140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



profit, as one gentleman here wanted to get, although I have 

 known cases where sheep raisers got a daily profit by market- 

 in"- the ewes' milk : but I do not think we need to do that in 

 Massachusetts to make a profit. But the annual profit of the 

 sheep is, we might almost say, an absolute certainty. I told 

 a poor farmer within two or three months, that, if he had 

 my flock, which has never exceeded 75 or 80, he could 

 support his family, pay his taxes and hold a respectable 

 position as a farmer with nothing more than that flock, a 

 garden, and what he could do on 25 acres of land. 



Mr. Shaw. I want to ask if yt>ur sheep in the winter 

 have exercise, or are they kept in a pen all the time? 



The Chairman. I have found from experience that with 

 sheds as close as I have, allowing about 10 square feet to a 

 sheep, and dividing them up into flocks of 50 or GO, they 

 need a small yard for exercise. The larger the yard we can 

 have, and keep it dry, the better. 



Question. Has anybody ever tried soiling sheep as we 

 soil cattle? 



The Chairman. I do not know whether any other gen- 

 tleman has done that or not. I have tried it in a very small 

 flock myself. 



Governor Hoard. That is the English practice. All the 

 flocks of England are soiled. That is, they have a small 

 run of pasture, and generally a movable fence is used. They 

 plant green crops and let the sheep feed on them, moving 

 their hurdles four feet in the morning and at noon, and eight 

 feet at night, and thus make the sheep eat everything per- 

 fectly clean. In that way they feed on the green crop and 

 manure the field as they go along, and then the land is 

 ploughed over and sowed with another crop. 



The Chairman. I am not aware that that has been tried in 

 this country, except in an experimental way. I think it has 

 been tried at Amherst with English rape. 



Governor Hoard. There are some surprising results 

 given by Professor Shaw at Ontario College. We have 

 commenced to try it in Wisconsin, so far with very flatter- 

 ing results. Professor Shaw makes the bold statement that 

 there will be within a comparatively few years ten million 

 sheep fattened in this country on rape, and he gives figures, 



