THE WHEAT CULTTERIST. 195 



improve the productiveness of his land, as to attempt to 

 feed and fatten sheep without first selecting animals 

 that will fatten readily. Another consideration is, prop- 

 er protection of sheep. Wet and cold weather is ex- 

 ceedingly detrimental to sheep of any kind. Water 

 dripping through leaky sheds is very disagreeable and 

 injurious to sheep. They always hate a wet and cold 

 place, as much so as a neat cat hates a wet floor. 



The leading idea in fattening sheep should be, to pre- 

 pare a large supply of rich manure, especially when a 

 crop of wheat is desired. A flock of sheep will reduce 

 a large stack of straw to manure more readily than it 

 can be done with a lot of neat cattle. But the sheep 

 must have grain, and some oil meal mingled with the 

 grain, or with the grain meal. If sheep are young, and 

 have excellent teeth, and a grist mill is not conveniently 

 near, it will not pay to grind grain before feeding it to 

 sheep, as they masticate their feed remarkably fine. It 

 is a rare occurrence that any kind of grain or seeds of 

 noxious weeds pass through sheep without having the 

 vitality of the germs destroyed. For this reason whole 

 grain may be fed to sheep with satisfactory profit, when 

 the same grain could not be fed to neat cattle with 

 desirable results. I think farmers will understand my 

 idea of feeding sheep on coarse grain with a view to ren- 

 ovating the soil for the production of wheat. There is 

 no other feasible and practicable manner of maintaining 

 the perpetual fertility of the wheat fields of America 

 than by growing red clover, fattening sheep, hogs, or 

 neat cattle, and raising a bountiful supply of turnips 

 for stock during the foddering season. By feeding 

 coarse grain, turnips, oil meal, red clover, and' wheat 

 straw to sheep, and by applying their manure judiciously 



