156 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



into \yool and mutton to be sold to enrich the farmer, and into manure to 

 return to our cultivated fields to keep up their fertility, thus paying dividends 

 year after year to the farmer, and to his farm in more ways than they are 

 always given credit for. 



We frequently find flocks of these sheep that nearly equal the pure bloods 

 in general appearance of form, and of quality and weight of fleece. I believe, 

 however, that there are very many sheep that pay their keepers but very 

 very small profits, if any at all. I have made inquiry of several practical 

 sheep men that have investigated this matter of profits in the keeping of 

 sheep, and they say that they have usually determined that from the value and 

 fineness of the coat they wear. That if it is a six pound coat of clean brook 

 washed wool or its equivalent of unwashed, it will with the average price 

 they get for wool, one year with another, pay the sheep keeping and perhaps 

 something more, leaving the manure and increase clear gain at least after 

 paying in a home market good prices for hay, grain, coarse fodder, and pastur- 

 age given him. This calculation is undoubtedly very near the market of profit 

 upon our high priced lands. 



Farmers, however, having lands only adapted to grazing or partly improved, 

 might with profit keep sheep that sheared something less. There is also more 

 difference in the values of farms, in the matter of profits per acre, than the 

 salable price per acre. My neighbor's farm, through its natural fertility of 

 soil, gives him more hay, larger yields of grain, and will furnish more pasture 

 to the acre than mine, although, perhaps, owing to buildings or location, my 

 farm will sell for more money per acre than my neighbor's. In that case. 

 with equal labor and expense, he might be able to produce a crop of grain, a 

 mow of hay, or a clip of wool much cheaper than I, as the extra fertility of 

 his land increased his production. He might be able to keep sheep with 

 profit that sheared him but five pounds, while mine must shear me six pounds 

 or even more, to be alike profitable to me. So here we see that everyone must 

 determine this question more or less for himself, after an investigation of his 

 means and opportunities. 



My advice, however, would be to those having sheep that do not shear them 

 six pounds of market wool or its equivalent of unwashed, to dispose of them 

 as soon as they can, for you can get them that will, for $2.50 or $3 apiece, do 

 that with tolerable good care. In order to secure the best results, keep no 

 more than you have plenty of feed for, summer and winter; shelter them 

 from all the storms of late fall, winter, and early spring. Your sheep will 

 pay you well for your constant care and oversight over them during the wliole 

 year. You can hardly delegate this attention to anyone else, but you must 

 look to them yourself, and strive to become proficient in their care and man- 

 agement. 



It has been my practice to separate my sheep into several flocks. In the 

 summer I keep my wethers in one field, my yearlings in another, my ewes 

 with lambs by themselves; my dry and barren ewes I turn with the wethers or 

 in a flock by themselves; I also change them about from one pasture to 

 another every week or two, which I think is of great benefit in keeping them 

 in good health and thrift. At the beginning of winter I divide ewes into two 

 flocks, choosing those in the best flesh, feeding them only hay and coarse fod- 

 der; my poorer ewes I give in addition grain, once or twice per day, as I have 

 it to spare. My lambs are kept by themselves from the time of weaning, 

 when I commence to give them small quantities of grain till I get them all to 

 eating, when I increase the amount to a proper quantity and continue till they 



