during: the day will probably about a little more, and have less climatic antagonism to content against when the sun has withdrawn his warmth and influence.

A .relative of mine has some nice young preen barley, on which he ' is depasturing stud lambs. > In one corner of the paddocks there is a nice patch of well-grown stringybark gums. "When the animals have satisfied (themselves, instead of lying dofwn amongst the damp, green stiiff,, and sometimes ground, they make. for. the shade of ihV friendly bush, and rest themselves oii" the compai'atively -warm, arid' dry

ground. To Ho amongst the barley on the cold and sometimes rain-soaked earth would surely lessen the temperature of the lower portions of their bodies far more than will the dry soil under the stringybarks. These, then, are two illustrations: the one of old eheep and the other of young ones, seeking the friendly shade of trees in preference to resting themselves in the open. Lord Avebury, in his charming book on the "Pleasures of Life," at page 151, I think, has a sentence or two worthy of being pasted up in every farm kitchen and i,n every country house living-room,. Says the noble and gentle lord: "Our countrymen derive great pleasure from the animal kingdom, in hunting, shooting, and fishing, thus obtaining fresh air and exercise, and being led into much varied and beautiful scenery. Still it will probably ere long be recognised that even from a purely seltifth point of view killing animals is not the way to (get the greatest enjoyment from them. How much more interesting would every walk in the country be, it man would but treat Other animals with kindness, so that they might approach us without fear, and we might have the constant pleasure of their winning ways Their origin and history, structure and habits, senses and intelligence, offer an endless field of interest and wonder. Pet animals develop tricks, and some even seem to acquire human ways and intelligence. That is very nice, but what we want to do is to give attention to the natural bent and proclivities of animals outside the pale of petdom. Our household milch cow is by no means a spoiled animal. Sometimes I lot her into that part of the grounds where she can have a good tuck-in. As long as I stand withui sight she keeps to the prescribed patch; but if I withdraw my presence only tor a minute or two, she moves on to forbidden ground. Yesterday I let her in, and (something efiruck me as of interest for rnv note* I turned into my den and started writing. No sooner had I done so than a member of my family called out that the cow was on the lawn. . . We have a half-draught mare, originally bred and owned by the Natives. I have never looked wion her as having other than the usual horse-sense Like quite a number of horses, she will always open a gate that has a particular fastening. We have, as a precaution, in addition to the latch, to place a chain on her paddock gate. The other day I tinned another animal into her preserve for an hour or so. The mare was quite seven or eight chains from the gate at the time. When she heard the click of the latch she looked up and steadily watched me. It did not suggest itself to me at the time why she ' glowered at the gate and myself so intently. I did not put the chain round and fasten it, thinking she would not bother her head about trying to get out when a companion was given her. I had not left the gate and resumed my work in the flower garden over three or four minutes. when the thought flashed upon me that perhaps I had done a foolish., thing. I set down my hoe and made tracks for the unchained gate. As soon as I got out at the garden gate 1 saw the mare several chains in the cow paddock, feeding quietly on the long, succulent grass. .Sine had opened the gate noiselessly. I drove her back three chains into her own preserve. She stood stock still and calmly turned her head and watched me fasten the chain up. I made for cover, where she could not see me, to watch developments. Satisfied that the gate was securely fastened, so instead of once more trying it, she moved slowly away and joined her former, but now temporary, companion. "Oh, that horrid east wind! I suppose in the south you get the east and southeast gales now and again, and your women folk—aye, and perhaps not a few men folkdislike the "east wind." The apparent malignity of the east wind is a human conviction "seemingly as old as mankind. Pharaoh's thin oars were blasted by it, and the locusts were brought in their countless millions by it. -In Job the reference to it is scathing, and the psalmist looks upon it as a breaker of ships. Jonah under his withered arbour faints under the influence of sun and east wind. There are many other ancient references to the malignity and malevolence of the east wind. It s only left to the prescience of one prophet to indirectly announce that there is a hidden blessing in it. Our ignorance of Nature h apvallinsr. We think that discomfort is a sure sign of heaven's wrath, enmity, and disieasuic. We are still children. We murmur at our reverses, and know not that they are blessings in disguise. _ The hand of the east wind which smites in the face we almost curse. We country folk are always crying out for good weather. But is there any such thing as bad weather? Was it not from under snow blankets and ice shields that Providence developed! the best and truest typo of humanity? Was it not the storm which taught the Phoenicians, the Norsemen, and our own forefathers to conquer the sea! We are gradually unlearning and umlimbering ourselves, and the real trouble of the present day is that many unlimber too quickly and don't retain sufficient ballast to keep them steady. If they would only wait a little they would soon get quit of their ballast also and slip a profitable cargo. Much of our knowledge, so called, is only ballast to carry us for a little way. Aye, that's the rub. A good many who ought to know better keep trying to persuade us that cur ballast is cargo, whereas they know that we know that It is not so.

Why is it that we always look upon darkness as being- connected! with blood-curdling ghosts and malicious ev'l spirits? Yet that is the time we are called upon, by Nature to pro to sleep and become unconscious and helpless. Evil men may take advantage of the darkness; evil spirits never. Yet T thoroughly believe there are evil spirits. Do you see how inconsistent it would be for the Deity to have_ such ecomonics in His working code? Think it over a little! The idea is entirely my own ■ —or, rather, I .should say, and hope it is, a God-given apprehension Maybe you have thought that our sudden chancres of weather and our seeming erratic climate —of which many men and some writers, make such sport—is the work of an ill-natured, eA;il-visaged. unknown monster —a blind, raging, wrathful, awful unknown, terrible, and hellish force Just as we require sleep, as our animals require rest, as our wheat and our oats a in d our potatoes and our igrass require the withdrawal of sunlight and the presence of darkness and dewdrops, so does our atmosphere require the tonic of tempest, and our insular position may require thait tonic to come suddenly and to pass off as quickly. These are' some thoughts by a very plain countryman like yourselves, who is ignorant of scientific text books. The .book of Nature is open to you, as it is to me. ... I really .think" we plain country folks have

uncounted blessings above and arouad us xi our eyes were only open. Our storm of last week shifted from the south-east to almost due east for a time. The rain cleared off but the wind was cold. I noticed a flock of sheep, all lying in the very eye of the wind, on an undulating hill. As far as I could see there were none 6n the lee side. They seemed to be taking a wind bath. Ordinarily it was at a timb of day when they should have been feeding. I' dare say some of you have heard the story of a former Lord Eldon, who in walking over his Lammerahoor property come upon a mob of sheep lying on a hillside in the teeth of an east wind. Tho shepherd was not far distant, so his lordship hailed him and remarked: "Man John, if I were a sheep I would choose my bed on the loun (louin, or sheltered) side of tho hill.' John might not be a learned lord, but he knew something about sheep and weather, and his reply, was brief but full of meaning: "Ah week 'm' lord, if you wis a sheep you'd hae mair sense." Once I broached the subject to an East Lothian shepherd, white and bent with years, and he gave me to understand that he was always glad to have an east wind; it practically cured his flock of a certain ailment, and generally acted beneficially, and the effects lasted for several months.