70 " % 



My sheep do not go out of the yard from the time I put them to hay until 

 they go to grass in the spring, except once a month I drive them out, and dri\e 

 oft' briskly, about forty rods, to try their strength ; the weaker ones fall behind, 

 and in that way I can ascertain if there be any that need a situation in the hos- 

 pital, as I always keep a yard of this kind, and when I find a sheep weak, or in 

 a decline, I place them in this yard, and as they regain their strength by care 

 and good feeding — which this yard always receives — I place them back with their 

 former companions ; and in this way the hospital never has more than a dozen, 

 and frequently not half that number of patients. After the hospital has received 

 its patients in sorting for winter, I next put my bucks, such as I do not intend 

 to use, in a yard by themselves, then the lambs — in another yard the weathers, 

 then the ewes, according to the grade of wool and weight of fleece; and select 

 such bucks as I think best suited to each yard, and turn them in, allowing 

 one buck to forty or fifty ewes. The bucks remaining with the ewes through the 

 day, and are taken out at night, and put in a yard by themselves, and fed plen- 

 tifully with hay and grain. In this way the bucks are kej^t strong and vigorous, 

 and my lambs come stronger than when bucks are allowed to be reduced in strength, 

 Avhich will surely he, if they are allowed to remain all the time wth the ewes. 



My bucks are put with the ewes about the first of December, and taken away 

 about the first of June. I find by this treatment that my sheep go out of the 

 yard in the spring, in as good condition as they came in at the commencement 

 of the winter, with their wool more rich and perfect in appearance. If sheep in 

 good condition in tlie fall do not receive sufiicient care during the winter to keep 

 them so, of course the wool will show it, and it very much lessens its value. 



I have been engaged for a few years past in the purchase of wool, and have 

 almost daily come in contact with wool of this character which was very much 

 lessened in value by the bad management of the sheep thi-ough the winter. 

 The other practice, whicli injures much of the wool in Wisconsin, is the beards 

 and chaft' that they get in their wool by running to and eating from straw stacks, 

 a practice Avhich I hope to see less of in future. As my sheep go out of the 

 yards in spring, I tag them of all such wool as would become besmeared with 

 manure as soon as the sheep go to grass, which would render it worthless, and 

 very much check tlie growth of the sheep; this is done at the expense of one 

 penny per head, and the wool saved liy the process is worth throe times the 

 amount. As my sheep go out of the y;ard in the spring, about the first of 

 April, they are turned on my cultivated grass through the day, and driven into 

 the yard at night, and given some choice hay with grain every evening, until 

 the grass has grown sufliciently for them to live upon. 



As my lambs come, every lamb that comes through the day is taken out at 

 night, together with its dam ; and those that come through tlie night are taken 



