BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 85 



of manures, lime, and phosphates, but chiefly to the fact that legumi- 

 nous crops were largely used and all crops Avere fed upon the ground, 

 the unused residues being plowed in. The results show clearly the 

 possibility of a profitable sheep-raising business upon eastern lands 

 under a system of seeding a rotation of forage crops and allowing 

 such frequent changes of pasture as are necessary to prevent parasitic 

 troubles. 



The Southdown ewes employed in the forage-crop experiments 

 were divided into lots for fall breeding to allow a test of the effect 

 of feed upon the size of the lamb crop. The experiments in 1916, 

 1917, and 1918 showed that the yield of lambs can be increased by 

 fkishing only Avhen ewes are in comparatively Ioav condition at the 

 beginning of the breeding season. The 1918 experiment allowed a 

 considerable difference in condition between the unflushed and grain- 

 fed lots, which comprised 18 ewes each. The lot receiving grain 

 produced 150 per cent of lambs, while the other lot yielded 118 per 

 cent. Another lot of similar size that received no grain but was 

 given sufficiently good pasturage to produce the same gain in weight 

 as made by the grain-fed lot yielded 142 per cent of lambs. 



At the Middlebury farm 130 3'earling western ewes Avere added in 

 the fall of 1918. Their grazing upon the pastures, which w^ere quite 

 weedy, was beneficial to the pastures. These ewes are being used 

 also in the study of the relation of nutrition at mating time to the 

 size of the lamb croj:). 



RANGE-SHEEP INVESTIGATIONS. 



Substantial progress has been made at the Government sheep-ex- 

 periment station at Dubois, Idaho, though the work is still restricted 

 b}^ lack of equipment. During the year a cottage for ranch em- 

 ployees, a combined garage, pump house, and tool house and an ice 

 house were erected. About six miles of fencing has been put up. 

 In the fall of 1918, 900 ewes were bred, and in June, 1919, there 

 were on hand 840 lambs. The plan of keeping full records of lamb 

 and wool production, as well as notes of conformation and quality 

 of wool for each individual ewe, is being continued. The data now 

 on hand are being prepared for publication. 



GOAT INVESTIGATIONS. 



The flock of milk goats at the Beltsville farm is being maintained. 

 All the lower-grade animals of the earlier crosses have been dis- 

 posed of. Twelve does, 2 years old and upward, are in milk this 

 season, and there are on hand about 20 head of female yearlings 

 and kids, most of Avhich have either seven-eighths or fifteen-six- 

 teenths Saanen or Toggenburg blood. 



FARM SHEEP DEMONSTRATIONS. 



The work of farm sheep demonstrations was continued by 12 

 specialists in Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Maine. Massachusetts, 

 Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Texas, 

 and West Virginia. While they were largely called upon to aid be- 

 ginners in sheep raising, yet they were able to carry on work espe- 

 cially planned to result in more general use of methods known to be 



