666 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ANCIENT SHEPHERD'S CHAPTER. 

 From The American Sheep Breeder. 



WINTER QUARTERS. 



Very much of the prosperity of the floclc during the coming year will 

 depend on the manner in which the sheep go through the winter. The 

 safety of any animal depends, not only on the food it receives, but on 

 some other conditions by which the general health is affected. Food is. 

 the raw material only, of which animals are made, as may be said; and 

 the general economical use of food depends on what we may call the 

 mechanical operation of the machinery which does the work of support- 

 ing life, and contributing to the growth. 



Food is consumed in very much larger part in the production of the 

 heat in any animal; and this heat controls the condition of the blood so 

 as to make the circulation of it duly effective in supplying all the 

 demands of the vital functions of the system. After these are duly 

 supported, and then only, the surplus matter of the foods is changed 

 into animal substance, which makes the increase of the young and grow- 

 ing body, and the residue is ejected as waste. It is very easily perceived, 

 that kind or condition of the foods, and that, as well as of the animal 

 itself as to its vital functions are of the most vital importance in the 

 management of a flock, and considering the exigencies of the season, 

 the attention of the shepherd must, for the good of his sheep, be very 

 closely engaged in providing all the needed conditions for comfort, as 

 well as mere food. Thus it has been roughly said that a good tight shed 

 is the best kind of provender the flock can be supplied with. It is true 

 that the food, when, and so far as, it is digested goes to furnish warmth, 

 first of all to the animal; and then only is the growth increased so that 

 a flock may very easily be carried through the winter and come ont in 

 the spring merely alive and in about precisely the same condition as 

 that in which it went into the winter quarters. The truth is that many 

 a flock does no better than this, and that in such cases not an ounce of 

 increase in weight of body or fleece has been added for all the winter's 

 feeding. Such sheep are those which it has been said are of that kind 

 that the owner has said of them that he never sees them but "he wants 

 to kick them all over the yard." But the innocent sheep are not to blame 

 for this not uncommon condition. Only the careless owner is, and we 

 will not call him a shepherd because this word is held to be only another 

 for some kind, considerate man who loves his gentle flock and does a 

 good deal of thinking for, and of them, in the quiet hours of the night 

 when many a good man makes mental notes of what has been missed 

 during the work of the past day, and lays plans for better work in the 

 future. And there is much work due to the care of a flock that will 

 be thought over by every good shepherd in this way, especially in 

 the winter. In fact, the good shepherd will ever find that the winter i? 

 really the most important part of the year to him, for it is the seed time 



