240 MANAGEMENT OF FARM STOCK. 



859. Iii the vicinity of large markets, and where pastur 

 age is expensive, it will be found to be most profitable to 

 raise sheep for the market, only making wool a secondary 

 object. But in remote and mountainous regions, where 

 land is cheap and not suited to cultivation, they may be 

 profitably kept for the wool. Many, however, think that 

 even for wool, the larger breeds may be equally profitable, 

 011 account of the greater weight of their long and coarse 

 wool, which is well suited for many kinds of fabrics, and 

 commands a good price in the market. 



860. Mutton of a choice quality, usually brings a higher 

 price in the market than beef, though it costs much less 

 pound for pound to produce, and the offal or waste is less. 

 The objection to keeping the smaller breeds or the old 

 natives, based on the expense of fences, docs not apply so 

 strongly to the larger or mutton breeds, like the Cotswolds, 

 which are generally very quiet and easily kept. 



861. One of the most important matters to be attended 

 to in the keeping of sheep, is their shelter in winter. 

 They require less food, and do better when well protected, 

 than when exposed. Good ventilation is also very impor 

 tant, hence it is best to give them sheds open to the south. 



862. To ascertain the difference in the cost and gain 

 of proper shelter, and exposure to the weather, for sheep, 

 in the milder climate of England, twenty were kept in 

 the open field, and twenty others of nearly equal weights 

 were kept under a comfortable shed. They were fed 

 alike for the three winter months, each having one-half 

 pound of linseed cake, one-half pint of barley, and a little 

 hay and salt per day, and as many turnips as they would 

 eat. The sheep in the field eat all the barley and oil cake, 

 and about nineteen pounds of turnips each per day, as 

 long as the trial lasted, and increased in all five hundred 



