534 Feeds and Feeding. 



inches high. The hay is pitched into the middle by the wagon- 

 load and pushed up to the sides two or three times per day as fast 

 as the sheep need it. There should be rack enough so that most 

 of the sheep can eat at the same time. This will require about one 

 foot per head for lambs and 15 inches per head for older sheep. 

 . . . A large part of the feeding yards in Colorado are located 

 on the banks of streams, or near enough to rivers so that ditches 

 can be run through the yards and the surplus water returned to 

 the river. . . . During the coldest winter, sheep will drink 

 only a quart of water per head, but in warm weather 5 to 6 

 quarts is an ordinary amount. . . . Opinions differ as to the 

 amount of salt required in fattening sheep. The most common 

 practice is to keep lumps of rock salt where the sheep can lick 

 them. . . . Southern lambs are so light of fleece that they 

 never need shearing in the fall. But if they are to be fed until 

 the last of May they get very fat, and their thick fleece at that 

 time makes them suffer from the heat. ... If sheared six 

 weeks before shipping they will grow enough more rapidly to 

 make up the weight of the wool, shrink less in shipping and 

 pack quite a number more in the car, lessening the freight 

 charges per head. . . . With Western sheep the case is quite 

 different; they are larger, the fleece is longer and grows earlier. 

 They have to be sheared if they are to be fed late in the spring. 

 . . . This fall shearing applies only to good, well-grown 

 lambs. Wethers and ewes do not need shearing if they are to be 

 marketed before April 15. If they are to be held until late in 

 May they had better be sheared in the spring rather than in the 

 fell." (308,770-71) 



