88 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



[Cn.ir. 



keep any animal upon low diet. We feed anything tliat slieep eat best, and 

 I fatten principally upon turnips and liay, with a little meal. The long-wool 

 Blieep are better adapted to Canada than the fine-wool. We shear eight 

 pounds of elean wool per liead. Tiie Cotswoid variety arc preferred ; they 

 liave stronger constitutions than the Leieester sheep." 



Gen. Harmon, of Monroe County, says : " I commenced with fine-wool 

 elicop, forty years ago. I then tried Leicestershire, and then came back to 

 Merino. I have less than 200 acres, and grow 30 or 40 acres of wheat every 

 year ; the land improves by sheep. My average weight of fleece is five jiounds. 

 I keep 33i) head, and get over $700 a year for wool and increase. I stable 

 50 sheep in a room 14 by 40 feet, without change in the winter. I wash my 

 sheep clean and let them run six or eight days, and then shear. I don't 

 breed from gummy sheep. I teed in board-racks, with straight sticks, so 

 the sheep can put in their heads. Tlicrc arc about 25 acres of reclaimed land 

 on my farm that will keep sheep alive, but -won't fat them. My farm is 

 limestone, and I prefer fine-wool sheep to any other for profit; and I con- 

 sider sheep twice as profitable as cattle upon any grain farm. I never 

 breed from ewes less than three years old. I don't like the cross of Lei- 

 cester bucks upon fine ewes. I have sold of wool and sheep over $900 a 

 year.'' 



Lewis F. Allen, of Black Kocb, snys : "I have kept sheep twenty-five 

 years upon a clay loam, natural to sweet grasses, limestone formation, on the 

 Niagara Tliver. There is no general rule as to the profit of keeping sheep. 

 All depends upoH ciixnimstaiices. In Canada I have seen the best long-wool 

 sheep I ever saw, but these sheep are too fat for eating. You might as well 

 dine off a cake of tallow as such meat. Such eheep may be profitable in 

 Canada. With me those sheep require good shelter. Tlicy are not kept 

 M-aa*m by their long fleeces. My sheep sheared five to eight pounds of wool. 

 I don't approve of feeding many roots except to breeding ewes. Tlicy are 

 likely to scour sheep ; at least they do mine. 



'* On some soils it may be best to plow in clover ; on otlier soils it is not. 

 As to mutton sheep, I have fed Southdowns, and the cheapest way that I 

 can make mutton is upon grass, and wethers of 150 lbs. bring five cents a 

 pound gross at Buffalo. I would keep mutton sheep if I had a good farm on 

 a railroad. I can always sell my lambs at $2. My Southdown fleeces bring 

 §1 50 average. Southdown mutton is the best we have, and the sheej) 

 always sell well for mutton. The fine-wool sheep mutton is apt to taste of 

 the greas}' wool. The iferino sheep are a hardy race of sheep, but they are 

 not a good breed to feed for mutton." 



Mr. Bowen, of Orleans County, says : " I have bred both coarse and fine 

 sheep. 1 have raised coarse-wooled sheep that weighed 150 lbs. each at one 

 year old. I find the coarse-wool breed the most profitable. My sheep 

 average six pounds of wool, that sells at 31 cents a lb. My sheep are a 

 cross of Cotswoid, and are close-wooled and hardy. I live on a gravelly 

 loam, wheat soil, and 1 think it desirable to increase the stock of sheep in 



