Open-field, communal grazing. Usage: "Animal husbandry based on the old, Irish homeland system of open field grazing or commonage was once the style in Tilting.... Fences were used to keep animals out of gardens and off the top of root cellars, rather than to keep them penned in.... Some Tilting residents ... complained that the animals were ruining their front yards, so the town council passed a bylaw against roaming animals. In the past, however, there was more tolerance of the presence of animals, and less interest in maintaining a formal front yard. Peole used to have a sense of humor about the animals. Not only did animals get into gardens, they sometimes got into houses. Fergus Burke told me about the cow that once went into a house and walked up the steps to the second floor. Apparently they had a difficult time getting her downstairs and out of the house.
"My friend Cyril McGrath has resorted to grazing his sheep on Little Fogo Islands in the summer where they will not disturb anyone. Each spring Cyril gently ties their legs together and places them in his open motorboat for the five-mile trip to the islands. It is a curious sight to see twelve to fifteen sheep riding over the open sea in a motorboat." --Robert Mellin, Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.
Open-field, communal grazing. Usage:
"Animal husbandry based on the old, Irish homeland system of open field grazing or commonage was once the style in Tilting.... Fences were used to keep animals out of gardens and off the top of root cellars, rather than to keep them penned in.... Some Tilting residents ... complained that the animals were ruining their front yards, so the town council passed a bylaw against roaming animals. In the past, however, there was more tolerance of the presence of animals, and less interest in maintaining a formal front yard. Peole used to have a sense of humor about the animals. Not only did animals get into gardens, they sometimes got into houses. Fergus Burke told me about the cow that once went into a house and walked up the steps to the second floor. Apparently they had a difficult time getting her downstairs and out of the house.
"My friend Cyril McGrath has resorted to grazing his sheep on Little Fogo Islands in the summer where they will not disturb anyone. Each spring Cyril gently ties their legs together and places them in his open motorboat for the five-mile trip to the islands. It is a curious sight to see twelve to fifteen sheep riding over the open sea in a motorboat."
--Robert Mellin, Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.