450 



Feeds and Feeding. 



been possible to give the shorn lambs still warmer quarters they 

 would undoubtedly have given better returns. 



Feeding shorn and unshorn lambs confined in a l>arn. 



The shorn lambs ate more food, drank less water, and made 30 per 

 ct. less gain than the unshorn lambs. 



At the Wisconsin Station 1 Craig, after studying the subject for 

 four years, concludes : 



"1. Fall shearing is a beneficial practice to prepare lambs that 

 are six months old for early winter market. 



"2. To secure the benefits of fall shearing, it should be done early 

 in the season, at least not later than October. 



"3. When done under such circumstances, the removal of the fleece 

 hastens the fattening, and the gain is made at a slightly cheaper rate. 



"4. The results show that by shearing in the fall and again in the 

 spring more wool is obtained than from a single spring shearing, 

 but the market value of the two clippings is not any greater than 

 that of the single clipping in which the fibers of the fleece are longer. 



"5. When the lambs are to be fattened during three or four of 

 the winter months, there appears to be no practical advantage in 

 fall shearing." 



731. "Self-feeders" for fattening lambs. To save time and labor 

 some feeders follow the practice of placing quantities of grain suffi- 

 cient to last a week or more in a box arranged so that the grain 

 passes down into the feed trough as rapidly as the sheep consume 

 the supply below. Mumford 2 concludes from trials covering 3 years, 

 " Fattening lambs by means of a self -feed is an expensive practice, 

 and economy of production requires more attention to the variation 

 in the appetites of the animals than can be given by this method." 

 Wing 3 writes, "Not only is the death rate much heavier where self- 

 feeders are used, but the cost of gain is also much greater." Trials 

 with self-feeders are reported from the Michigan Station 4 with ten 



1 Kpt. 1904. 3 Sheep Farming in America. 



2 Mich. Expt. Sta., Bui. 128. * Bui. 113. 



