112 



3. Housing Sheep.— A good deal of discussion has been 

 had among farmers as to the propriety of housing sheep in 

 winter, and the practice of farmers in this respect is various. 

 The question cannot be answered without regard to circum- 

 stances. Our own native sheep bear exposure without injury 

 or sufTering. Few of them have known any other than the 

 most severe usage, and under such treatment have acquired a 

 hardiness of constitution adapted to their condition. Full- 

 blooded merino sheep, likewise, if they were susceptible to its 

 rigors when first introduced, have become inured to the climate. 

 It is not so, however, with the Saxony, which are a tender race 

 and need very tender treatment. All sheep which lamb early 

 require shelter and a warm cote. The wool, likewise, is ren- 

 dered coarser by exposure to the weather ; and the quantity 

 and compactness of the wool seem to bear a relation to the 

 weather. This is a beneficent provision of the Creator, that 

 the constitutions both of animals and vegetables should become^ 

 within certain limits, fitted to their condition. 



The practice of farmers in regard to housing their sheep, as I 

 have remarked, is various. I have known a case in which a large 

 flock of fine-wooled sheep have been kept confined in a close 

 stable or barn the whole winter, without ever being let out 

 even for the purpose of watering. An abundance of litter was 

 furnished in this instance, and the sheep were kept as dry as 

 the nature of the case admitted of. But the deaths in this farm- 

 er's flock were always numerous, and the health of the sheep 

 suffered without question from a corrupted atmosphere. In 

 other cases I have known farmers — and this appeared to me, 

 when in that part of the country, to be the general practice 

 with many extensive sheep-owners in Vermont and the north- 

 eastern part of New York — not to allow their sheep any shelter 

 in winter but that which they find behind the walls or under 

 a hay-stack. They have insisted upon it that, under this treat- 

 ment, their losses were many times less than when closely 

 sheltered. 



As well as I can judge, from the observations and experience 



