26Q [Senate 



ing in May give the least trouble, and to me are the most profitable. 

 I have endeavored to obtain them at an earlier season j but although 

 I have tried warm sheds, and succulent food, success has not induced 

 me to repeat the effort— on the contrary, the practice has been attend- 

 ed with unnecessary expense, and some losses in lambs. But the 

 qualities of our sheep, and of course their constitutions, are different ^ 

 his are the South-down, which are hardy — mine the Saxon, which 

 are of more tender constitution. Third, he shears his sheep early — 

 I mine late. And, while on the subject of shearing, permit me to 

 say that it is of great importance to the farmer to employ none but 

 the best shearers ; for if he does, they will leave twice as much wool 

 on the sheep as will pay for the shearing. I have made several ex- 

 periments towards ascertaining this point — -both in having some of 

 my own resheared, and causing others to do it ; and in several in- 

 stances, they have been enabled to obtain at a second shearing, from, 

 four to eight ounces of additional wool. 



My sheep (said Dr. B.,) while running in the pastures in summer,, 

 are sorted as to size, sex and condition. I find it an advantage for 

 them to be uniform in all these, and to have the flocks as small as is 

 consistent with their number, and the size of the yards and farm. 

 Our farmers find it to their great profit to keep as many sheep without 

 crowding as their farms can well support. Even the grain farms are 

 much benefited by this practice, and experience has taught that by 

 adopting this practice, they can raise more grain in consequence, as 

 sheep manure is of great service in enriching their farms. This truth 

 has been strikingly illustrated in my neighborhood, where a farmer 

 who was slow to adopt this practice, ultimately became satisfied of 

 its correctness, and a test of ten years experience, has taught him that 

 upon the same tract of land in that time he has nearly doubled his 

 product, as he has certainly his estate. On a grain farm tolerably 

 adapted to grass, it is perfectly easy to keep one sheep per acre ; and 

 upon what is called a grass farm, where the raising of grain is a se- 

 condary object, two sheep can be kept per acre. When shelter is 

 provided for them in winter, which ought always to be the case, I find 

 that one hundred sheep, if they are moderately littered, will make 

 forty loads of manure. No quality of it can be finer ; and a poor, 

 worn-out clay pasture lot, not too profusely covered with it and sum- 

 mer fallowed, will give, the succeeding season, a good crop of wheat. 

 I find if I put on too much of this kind of manure to the acre, it 

 yields too much straw in proportion to the grain. It is likewise most 

 excellent to renovate old meadows, and as a manure, ranks much 

 higher than common barn-yard. The summer run of sheep likewise, 

 is essentially beneficial to a succeeding crop of grain on a fallow ^ 

 and no farmer who has in view his own profit and the improvement 

 of his farm, can so easily effect his purpose with any other kind of 

 stock. I have already recommended sheep to be sheltered in winter. 

 I must say that it is not only useful as against storms, but against cold 

 and the winds. To guard effectually against these, as soon as snow 

 falls I have it thrown up and piled against the boards on the north 

 side of the hovels, as high as it can easily be done, as I find it ren- 



