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of different farmers, a medium practice is to be preferred ; and 

 that is, to have sheds connected with the sheep-yards and open 

 to the south, where the sheep may take shelter when they 

 choose. It is natural to suppose that they are the best judges of 

 their own comfort. From snow, even from severe snow-storms, 

 sheep suffer httle ; but heavy rains in winter, where the fleece 

 becomes fully charged with wet and then freezes, are prejudicial 

 to their health, although their thick fleeces are almost as repel- 

 lent of water as the well-oiled feathers of birds. 



3. Care of the Ewes. — The lambing season, if it be ear- 

 ly, demands great care. Most of the farmers are accustomed to 

 arrange for their lambs to come the last of April and through 

 May, when the sheep can get a good bite of grass. The ob- 

 jections to this are, that the late lambs do not go through the 

 ensuing winter so well as those which come earlier ; and that, 

 where sheep are sent to a distance from home to pasture, acci- 

 dents frequently occur which might be guarded against if the 

 shepherd were at hand. On the other hand, if lambs are to 

 come early, and before the sheep leave the barn, it is desirable 

 to have some succulent vegetable food for ewes, such as turnips 

 or potatoes. One of the most skilful and experienced shep- 

 herds in the country disapproves the giving of corn or rye to 

 sheep in milk, and considers potatoes the best succulent vege- 

 table which can be given to them. The Shakers consider a 

 bushel of oats for sheep, better than a bushel of corn. I do 

 not know the grounds of this judgment ; and after all it may be 

 with them mere prejudice. They are not alone however in this 

 opinion of the superior value of oats to corn for store-sheep. For 

 fatting-wethers corn is far preferable. In old countries abroad, 

 it is the practice for the shepherd, during the lambing season, to 

 sleep in the barn, that, in case of need, he may render assist- 

 ance to the ewes during the night. It happens in these cases, 

 as in all others in life, that the most careful are the most suc- 

 cessful ; and that what the indolent and improvident generally 

 denominate bad luck is only the natural consequence of neglect 

 and bad management. 

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