CHAPTER XXV 



FEEDING AND CARE OF SHEEP 



I. General Problems in Sheep Husbandry 



The sheep is the plant scavenger of the farm. Because of its dainty 

 manner of nibbling herbage, we might suppose that its likes were few 

 and dislikes many, j-et no domestic animal is capable of living on more 

 kinds of food. Grasses, shrubs, roots, and cereal grains, leaves, bark, 

 and in times of scarcity fish and meat, all serve as food for this won- 

 derfully adaptive animal. While horses and cattle eat only about 

 half the plants considered weeds, less than one-tenth of them are 



Fig. 89. — A Profit-Making Flock Cleaning Up the Farm Lane 



On many farms where most of the income is derived from other sources a 

 flock of sheep would bring additional profits, since they consume much food 

 wliicli would otherwise be wasted. (From Breeder's Gazette.) 



refused Iw sheep. They even prefer some weeds, when yet succulent, 

 to the common grasses. Sheep graze more closely than other stock, 

 and if many are confined to one field every green thing is at length 

 consumed. When closely pastured on cut-over timber lands they 

 derive much nourishment from the leaves, bark, and twigs, destroying 

 the brush nearly as effectively as goats. The feces of the sheep show 

 the finest grinding of any of the farm animals, and as they relish 



322 



