234 NUTRITIVE .EQUIVALENTS. 



Pennsylvania and throughout New England the grazing 

 region proper of the older-settled Northern States the 

 favorite meadow hay for sheep is produced by sowing about 

 three parts of timothy (Phleum pratense) to one of red clover, 

 (Trifolium pratense?) The first and second years, the clover 

 is in excess, but after that it only appears in moderate quan- 

 tities ; and in the meantime many spontaneous clovers and 

 grasses come in, such as June or spear grass, (Poa pratensis,} 

 white clover, (Trifolium repens,) red -top or herds -grass 

 (Agrostis vulgaris) in moist places, and various others in minor 

 quantities and in special situations, such as the rough-stalked 

 meadow grass, (Poa trivialis,} rye or ray grass, (Lolium 

 perenne,} and several of the fescue grasses. For sheep, this 

 collection of grasses and clover is cut down rather early and 

 cured as bright as possible. Where meadows are not 

 brought into a course of arable husbandry, and are only 

 plowed at long intervals, no better hay could be obtained 

 from the soil; and, indeed, better would hardly seem 

 desirable. But those who have tested it, know that red 

 clover cut early and cured bright is preferred by sheep, and 

 will fatten them more. It is a prevailing impression, too, 

 among clover growers, that it more specially conduces to the 

 secretion of milk when fed to breeding ewes. 



NUTRITIVE EQUIVALENTS. But it is not economical in 

 most situations, to winter sheep exclusively on any kind of hay. 

 There are incidental products raised with other crops which 

 are regarded as necessary in even that limited extent of mixed 

 husbandry which is practiced on our sheep farms, such as 

 corn-stalks, the straws of the different grains, pea-haulm, etc., 

 which must be consumed in part by the sheep, or be wasted ; 

 and there are other crops which, like turnips and beets, are, 

 so far as they can properly be fed, vastly cheaper than 

 hay. Moreover, a well-selected variety in food is better, 

 other things being equal, than uniformity : because the 

 different products furnish more of all the different substances 

 which go to form wool and meat. It is, therefore, incumbent 

 on the intelligent sheep farmer carefully to study both in 

 theory and practice, the effect of each of the kinds of 

 available food, separately or in combination, to produce these 

 results. Agricultural Chemistry has made new and important 

 disclosures in this particular ; and though its theoretical 

 deductions cannot be implicitly relied on, owing to excep- 

 tional or incidental circumstances which have thus far eluded 



