346 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Even this can be greatly helped by soiling. Racks may 

 with great profit be placed in the fields and the ewes fed 

 with green crops, fresh mown oats, peas, clover or alfalfa. 

 Thus twice as many ewes may be kept as the grass alone 

 will support. I suggest that about 400 ewes would keep 

 one man nicely busy in caring for them and their lambs, 

 hauling water to them, soiling somewhat, and feeding 

 the lambs. I would not hesitate to undertake the man- 

 agement of 400 ewes on one farm in any part of the 

 cornbelt, the regions most infested with stomach worms. 

 There is no business more sure of profit than this. Lambs 

 sell remarkably well and the prospect is that as the west- 

 ern ranges are diminished they will sell better, for the 

 ravages of the stomach worm deter eastern farmers from 

 going into the business. The two serious obstacles to be 

 overcome are: first, the question of water and next, 

 the question of shade. Water is readily hauled in mount- 

 ed tanks as it is usually in England. Shade is not abso- 

 lutely essential. I have seen very fat sheep in the San 

 Joaquin Valley of California confined to the alfalfa mea- 

 dows and with no shade whatever. Probably a system 

 of canvas sheds, long and narrow, would not be very 

 expensive nor too troublesome for one man to move 

 and set up unaided. Any sort of grass will serve. Ken- 

 tucky bluegrass is to be preferred, perhaps brome grass 

 is better, clovers may be utilized and oats sown to be 

 grazed off, with peas. 



I do not hesitate to say that I look forward to seeing 

 many sheep farms established in the cornbelt, each carry- 

 ing from 200 to 500 ewes and managed nearly under this 

 system. I feel confident that no other branch of hus- 



