FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 125» 



Q: Please state how you came out with the roots? 



Mr. Mumford: The roots gave the best results; not enough differenee,. 

 however, to make any great point of it. 



Q: I would like to ask the gentleman if he has had any experience 

 with lambs taken with a hard cough; they run at the nose, and in a 

 short time die, when they were fleshy and well cared for. 



Mr. Mumford: Yes, sir; I have had a great deal of experience with 

 lambs being sick in all sorts of ways, and I have come to the conclusion 

 that it is a pretty hard thing to doctor a sheep. They will give up and 

 die about the easiest of any animal I know of. I have tried treating 

 lambs for various diseases, and I only wasted time and medicine. 



Q: Is there any difference in that between breeds? 



Mr. Mumford: The coarse wools are more susceptible than the fine 

 wool lambs. 



Q: How long a time can a bunch of lambs be fed, to profit? 



Mr. Mumford: It very much depends on the condition the lambs are 

 in when you commence to feed them. For the average lamb, I think the 

 period of feeding should last from ten to fourteen weeks. When a lamb 

 is fat, that is the time to sell it. 



Q: How about the value of rape as a preliminary food? 



Mr. Mumford: Rape has been grown successfully, and it is believed 

 from what experience we have had to be a very good food for fattening 

 lambs. More should be grown. 



DISCUSSION BY HON. H. H. HINDS, STANTON. 



I think the paper of the gentleman who ha« spoken is beyond criti- 

 cism, and the lessons to be drawn from it by the practical men who have 

 sheep in this country, are two or three. 



First, The sheep needs to be kept dry and warm; he must be kept out 

 of the wind, to be successfully fed. 



Second, He must be quiet and contented. 



Third, He must be regularly fed and watered. 



That is the experience of all successful sheep feeders, I judge, in this 

 or any other market. The feeding of roots, etc., is entirely in the line of 

 good advice. It helps exceedingly in the assimilation of the stronger 

 foods, but it is not always exactly practicable. As a matter of fact, the 

 successful feeders of Michigan have tied securely to the anchor of clover 

 hay and corn. The paper showed that they were right in that. There i» 

 a difficulty that confronts us now, in the utter annihilation of the clover 

 crop. Of course, I should say to all farmers disposed to feed sheep, that 

 they need not abandon the field because they canot get clover hay. The 

 sheep, if desirable for any one thing more than another to the farmers of 

 Michigan, is so because he is a scavenger. He is a hustler. He will take 

 what you have to spare and will render some kind of an account for it. 

 You can put him in a brier patch, and he will spoil the berry picking, and 

 make a good pasture there. But the wind and wet must be kept off of him. 

 The difference between the fine and coarse wool in the particular men- 

 tioned, is that the fine wool lamb has a better roof given him by nature. 

 You must keep the sheep dry. As the lecturer has told you, the sheep is 



