State Agricultural Society. 467 



GRAIN STUBBLE. 



Sheep turned on stubble must be watched closely at first, if the stubble 

 have much grain on it; they may thus get too much grain, sicken and 

 die. I am not aware that they founder — like horses. Where sheep get 

 at grain accidentally, whether on a stubble field or otherwise, and are 

 supposed to have gorged themselves, they must be shut up at once, and 

 not allowed to drink any water for one or two days. Some shepherds 

 allege as an objection to sheep feeding on stubble at all, that after this 

 strong feed they fare all the worse when compelled to return to the wild 

 grasses. I reject this notion, and find it best to feed anything that don't 

 cost too much, so as to have the flock in good condition to go into the 

 Winter with — and among the best means of obtaining this is feeding, 

 with proper care, on stubbie. 



SOME CONCLUSIONS. 



With sheep in poor condition in the Autumn, it is all uphill work till 

 new grass comes. The sheep scatter about over the range and keep the 

 herder traveling continually. Sheep cannot even be driven without 

 sufficient feed. In driving on the road, even with a band of fat wethers, 

 unless they be allowed to feed in the morning before taking up the day's 

 march, it will be needful to kick them along; but if allowed to feed well 

 in the morning, they will afterwards raise their heads and walk off and 

 travel as far as any other stock being driven to the butcher. With the 

 flock fat and in good condition in the Fall of the year, the sheep man 

 can take the chances very safely of getting through the Winter as well 

 as the horse man, cow man, hog man, or "any other man." 



There is a saying in the army to the effect that, " to be brave, a soldier 

 must have a feeling of distension." It is applicable to the working of 

 sheep in its every phase. To herd well, to drive well, to lamb well, to 

 shear well, to thrive well in every wise, sheep must be able to experi- 

 ence the sense of abdominal distension. And the poorest of poor policies 

 in sheep management is to so overstock a range that the sheep, from 

 lambhood on, can but rarely know this eminently comfortable and com- 

 forting feeling. 



[In a previous portion of this paper, on the subject of lambing and 

 management of the ewe and lamb flocks, I might have stated in terms 

 of percentage of increase, the measure of success that ought to be 

 looked for. Unless the conditions of season, feed, etc., be extremely 

 adverse, the flockmaster ought not to be satisfied with less than eighty- 

 five or ninety per cent of lambs raised. With an ordinary season and 

 fair feed he ought to be able to count upon one hundred per cent, and 

 perhaps something over. The season just past has been an exception- 

 ally favorable one, and an unusually large percentage of increase has 

 been generally secured throughout the State. The increase in my own 

 flock is not far from one hundred and fifty per cent, and I never had 

 better lambs nor the flock in better condition; but it is proper to add 

 that I never before secured quite so large a percentage of increase. 

 But, with the management during the lambing season that I have already 

 described, and on range that is never overstocked, an increase of over 

 one hundred per cent can be secured four years out of five. Remember- 

 ing the axiom which, I have said, lies at the foundation of success in 



