SHEEP. 



315 



ties without other food; it is also one of the best fattening articles of food that we have. &quot;When 

 mixed with oats and bran the injurious heating effect is largely obviated. Corn meal can be fed 

 without injury in larger quantities than corn, and is very good for young lambs, or old and 

 feeble sheep. Oats and wheat have been found by experiment to be excellent in keeping a 

 flock in a good and thrifty condition. Breeding ewes are greatly benefited by being fed 

 considerable bran, as it contains the essential elements of bone and tissue formation; but 

 breeding ewes that are thin in flesh will put on fat by giving them for a time all the corn 

 they can bear; however, there is danger of overfeeding, and this may be avoided by mixing 

 bran or oats with corn, and by having at least a part of the corn ground. 



Oats, as well as turnips, induce an increased flow of milk, and assist in keeping up the 

 condition of the dam. Oil-meal is very nutritious and aids in putting on flesh; it is valuable 

 to feed with bran or oats. The age and condition of sheep must be taken into account before 

 determining the quantity or quality of food to be fed, whether the object be for fattening for 

 the market, or for improving the general condition of the animal. Young sheep require a 

 different composition in food to change them from a lean condition to a thrifty one. The 

 same amount of food will put more flesh upon yearlings than those sheep that are three or 

 four years old. The young animal requires food richer in albuminoids and phosphate of 

 lime, or such elements that go towards the formation of bone and muscle. 



One-half pound of linseed meal or cotton-seed meal, mixed with one and a half pounds 

 of corn, is thought by many to be a valuable combination when given in the quantity of two 

 pounds per head per day in connection with any kind of hay, which makes a full ration for 

 most sheep in fattening. Whatever the food given to sheep, regularity should be observed 

 in respect to time, giving as nearly as possible at stated regular hours each day. If fed in 

 this manner, they will soon learn to know when the time for feeding comes, and will eat and 

 be quiet until the time for feeding again; but if fed at irregular times, they will be uneasy 

 and restless, and consequently will not thrive as well. Regularity in quantity as well as in 

 time of feeding is also essential, since it will largely influence the evenness of the wool fibre. 

 If full feeding is followed by a scanty allowance, or the reverse, the fibre of the wool is cor 

 respondingly affected, the generous diet enlarging the wool fibre, and the limiting of the 

 quantity of food contracting it, producing an unevenness in the wool that is very injurious to 

 its quality, and consequently deteriorates its value. 



The following results of the experiments in feeding sheep, furnished by Dr. Lawes, of 

 Rothamsted, England, and which were performed by himself at his noted Experimental 

 Station, will doubtless be both interesting and profitable to the farmers and stock-breeders of 

 America. 



In the following table are shown the average weekly consumption of food, and increase 

 of each animal, throughout an entire period of nineteen weeks: 



TABLE 



Showing the Average Weekly Consumption of Food per Sheep, and the Average Weekly 

 Increase of each Animal in pounds and ounces. 



