368 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



when put up for feeding. If fairly fat they don't gain as much as if 

 in moderate flesh and thrifty, nor do they require as much feed or as 

 long feeding. 



If one has no clover for hay then sow one and one half bushels 

 of oats with one bushel of field peas per acre and cut when in dough 

 and cure like hay. It yields big and is a fine substitute for clover hay. 

 Corn fodder does very well but is not as good as either of the former. 



Never allow feeding sheep grass in winter, as the grass is too 

 light and soft to be of any real value to them, and the losses in search- 

 ing and rambling after it and the refusal of other feed more than 

 double the supposed gain. 



The feed lot should be in a dry place. Have a shed, closed at one 

 side and the ends and roofed over to keep out rain and wind. Both it 

 and the yard should be bedded with corn stalks or litter to prevent 

 mud and wasting of the manure. A timber lot or small grove well set 

 with trees is a good place to feed in. The trees are protection enough 

 without shed, but in a wet winter a shed is far better and the manure 

 can be saved better. 



Salt and hay should always be fed under cover — hay in racks and 

 salt in troughs. Economy in feeding demands this system, for water- 

 soaked hay is always rejected by sheep and salt wastes much from- 

 rain. 



Of course it is understood there are other good feeds to fatten sheep 

 on, stich as mill-screenings, oil meal, etc.. and are used by regular 

 feeders who buy both sheep and feed to fatten them in large numbers 

 for speculation, which does not interest us. But what Ave are inter- 

 ested in is how we farmers and stockmen who raise a part of all of 

 the first mentioned product on our farms can turn it into meats so we 

 can drive it to market instead of hauling it and realize as much or 

 more for it than it would bring in a raw state, and enrich our soil 

 besides, so we can raise more and better grain and stock. 



To do this I believe otir own raising the most profitable feed. It 

 saves the expense of transportation to and fro. And when thus fed 

 and the manure has been hauled and well distributed over the land it 

 will always retain its fertility and will get better every year instead 

 of worse. From my own experience it pays best to feed it to sheep. 

 They return more pounds of gain for .the amotmt of food consumed 

 than cattle or hogs. Besides, mutton brings more per pound than 

 beef or pork and furnishes better manure than either. 



My sheep have gained me from start of feeding to finish eight to 

 ten pounds of mutton per bushel of corn, while the gain of my cattle 

 of equal quality and feed runs from seven to eight pounds. My hogs 

 eat corn, corn from first to last, and only a little grass for change, 

 while my sheep eat grass', grass from first to last, and only a little 

 corn to start lambs and to finish them. This is the cheap feed vs. 

 high-priced feed. 



I find from my shipping bills, which I have saved for twenty-five 

 years, from 1873 to 1898, that the average price received for my stock 

 in Chicago during that period was $4.93 per 100 pounds for sheep, 



