306 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



method disposes, to the very best advantage, of the farmer's 

 hay and grain, and gives a much larger return : the latter 

 course is a favorite one with many, because " it's less work." 

 As an illustration of good management with lambs we 

 condense a statement made by one of the most intelligent 

 and thrifty farmers in Franklin County : — 



" I have seventy-five grade ewes of Cotswold and large Merinos, 

 which cost for summering-pasture, &c., eighty cents per head. They 

 are brought up in good season in the fall, and through the winter have 

 three feeds a day of rowen-hay, with one of roots in the morning, and 

 half a pint each of cotton-seed meal, Indian meal, and bran, equal i^arts. 

 My ram runs with the ewes till the middle of September: he is then 

 taken out, and kept from them until Nov. 1 ; so that most of my lambs 

 are dropped prior to Feb. 15, for early market, and the remainder in 

 April, to be sold in summer, or kept for winter feeding. The first I 

 regard the most profitable. They have free access to a mixture of two- 

 thirds oil-meal and one-third home-grown corn-meal, with fine rowen, 

 and go to market at from three to four months old, and bring from nine 

 to twelve cents per pound : a fair average is seven dollars per head. My 

 ewes are worth from five to six dollars per head, and cost about two 

 dollars and a half each for winter keep, while the lambs eat less than 

 two dollars' worth. My fattening sheep have two feeds per day of rowen, 

 and a pint each of two-thirds corncob-meal and one-third cottonseed- 

 meal in the feeds after the hay at morning and night. They are gener- 

 ally sold in March or April, and fetch from six to seven dollars a head." 



He adds, — ■* ' 



"Dogs have materially injured sheep-husbandry, and should be re- 

 strained. Make the dog amenable to the law, as much as the sheep ; 

 pass a law, that, if any person keep a dog, that person must keep the 

 dog on his or her own premises." 



FATTENING SHEEP. 



There is a good profit in feeding sheep, yearlings, drafted 

 or barren ewes, or sheep brought from Canada or the West 

 Vhen our own supply falls short. These, if put up in good 

 condition, and well fed, will add to their live weight, in four 

 or five months, one-quarter, and nearly double in mutton 

 value their cost. 



Fifty wethers, ewes, or yearlings, weighing, say, a hundred 



pounds, at $3 $150 00 



Six tons of hay, at $20 120 00 



One hundred bushels corn, at 75 cents 75 00 



$345 00 



