2 3 



where soils need building up to fit them for other crops. Here the 

 cow peas come in exceedingly well. They are great soil builders, 

 rich in protein, make good summer or winter forage and are the 

 great reliance of the Southern shepherd. Cow-peas sown among 

 ensilage corn help to balance that ration, sown among soiling crops 

 of rape or sorghum serve to balance them and enrich the soil at the 

 same time. They must not be sown until after the land is warm in 

 the spring. 



CANADA FIELD PEAS. 



There is sometimes a confusion of terms, the Canadian field peas 

 are much like ordinary garden peas and must be sown very early, 

 on good soil, with oats or barley as a soiling or pasture crop. Cow- 

 peas are really beans, must be sown late, will grow on soil that will 

 not produce Canada peas. The Canada peas and barley make an 

 ideal soiling feed, or the lambs may run through creeps and eat the 

 mixture and will thrive thereon first rate. The advent of hot, dry 

 weather finishes the Canada peas, however. 



PUTTING THE LAMBS FORWARD 



A good old English practice is to hurdle the field with creeps so 

 that the lambs may "run forward" of their mothers, thus getting 

 the first bite of the fresh feed. From time to time the hurdles, or 

 panels of movable fence, are moved up and the lambs' ewes 

 clean up what the lambs have been over. This is a good way to 

 make fine lambs at small expense and to keep them free from para- 

 sites. The best of all for the babies always. 



SHEARING. 



There is no sheep easier to sheer and sheer well than the Dor- 

 set. The wool cuts easily, the operator can as well as not leave a 

 smooth, close-cut surface. The machines work well on Dorset 

 sheep and some of the best American flocks are shorn by machines 

 altogether. The use of the machines is most discouraging to ticks, 

 which are almost certainly cut in two and destroyed. Care should 

 be taken not to shear too close after flies are troublesome as there 

 is not enough wool to protect the sheep after the machine shear has 

 been over her back. The last week in March or early in April is a 



