§ Sir I. Fraserasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware of the damage done by wintering sheep to inland pastures, allotment gardens, coppice woods and young plantations; of the impossibility for the ordinary citizen to catch and impound these sheep; that the Lancashire Agricultural Executive Committee have no powers in this matter; and whether he will, in the interests of good husbandry, issue regulations to the effect that such sheep are marked in a manner to be identified on sight, that the person wintering the sheep should herd them at intervals on his own land, and that the sheep should be provided with fodder in hard weather.
Mr. T. WilliamsWhile I am aware that some damage is done from time to time to crops and plantations by straying sheep, I have received very few complaints from Lancashire in recent years. I have no power on good husbandry grounds to make regulations designed to prevent sheep straying from the land on which they are kept nor on my present information do I consider that it would be desirable to require the compulsory marking of sheep in the area in which the hon. Member seems to have in mind.