DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 733 



Xn. Shear at once any sheep commencing to shed its wool, unless the 

 weather is too severe. 



Remarks.— ThQ&e are excellent rules for the care of sheep, but as they do 

 not give the strength of the vitriol wash for the foot, in rule XI, it will be well 

 to use the recipe for foot wash, in cases needing such treatment. 



Sheep, Their Value for Fertilizing and Improving Worn 

 Out Soil. — A correspondent of the American Farmer writes on the subject 

 of the capacity of sheep to improve soil, and to renovate and bring up worn 

 out land. He says: " From many years' experience and observation I am fully 

 convinced that plowing in green crops with lime — such as clover and others — 

 is the most economical and speediest means that a farmer can use for bringing 

 up worn soil. Yet it can be very profitably done by the use of sheep — in pas- 

 turing even. More than once and on more than one farm, I have seen dry, 

 barren spots, such as gravel knolls and side-hills made fertile and productive in 

 a single season, simply by salting a small flock of sheep on those barren spots 

 twice a week during the summer; the sheep would be sure to resort there sev- 

 eral times a day to lick up the salt, and thus leave their droppings, both liquid 

 and solid, which are ver}' rich fertilizers; then the next season the most rank 

 and luxuriant growths of grass and grain would be produced on those 'galled 

 spots' of any other portion of the whole field ; thus the best kind of manure 

 was applied and spread just where most wanted without any hard labor. 

 Weight for weight, sheep manure is more fertilizing than either horse or cow 

 manure, and next in value to hen, or hog droppings. Sheep are valuable fertil- 

 ^ers I am very sure." 



Remarks. — The author trusts that what has been said about sheep will in- 

 duce all who have not got them upon the farm, to begin with them as soon as 

 they can ; and that those who have them will make use of them to clean up 

 brier patches, weeds, etc., and also to make use of their fertilizing power to 

 renovate worn out soils, gravel knolls, side-hills, etc 



Sheep, Care of in Winter.— The weak ones should be separated from 

 the strong, and wethers from the ewes; and especial care should be given to 

 ewes that are to drop their lambs early. The springing of the udder is an 

 unfailing sign of approaching parturition. The ewe should then be removed 

 to a separate pen and kept quiet, but should be visited at least every 3 hours, 

 and the last thing at night. It is rarely that any help is needed, except in very 

 cold weather, to wrap a piece of soft blanket about the lamb, and to help it, as 

 soon as possible, to get its first meal from the mother, when it will be all right; 

 and the ewe may be left for a few hours. 



If apples are abundant in winter, a feed, once or twice a week, may be 

 given to sheep ; or, in their absence, a feed of turnips, or other roots, cabbage, 

 «tc., may be given them as often as necessary to avoid costiveness, or stretches, 

 says a writer, an ailment common to sheep in this country, but unknown in 

 Great Britain, where turnips are fed daily. Sheep feel the change from the 

 green pastures to the dry feed of winter, as quickly, if not more so, than any 

 other of our domestic aaimals, hence the importance of some of these juicy 



