FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 371 



Oats will be found safe at almost all times. Recently a new grain 

 feed has sprung up in the vicinity of some of the large mills. It is that 

 of screenings. Of this kind of fed Mr. Henry Stewart, an authority on 

 sheep, says: "Those so-called foods which have been in considerable 

 use, such as screenings, damaged grain, and — so to say — the offal of 

 the grain dealers or the threshers of the flouring mills, are of late so 

 nearly cleaned of whatever of actual grain has heretofore existed in 

 them as to be useless for feeding, on account of the almost exclusive 

 existence in them of noxious seeds of weeds, quite often it seems to 

 be the part of wisdom, as it is also of economy — and this is equivalent 

 to the former — to avoid the use of them, as wholly devoid of economy; 

 for one reason because ihere is little feeding matter in them, and for 

 another one, which is of serious importance, that most of the seeds 

 of which the screenings consist are of noxious plants, and so hurtful, 

 as well as without any feeding value. The most frequent seeds found 

 in them are those of cockle, and thes'e contain a hurtful substance 

 known as saponine; thus in choosing and purchasing screenings sam- 

 ples containing this kind of seeds should be rejected, all the more 

 so that it is not at all necessary that the screenings should contain 

 any of these seeds, for, the reason that special apparatus, is or may, 

 and should be, attached to the machinery to separate the cockle seeds 

 from the small grain. The small grain is itself an excellent food for 

 sheep, and is so constituted as to be a perfect food, healthful and 

 nutritious, and in fact rea.-y better for sheep than the finest grain 

 itself would be, and this for the reason of its large content of bran 

 as compared with the flour of the grain. The fact is that screenings 

 should be graded and sold on its actual merit, and unless this is done 

 by sellers of the stuff and a guarantee given with the sample, feeders 

 should be suspicious of the character of it. Competition in all indus- 

 tries has become so close that no one can afford to neglect any pos- 

 sible economy, and there is no other part of the care of live stock that 

 calls for closer circumspection now than the feeding of sheep." 



WINTER QUARTERS FOR SHEEP. 



Horaestead. 



There are as many different methods for wintering sheep as there 

 are breeds. The man who said he had no difficulty in wintering sheep, 

 but that it "was springing them," that always gave him the most con- 

 cern was not very far from the truth. The winter management should 

 be such that they will be as vigorous and healthy during the trying 

 months of spring as in mid-summer. In mid-summer the feed is ideal, 

 consisting of grass, weeds and other green herbage. The weather is 

 balmy and not taxing on the vitality of sheep. Exercise is just 

 in accordance with the demands of good health in the sheep. In win- 

 ter all these conditions are changed. 



