3.II

When the ewes come back from their pasture, especially in summer time from Hay to Threshing turn, the shepherd should not put them or make them go immediately into the fold. Rather, he should lead them the whole way at great leisure and should give them shade and let them cool off under an elm or linden or other spacious tree, if there are any near the stable or sheepfold. If none exist, he should find another means and convenient way for the relief of his animals, to relieve their heat.

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The good remedy for the animals’ heat is to muck out and clean the stable and remove the manure, to cool the animals’ heat and keep them refreshed. And if, with the approach of dinnertime toward noon, the sun should cast its rays in the door of the sheepfold, the shepherd should close the door and provide fresh cool water to scatter and throw in the door’s entry and throughout the stable to refresh and cool it to give moderation of the heat to the ewes, who by nature have a warm and dry constitution, wherefore heat is harmful and adverse.

-Old Jean of Brie, a Shepherd of the Free Men’s Lands.