1907.] SHEEP BREEDING, 25 1 



SOW it broadcast, putting on about a pound and a half to two 

 pounds per acre. Sometimes we sow it with oats. We put 

 on about the same amount of seed, a pound and a half to two 

 pounds to the acre, thus saving the trouble of running over it 

 with the seeder. The rape will not interfere with the oats. It 

 will only grow up about an inch before the oats are cut. It 

 does not make a rapid growth, but most always when we get 

 the oats cut and shocked up, and then comes a soaking rain, 

 that will start that rape to growing, and there we have got so 

 many acres of the very best pasture for any kind of sheep. 

 Sometimes we raise it with corn. At the time of the last 

 cultivation of corn, that is, late in the season, we go through 

 the field of corn when it is away up over our heads, and 

 we sow about the same amount, a pound and a half to two 

 pounds, right ahead of the cultivator. That is in a field that 

 has been cultivated all summer. By running the cultivator 

 through between the rows at a time when the corn has at- 

 tained such a large growth, you may wonder how a man can 

 throw the rape seed, but it is the nicest job I ever did. Take 

 a good steady old horse, put a saddle on him and put a muzzle 

 over his face. A good muzzle can be made by taking a bushel 

 salt sack and tying it over his head. Then take your jack- 

 knife and cut some holes to snap the lines through, and you 

 have got one of the best muzzles I ever saw on a horse. Then 

 just take a pail of rape seed and go right straight through and 

 throw the seed over the tops of the corn for a width of about 

 five rows at a time. That will cost you about a shilling an 

 acre. After the corn is out of the way, of course, the rape 

 comes on, and with these different fields of rape you have got 

 an ideal place for the late fall and early winter feeding of your 

 ewes. I do not suppose that rape after the season has pro- 

 gressed through December to January, and sometimes, if it is 

 open, into February, is of much value from a food standpoint, 

 but they like it. Now feed them in the morning all they will 

 eat, and then let them go out, and let them paw in the snow 

 and exercise around in the field, and you will find that those 

 lambs will not bother you a bit. 



Now I have had a good deal of experience in feeding, and 

 under our conditions we have found that feeding them a rough 

 ration made up in this way is conducive to the best results. 

 Feed a ration of mangels in the morning. I do not know 



