SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 685 



"Sheep off the range in ordinary condition should be on full feed from 

 sixty to ninety days to make them prime. They can be made fairly 

 good in less time, but if they are thin when put on feed it will take 

 longer. The feed used at most of the large feeding yards is upland prairie 

 hay, wheat screenings, and ground corn. 



We find it pays to grind the corn, and sheep make better gains on 

 that than on whole corn. 



"The best grain ration we have found to finish sheep on is one-third 

 corn meal and two-thirds good screenings by weight. Sheep eat on an 

 average four or five pounds of grain per head each day, together with 

 half a pound of hay — lambs about a pound of grain less than this, 

 together with about one-third of a pound of hay. 



"When starting on feed they eat a groat deal of hay, but as they grow 

 fat, and the feeding period reaches an end they eat less hay, and when 

 a sheep or larau is prime fat they eat very little hay, while they have 

 access to a self-feeder of grain. 



"Salt is before them at all times, and there is a great, large trough of 

 fresh water in the center of the shed where they can drink nice, clean 

 water all day. The trough has a patent regulator, by means of which 

 it is kept full of water all the time. The regulator is a simple affair, and 

 can be put on any water trough which is fed from a supply tank. The 

 trough is cleaned out every morning and kept as clean as possible. This 

 is more important the longer the sheep are on feed, as they get very 

 particular. I have seen them get so nice they would go thirsty before 

 they would drink out of an untidy trough. 



"A lazy man will never make a sheep feeder. A lazy man is never a 

 success at anything. 



"The kind of salt we use is the ordinarj^ Michigan white. No. 2 granu- 

 lated. It comes in barrels of 280 pounds each. We have tried other 

 kinds, but we find this is the most economical and handy. 



"Before I go further into this subject I want to call your attention to 

 a simple, but an important fact about watering western sheep. Sheep 

 that are bred and raised on the open range in ninety-nine cases out of a 

 hundred never drink water out of a water trough except those natural 

 ones shaped by nature's hands. The shed that they are fed in is not as 

 light as out of doors, and the trough is protected by a board overhead 

 to keep some eager, thirsty sheep from standing in it, and making the 

 water dirty. The water may hiss and trickle down in an inviting sort 

 of way, but yet Mr. Sheep from the range is not on to the newfangled 

 ways of civilization, and is too timid to drink. 



Persons that have never fed any will hardly believe it. but I have 

 seen sheep actually perish within easy reach of water. The way we 

 remedy this is the second or third day after the sheep are put on feed, 

 and any sheep that is gaunted up, and looks like he has not had water, 

 we take him up "to the trough, put his nose in the water, and put a finger 

 between his lips, wriggle the finger a little and Mr. Sheep will drink 

 with such fierceness that you think he will hurt himself. If this plan 

 is not successful we use a common beer bottle — placing the neck of the 

 bottle far down the sheep's mouth, tip its head back, and it has to drink. 



