Live Stock Breeders' Association. 



183 



yard outdoors and was allowed to go in and out of the barn at 

 will. They were never shut in even during the severest weather, 

 and they were consequently frequently drenched with rain or cov- 

 ered with snow. Lot 21 was fed exactly the same ration inside. 

 The comparisons are given in the following table : 



The results are not very definite nor conclusive, based as they 

 are upon a single experiment, but the facts are that the. sheep in 

 the outdoor lot consumed a little more grain, and some less hay 

 than the indoor lot. The increase in live weight was considerably 

 in favor of the lot fed outside. The amount of dry matter required 

 to produce a pound of gain was in favor of the indoor lot. Under 

 the conditions governing this experiment the net profit from the 

 sheep fed indoors was 12 cents per head greater than the lot fed 

 outdoors. 



In the writer's experience it seems to be undoubtedly true that 

 sheep do not suffer from dry cold weather, and that providing they 

 can be kept dry they can endure any amount of cold without dis- 

 comfort. In humid regions, therefore, where rain and snow fall 

 frequently during the winter it will be profitable to supply them 

 with a dry shelter, but not necessarily warm. 



SHEARING LAMBS IN FALL. 



Lambs are sometimes shorn in the fall at the beginning of the 

 feeding experiment. Such experiments as have been conducted 

 where sheep have been shorn rather late in the fall have not proven 

 entirely satisfactory. In other experiments where sheep have been 

 shorn early in the spring toward the close of the fattening period 

 the results have been quite uniformly successful. 



In table 3 are recorded the results of an experiment in which 

 one lot was shorn December 1st and another lot left unshorn and 

 fed the same grain ration. 



The shorn lambs were fed in the same barn with the other lots 



