1024 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



excavated and carried away underneath during the winter. 

 Have a basketmaker make a basket of two or three bushels' 

 capacity, in which to carry out the chaff to the hay-boxes. 

 Give straw in the morning, chaff in the evening. If the straw 

 is stacked as it ought to be, with a smooth and even surface, 

 it will keep well ; a slice at a time can be cut down with an 

 upright hay-cutter, pitched down with a common fork, and car- 

 ried out on a straw-fork. This can be made by any blacksmith 

 in the following manner : Take a bar of steel five feet four 

 inches long, three-quarters of an inch wide, and one-half inch 

 thick ; split it down at the ends far enough so that the tines 

 (four) shall be two feet long, and have an entire spread of 

 twenty-one inches. Weld on a shank, and insert it into a handle. 



The flock-master must bear in mind that there is a wide and 

 important difference between the stud-flock and wool-flock. 

 When he hears or reads that a certain celebrated ram produces 

 a fleece of twenty-five, thirty, or thirty-three pounds, he must 

 remember that every pound of that fleece may have cost the 

 owner from twenty-five to fifty cents in extra keep and care. 

 In other words, the animal is not kept for wool as a primary 

 object, and the statement of the weight of his fleece is very 

 liable to be misleading. 



Just here present themselves considerations of housing and 

 other ultra artificialities of breeding. If men choose to house 

 their sheep as they would callow turkeys, touch up the 

 frayed places in their fleeces with lampblack, supply a little oil 

 judiciously, " stubble " their caps and their legs to promote the 

 growth of wool on those parts, etc., in order to compete against 

 each other at a fair, they have a perfect right to do so. But 

 to offer these pampered animals to the average farmer as a foun- 

 dation for an outdoor, wool-bearing flock, destined to climb 

 rugged hillsides for a living, is scarcely legitimate. The fash- 

 ionable, dark-surfaced (almost black) fleece, opening up deep 

 with the rich, dull luster of " old gold " or buff, oily as a hickory- 

 nut, and a mellow pink skin folded in ample corrugations the 

 very presentment of fat double-chinned opulence these are very 

 captivating to the eyes of most novices. But the eye should 



