60 



THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



to choose the food that is most economical in use, although it may 

 be the highest in price. Clover hay is the most valuable single food 

 for winter use, if it has been cut when in blossom, cured so as to 

 preserve all its good qualities, and kept free from damp and mold. 

 Where the main object hi view is the production of market lambs, 

 clover hay should furnish the chief subsistence of the ewes. It 

 will also be found preferable as the staple and cheapest fodder 

 when sheep are purchased for feeding for market, and the most 

 rapid growth of flesh is desirable. Well cured pea straw will be 

 chosen by sheep next to clover hay and before timothy or any 

 other hay. Oat straw is readily eaten by sheep, and is a healthful 

 food, especially if harvested before the oats were dead ripe. Bar- 

 ley, wheat, and rye straw will help to keep life in a flock, but are 

 not sufficiently nutritive to contribute much to the growth of flesh 

 or wool, and should be used only as adjuncts to roots and grain, 

 or oil-cake-meal. Rye straw is apt to be sprinkled with dust of 

 ergot, a fungus which is frequently found growing on the heads of 

 rye, and which has a highly injurious effect upon pregnant ewes, 

 producing abortion or premature births of the lambs. Rye straw 

 is also frequently the cause of great inflammation of the stomachs 

 and intestines of sheep, from the penetration of the mucous coats 

 by the sharp awns or beards of the heads. Cases have occurred 

 in which the stomachs of sheep fed on rye or bearded wheat straw, 

 have been found after death thickly studded with the beards, 

 which caused inflammation of the coats of the stomachs and con- 

 sequent death. Such straw should be avoided as food, and used 

 only for litter. The haulm of beans when well cured and saved, 

 is both palatable and nutritious, and the leaves of corn-stalks fur- 

 nish a food which is useful as a change of fodder, but is not nutri- 

 tious enough of itself to support sheep in good condition. The 

 relative values of the various dry fodders above mentioned may be 

 estimated from the following tables, hi which their composition 

 and the proportion of actual nutritive matter contained are given. 



COMPOSITION OF HAY, STRAW, AND CORN-FODDEB. 



