366 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



the greater portion of their ration consisting of corn blades. I 

 have found this treatment very efficient. 



When breeding time comes I always have my ewes in good 

 flesh, but not too fat. About two weeks or ten days before breed- 

 ing I begin ''flushing" the flock. This is accomplished by provid- 

 ing an excellent pasture and its object being to hasten the ewes to 

 breed. I also believe it increases the percentage of lambs dropped. 



Breeding time depends somewhat on the weather. I always 

 try to begin breeding August 1st, if the weather is any ways 

 cool. The flock is divided into three bunches, each bunch being 

 selected so that it will cross good with its ram. In breeding this 

 early it is necessary to allow the ram to remain with the flock 

 longer than when you breed later in the season, so I leave my 

 rams with the ewes two months and even then some ewes fail to 

 breed. 



With the grade of ewes I handle, I have found that a well- 

 bred Shropshire ram is hard to beat in producing the early matur- 

 ing marketable lamb that I desire. I have found the Hampshire 

 to do real well also, but the lambs are not so early maturing. I 

 intend to try a Dorset ram in the near future and I believe good re- 

 sults will be gotten. I have tried the Cotswold and find the pro- 

 duct to be rather coarse, slow maturing, leggy lambs, with a weak 

 constitution. This cross certainly makes a poor milking mother. 



I want my rams to show good breeding, a vigorous constitu- 

 tion, a conformation that distinctly shows early maturity and to be 

 well wooled. 



During the breeding period I always feed the rams extra, as 

 they are sure to get thin if not given extra attention. 



After breeding time I provide green pasture for my ewes as 

 late as possible, which I very successfully do by having blue grass 

 pastures that have not been grazed during the fall, or by winter 

 rye. 



The dry feeds I use for pregnant ewes are as follows : second 

 crop clover hay, stover, corn, oats, bran, turnips and sometimes, 

 pumpkins. 



I always allow the flock to stand to hay all night giving them 

 just what they will clean up and every morning feed one shock of 

 stover (sixteen hills square). When I feed pumpkins, which is 

 about once a week until Thanksgiving time, I just cut them in 

 halves and throw them on the grass. Turnips are fed sliced, mixed 

 with the grain. Even if sheep have a good late pasture, they en- 

 joy a change and like to eat good clover hay at night, and a little 



