Seo. 7.] SHEEP IICSBANDRY. 89 



this State. A field of clover fed off by sheep will j-ield more wheat than 

 if not fed ofi"." 



Jlr. Pettibone, of Vermont, says: "If a man keeps but few sheep he 

 should keep a mutton breed. If he keeps a largo flock, or say 200 or 300, 

 he should keep fine-wool sorts. The trouble in sheep-ljreedin!^ is in lettiuf 

 them run down in October. I winter 300 head, and 100 ewes will give lOd 

 laiirlis. I use 400 acres, but many of them are on the mountain, and valued 

 at only $7 an acre. I do not let all my ewes breed. I keep my sheep in 

 very close winter quarters on hay. I feed breeding ewes one peck of corn a 

 day to 100 liead. In eleven years I have not had a Iamb die, and ewes are 

 kept without grain, but always with water and salt by them. Tlicre is a 

 material difi'erence in the value of the fleece, according to the way sheep 

 are kept. I prefer always to have my sheep fat. In January I select my 

 ewes, and never sell the choice ones. I have a ewe that has produced 

 eighteen lambs and shears four pounds of good wool. I do not select the 

 most gummy sheep for my use; they are much more tender than those less 

 gummy. Still, you must have greasy wool if you have fine wool. I feed 

 generally twice a day — sometimes ordy once. Tiie sales of my wool last 

 year jiroduccd over §2 a head for my flock, and the average for fifteen years 

 has been four and three quarter pounds, such as sold this year at 50 cents 

 a pound. My land is limestone clay loam. I have ])ieked out and sold 

 twenty wether lambs to a neighbor who sheared eight pounds a head, and 

 sold two sheep for mutton at 83 50 a head. A fiock of 300 head of sheep 

 ought to average five pounds of clean wool. I select in the fall eight or ten 

 wethers, and feed them with meal through the winter, and give them good 

 grazing in summer, and kill through the summer, and the tallow averages 

 10 or 12 lbs. and the meat 10 or 15 lbs. per quarter. The pelts sell at 75 

 cents. A three-year old wether, ])ure Merino breed, often weighs 75 lbs. 

 I have sheared 14 lbs. of wool per head from bucks, wliich sold for 50 cents 

 a lb., and 8 lbs. of wool from ewes." 



A. I). Dickinson says : " I have sheared 11,000 Rhcc]> in a year, and tnow 

 sometiiing of them. The man who raises sheep for mutton had better raise 

 the largest kind, for they produce the most money, though they may not make 

 the best kind of mutton. For wool, I would keep none but the fine-woolcd 

 variety of siieep, but I would not keep the gummy sort, because the clean 

 wool will always produce the most money. In washing sheep, I am sure 

 that tiie wool can always be made cleaner when the sheep arc washed in a 

 vat than in a stream. If 20 shcej) will weigh 20 cwt., they will eat just 

 aliout as much as two bullocks of that weight — that is, if they arc ma- 

 ture sheep. Young sheep cat more, according to live weight, than old 

 ones." 



Mr. Johnston bought thirty Leicestcrs one fall, put them in his yards, fed 

 them each twelve ounces of oil-meal with wheat straw, and no /mi/, all 

 winter. In spring he sheared from them five pounds of woul each, pastured 

 them all summer, kept them over until the following February, and sold 



