1022 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



all I favor housing or feeding in the forenoon until they eat 

 their dry feed. This is the flesh-maker and tonic, the food and 

 the medicine, and must be taken. Grass is yet only the apple 

 after dinner. 



Fattening. Perhaps I may as well speak here of the sub- 

 ject of feeding sheep (wethers) for the shambles. It is a matter 

 of difficulty and often a discouragement to the beginner, because 

 the dainty sheep, especially the Merino, will not lend himself 

 to the fattening process like the omnivorous hog. No Merino 

 under three and a half years should be selected for winter feed- 

 ing; from that age upward, as long as they have sound teeth. 

 It is a waste of time and feed to attempt to do any thing with 

 an animal not in fair condition in the fall. Nearly every body 

 feeds for the early spring market, intending to retain the 

 fleeces; hence the best results can often be secured by selling 

 in the wool in midwinter. This is especially the case where the 

 feeder has facilities for grazing until January or February. They 

 should be put on a daily feed of shelled corn sown broad-cast 

 on a clean, short sod early enough in autumn to prevent any 

 falling off in condition from frosted grass, and housed at night. 

 If more convenient, feed in troughs. One hundred large wethers 

 require a house, say thirty by thirty-five feet, with a yard at- 

 tached. When sheep are heavily fed on grain I prefer good 

 corn fodder at least once a day to a steady regimen of hay. 

 Oat straw or wheat straw cut when the kernel is in the doughy 

 state is a good coarse feed for heavily grained sheep. Clear 

 timothy is too binding; clover is preferable. A good grain ration 

 may be made by combining shelled corn one-half, chopped rye, 

 shipstuff or oil-cake meal one quarter, shelled oats one quarter, 

 giving all they will eat clean twice a day. It is careless feed- 

 ing even with hogs to leave grain lying by them, and still more 

 with sheep. Sheep highly fed have capricious appetites, vary- 

 ing with the weather. The flock-master should watch them at 

 every feed. If there is a considerable remnant of corn left in 

 the troughs and a few linger to clean it up, they ought to be 

 driven out of the pen and the feed removed, else at the next 

 feeding-time one or more will be "off." Water and salt freely, 



