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land, which makes it more productive. They raise large quantities of 

 roots, such as ruta-baga, potatoes, mangel-wurtzel, carrots, round tur- 

 nips, &c., to feed out during the winter. Combined with straw, it is 

 considered an economical mode of wintering sheep. They enrich their 

 land, moreover, by this course of management, which enables them to 

 keep still more sheep and cattle, and raise more grain. Many farmers 

 in that country keep their sheep from nine to ten months of the year in 

 the yard ; some only part of their flock, and others their whole flock. 

 For this purpose, they sow red and white clover, lucern, and Espar- 

 sette, which is mowed and fed to them in racks, three times a day, and 

 in wet weather a foddering of straw. It follows, as a matter of course, 

 that the stables and yards are well Uttered with straw every day. It is 

 considered that an acre, thus managed, will maintain double the number 

 of sheep, or cattle, than it would to turn them out to pick for themselves. 

 By this course of management they are enabled to keep large numbers 

 of sheep, without infringing much upon their grain-growing, and are 

 enabled to come in competition with the wool-growers of otber coun- 

 tries. As there are no fences in that country, the sheep are attended 

 by shepherds. One shepherd with his dog will manage from five hun- 

 dred to eight hundred in the summer, all in one flock. 



This mode of keeping sheep during the summer season is, however, 

 not altogether practicable in this country, for the reason that pasture 

 lands are cheap and labor too high. Yet there are some particular lo- 

 cations, where, on a small scale, it might be introduced to great profit. 

 But the German mode of keeping them during the winter, is a subject 

 worthy the imitation of our farmers, and is altogether practicable. 



I calculate upon two pounds of good hay per head per day, for my 

 Electoral Saxon sheep, or an equivalent in grain, roots, or straw. This 

 will keep them well. 1 oftener undergo than overrun that quantity. If 

 I give them grain or roots, I deduct from the hay in proportion to the 

 quantity of grain. My breeding ewes I feed part of the time on roots, 

 and straw, and hay, at the rate of three bushels of potatoes per hun- 

 dred per day ; about a month before lambing time I increase this quan- 

 tity, and during lambing, from four to four and a half bushels per day 

 are given. When through that period, I gradually decrease until I turn 

 them to grass. Sheep thus kept, hardly ever scour in the spring of the 

 year. I raise from eighty-five to ninety lambs from an hundred ewes, 

 on an average. Sometimes a lamb from every ewe that yeans one. 



I have comfortable shelter provided for all my sheep, with a cellar 

 attached to it, for the purpose of storing roots. I feed altogether out of 



