MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 299 



use, to keep them in good condition ; but, whatever the kind 

 may be, I make it a point to add fodder enough of a coarse 

 and bulky nature to keep their bellies full. 



"My practice has been, to feed three times a day, — in the 

 morning with good hay ; at noon with one of the following 

 articles, Swedes, rutabagas (after January, mangolds), oats, 

 Indian corn, and linseed or cotton-seed meal, varying the 

 kind given as often as possible according to my supply ; at 

 night a full supply of coarse fodder. This is my winter 

 treatment, always taking care to have the flock supplied with 

 shelter and water. 



" In many years' experience I have had so few cases of loss 

 from disease, that I should have to put the percentage down 

 to a fraction too small to be worth mentioning. Of course 

 with breeding-ewes this diet should be somewhat improved 

 as the season advances and the lambing-time approaches, — 

 by rowen-ha}^ and more roots, and a little additional corn or 

 meal to promote a flow of milk. After the lambs are three 

 or four weeks old, they will begin to eat a little meal ; and it 

 is a common practice to allow them a pen into which the 

 ewes cannot enter, where they are allowed to eat meal at 

 will, and fine rowen. Sheep consume about three per cent 

 each of their live weight of good hay, or its equivalent, 

 daily ; and two pounds of hay with a half -pint of corn, or 

 a pound of good hay and two pounds of oat-straw or bright 

 corn-stalks, is about the proper amount allowed for a sheep 

 weighing a hundred pounds. Wet seasons and wet soils are 

 destructive to sheep ; and English flock-masters lose annually 

 thousands of sheep from this, and their system of feeding 

 turnips from the field in winter, and in not protecting them 

 from the weather." 



The reason why sheep will suffer from a moist climate in 

 winter and a wet feeding-ground is obvious. The tempera- 

 ture of the healthy sheep is higher than that of any other 

 domestic animal, running to about 104° Fahrenheit; and 

 while the thickness of the fleece, with its oily nature, will 

 repel much rain and moisture, nothing tends to lower this 

 temperature so thoroughly and so long as continued mois- 

 ture, and the soaking of the fleece to the skin with wet ; and, 

 in proportion as the temperature is lowered, the sheep loses 

 health and condition. All that it can get to eat goes to fur- 



