SHEEP. 1023 



keeping in the salt about & of fine copperas and a sprinkle of 

 sulphur. If sheep are fed exclusively on corn a little sharp 

 wood ashes in the salt is good to keep their stomachs sweet; 

 they are liable to vomit up the corn. Plenty of bedding is re- 

 quisite, else the dung will accumulate between the hoofs and 

 cause scald-foot, which has a tendency to pull the animal down. 

 After they are once put on heavy rations of grain the fattening 

 process ought to be closed up in five or six weeks at the out- 

 side. A longer period diminishes the profits. Some will prob- 

 ably have to be drafted out anyhow and reserved for fattening 

 on grass. 



In selling unshorn mutton-sheep the farmer is liable to be 

 overreached unless he keeps distinctly in view the two elements, 

 the carcass and the fleece. Do not " lump " them. Weigh the 

 sheep for its carcass, and estimate the fleece by the average of 

 the flock in previous years, and the number of months' growth, 

 adding a pound on account of the greater amount of yolk secreted 

 by fattening sheep. 



When wool is the object sought in feeding, corn-fodder and 

 oats will produce more of it than timothy and corn, value for 

 value. A given sum of money invested in good wheat straw 

 and corn will produce more wool than the same amount expended 

 for timothy at least west of the Alleghenies. With three 

 hundred pounds of straw feed one hundred and twenty pounds 

 of corn (this to one hundred and fifty Merinos). A flock fed 

 this way, and given an appetizer twice or three times a week by 

 a run on an old sod, will winter satisfactorily to the middle of 

 March ; then they should have hay for a month, with a half- 

 bushel less of corn. 



Sheep should never be allowed to run at will to a straw- 

 stack; they get chaff in their fleeces, besides wasting a vast 

 amount of material too valuable for mere bedding. At thresh- 

 ing-time, if the farmer can make such arrangements that the 

 chaff will be well disseminated throughout the stack, it is well 

 to dispose of it this way. Otherwise store the chaff by itself, 

 in a rail pen, if no better method offers, very thoroughly roofed 

 with straw. Have the roof so supported that the chaff can be 



