FARM ANIMALS 259 



well understood, but on many farms they are not 

 managed in a way to secure all the good which can 

 be obtained from them. Thus, sheep will make a 

 large amount of mutton at no cost for feeding 

 material when allowed to graze on weeds about the 

 fence corners in corn fields and similar situations 

 and in brush lands. The forage thus obtained may 

 not give an excellent quality to the meat, but the 

 sheep easily maintain themselves without expense 

 to the farmer and at the same time are a benefit in 

 cleaning up the land. Moreover, on stubble fields 

 sheep pick up enough of the scattered grain to make 

 a very satisfactory gain and to produce a good 

 quality of mutton. Whenever sheep are confined 

 entirely to brush for their forage they are likely to 

 get poor and young lambs will not make the best 

 growth. The use of such material for sheep is 

 suggested merely to show the possibilities of the 

 sheep's foraging powers and is not to be recom- 

 mended to farmers who desire to produce standard 

 mutton for finicky markets. This has been demon- 

 strated to the complete satisfaction of thousands 

 of farmers who have tried it. Brush pasture can 

 be used for a part maintenance ration of stock 

 sheep during the summer, but cannot be considered 

 as desirable for fattening fine mutton sheep. The 

 conditions are somewhat different in the range states 

 where some of the weeds and native grasses ob- 

 tained are extremely nutritious and capable in 

 themselves of making sheep as fat as the market 

 could require. Some sheep raisers, however, main- 

 tain that mutton produced on such forage is not 

 quite equal in flavor to that raised on various 

 grains, including corn. 



The value of cow's milk for lambs is a point of 

 considerable practical importance. On all large 



