300 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



nish the carbon necessary to expel the cold from the system, 

 and not enough is left to supply the other wants of the 

 stomach. 



Mere outward dry cold has comparatively small effect on 

 the sheep, protected by its thick fleece. All our climate 

 requires is good care and reasonable shelter. 



SUMMEE, TREATMENT. 



One of our correspondents has suggested, that, in his neigh- 

 borhood, insujfficient fences were an obstacle to sheep-raising. 

 Theoretically this objection should not obtain ; but practi- 

 cally it does, and at present cannot be altogether avoided. 

 Much, however, can be done to remedy it. In the first place 

 the large breeds of sheep and their grades — such as we should 

 generally recommend for raising to grow lambs and make 

 mutton, rather than purely fine-wools, only for their fleeces 

 — are by nature and by cultivation less liable to climb stone 

 walls, and jump fences, than the others. Much also may be 

 done, by care and good management, to prevent this. It is 

 not unfrequently the case that some particularly sagacious 

 old ewe, filled with feminine curiosity, and an unrestrainable 

 desire to pass fixed limits, — to roam from home, and per- 

 sistently to lead to "fresh woods and pastures new," — may 

 be sequestered from the flock to the great advantage and 

 comfort of the owner. 



It is very important that the fences should be gone ovei 

 in the early spring, before the sheep are turned out, holes 

 stopped, rails put up, and gaps in the stone walls relaid. 

 Much, also, may be done by improving the pastures, and 

 increasing the chance for grass and good herbage, by cutting 

 sprouts, sweet-ferns, hardbacks, and other useless plants 

 which have grown too large for the sheep to browse. De- 

 fective stone walls, the stones having been tumbled half way 

 down the wall, afford an easy egress for sheep. A good 

 stone wall properly laid is in many parts of the State the 

 cheapest, safest, and most enduring fence that can be made ; 

 and nothing will pass it, if securely laid, and of a proper 

 height. One mistake is in not taking sufficient pains in the 

 laying. . With reasonable skill a " balance wall " may be 

 laid four feet high, that will last for generations, and turn 

 every kind of stock : it may be kept in constant and easy 



