998 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



their mutton tender and juicy ; then with their mellow, shade- 

 cured hay (not sunburnt like ours), with oil-cake, oats, and 

 other rich nitrogenous feeds, they make it fat, well "marbled" 

 with lean, as in the South-Down, and fit for an epicure. 



The rigorous winters and the dry hot summers of the United 

 States render this system more or less impracticable here. On 

 the Atlantic slope, where corn is less thrifty, and where English 

 custom and precedent have more influence, the growing of these 

 vegetables and roots has been engaged in to some extent, but 

 not with eminent success. But in the Mississippi Valley the 

 foundation of all husbandry is, and probably will always be, 

 that prolific and sufficient plant, Indian corn. The leafage and 

 grain taken together furnish an almost perfect ration, even for 

 sheep. But of this more further on. 



On the Atlantic slope, with the exception of limited 

 areas, as in Vermont, etc., the production of wool and mutton 

 is an entirely subordinate industry, owing to the fact that it is 

 a region very much superior to others devoted more largely to 

 wool-growing in requisites necessary to success in mixed farm- 

 ing. And this fact makes it creditable to sheep that they retain 

 as permanent a foothold as they do there. The breeds of sheep 

 are perhaps not as well defined or as highly improved as in the 

 West; there lingers a greater proportion of the old native Amer- 

 ican stock, described by Youatt as being a sort of mongrel scrub 

 Leicester, mixed with South-Down and Cotswold. 



The limited product of grain and the greater cheapness with 

 which it can be produced in the West render it too high-priced 

 to be given to sheep in any quantity. Eastern farmers endeavor 

 to winter their stock or breeding flocks without grain on clover 

 hay, chaff, pea, bean, wheat and oat straw thus making them 

 serve as scavengers or consumers of refuse products. This for 

 the reason that there is a cash market for nearly every thing, 

 even rye and wheat straw. A prominent object with them is 

 the growing of early lambs for the market. They buy ewes 

 shipped from the West, generally those which have passed their 

 prime; rangy, good-sized, open-wooled grade Merinos; on which 

 they cross a South-Down or Cotswold ram two years old or up- 



