FARM ANIMALS 251 



birth until the lambs are ten to twelve months old, 

 or from weaning time until the market finish is 

 completed or merely from the beginning of winter 

 until the end of the feeding period. As a rule, it 

 is found that lambs fed grain from the earliest 

 age at which they will eat it produce better results 

 than those which receive grain only during the 

 fattening period. Lambs fed grain during early 

 life become accustomed to it and make more 

 economical use of grain than those which receive 

 it only in forcing rations when the fattening period 

 is begun. In some tests of this sort the curious 

 fact has been developed that occasionally corn 

 makes more economical gains than other grain 

 mixtures even for a period of ten months. Lambs 

 fed on an exclusive ration of corn, however, would 

 not be fit for breeding purposes, since their vitality 

 is considerably weakened by the lack of protein 

 in the ration. 



The above discussion of grains for sheep has not 

 included all of those which may be fed to sheep, but it 

 should be remembered that the most important 

 ones ordinarily are corn, barley, wheat, oats, peas, 

 emmer and some of the milling products like mid- 

 dlings, gluten meal, cotton seed meal, etc. Cotton 

 seed meal has not been fed extensively to sheep 

 for the reason that other less expensive nitrogenous 

 feeds may be readily obtained in the North and the 

 southern states have thus far not done much feeding 

 of sheep for mutton. 



COARSE FEEDS FOB SHEEP 



At the head of the list of coarse feeds for sheep 

 we must place alfalfa. This does not indicate 

 that alfalfa is always and everywhere the most 

 effective coarse feed which can be used in fattening 



