SHEEP. 311 



we believe it more profitable for any stock raiser to provide shelter for the flocks, even in 

 the hottest temperature in which sheep are found. Sheep well protected from storms require 

 less food, thrive better, and are less liable to disease than those that do not receive such 

 care. 



Originally the coats of our domesticated sheep are believed to have been hair, with a 

 sort of down underneath. The hair has no doubt been supplanted as the result of selection, 

 care, and nourishment. How long since this was done it is impossible to tell, for the domes 

 tication of sheep dates back to a very early time. In some parts of the world there can be 

 found hairy sheep now, and Mr. J. L. Hays expresses the opinion that the wool of any sheep 

 will turn into hair if the animal is treated with neglect, exposed, or kept upon hard pasture. 

 He says he has experimented, and that his experiments have resulted so as to convince him 

 of that fact. It is said that hairy lambs are frequently born in the purest Merino flocks in 

 the North of Germany, where the flocks are not always as refined as they might be. 



General C. P. Mattocks, Portland, Maine, gives his method of sheep husbandry as 

 follows: &quot;I keep sixty breeding ewes, but in winter have only twelve or fourteen sheep in a 

 flock. These little flocks through the winter each have a yard of one acre, and a small rough 

 shed, ten feet square, open to the south, which remains entirely open at all times except during 

 storms, when the sheep are driven inside and movable doors put up to keep out rain and 

 snow. These sheds are hauled to the pastures in summer for shelter. The sheep are fed in 

 racks, nailed to the fence of the inclosure, and covered with a board with a strap hinge to 

 prevent the hay from blowing away. The grain, as well as the hay, is fed out of doors, 

 except in storms, when the grain is fed inside, as also the hay, occasionally. This plan I do 

 not recommend where the climate will allow the sheep to roam at will over the fields, but in 

 Maine, while the ground is covered with snow so many months, one acre is as good as a 

 dozen. By thus having six or seven flocks of but a dozen sheep each, I am able to sort my 

 sheep in such a way that the stronger can not make continual war upon the weaker. Lambs 

 should always be kept by themselves, as also the bucks. 



In lambing time, of course warm quarters must be provided, but as an accurate record 

 of the serving of each sheep is kept, the ewes nearest to lambing are constantly culled out 

 and placed in the lambing yards, which connect with warm sheds and barns. A hospital 

 should always be at hand for the reception of old or wounded sheep, as they require warm 

 quarters and special feed and care, and as their feeble condition is injurious alike to the 

 health and appearance of the flock as la whole. Sheep should not run with, or be fed with 

 other stock in winter. If it is desirable to feed to them the waste of cattle and horses, let it 

 be gathered together and fed to them, but never run the risk of their being injured by 

 cattle and horses. I will here say that in summer I have no difficulty in keeping sixty sheep 

 in one flock, indeed I have kept that number, and more, of Cotswolds together the entire 

 year, with good results. 



As most farmers have little but dry hay to feed in winter, they are apt to wonder what 

 they can do to improve upon it. There is not one of them but could raise oats enough for a 

 daily ration of a pint per head, and if the hay could give place once a day to cornstalks, oat 

 straw, or pea straw, it would be much better than the present practice; and here let me say, 

 that no corn fodder is equal to that of sweet corn, when properly cured. A full supply of 

 salt must always be at hand, or else a weekly ration should be fed. Tar, for the sheep to 

 lick at will, is excellent. Should the sheep begin to have a discharge at the nose, as is some 

 times the case in bad weather, a solution consisting of one ounce carbolic acid salts, to a 

 gallon of water, used once a week by turning a teaspoonful down each nostril, will soon 

 remedy the evil, care being taken not to allow the sheep to swallow the mixture. Smearing 

 the nose with tar is good in summer to prevent the deposit of eggs in the nostril, which may 

 afterwards develop into the much dreaded &quot;grub-in-the-head,&quot; and is also a good practice in 



