No. 4.] SHEEP INDUSTRY. 27 



cows, and he had a ])ig aiul c<»nsiderabk^ poultry. He had 

 not, nor did he that year, buy any grain. 



He paid the interest on his farm debt, paid for the 90 

 ewes and bought 10 more, as the result of that year's work. 

 He had worked out in winter enongh to pay for the help 

 he had in haying and harvesting and in breaking his ground. 



That was tliirteen years ago; he has each year kept his 

 ewe Hock np to 100, and he has repeated the process, except 

 that he has improved the farm, and now has 15 cows and 

 some horses and colts. Long ago he paid for the farm, and 

 has rebuilt his buildings. 



And that brings ns to the matter of buildings. Had our 

 friend been less of a genius in sheep husbandry he would 

 have given up the idea of sheep at the outset, for there was no 

 place on the farm in which to winter them. The little, di- 

 lapidated bani could hardly hold his cows and horse when 

 the hay and grain was stored. He knew the essentials for 

 sheep cover for winter, - — • that is, plenty of light and air, 

 out of a draught, and a dry place to lie. 



With some old lumber and some brush he built an ideal 

 place against a retaining wall below the road and reaching 

 out from the barn, where the ground was dry and water ran 

 from the shed. He put some dry bedding into his shed 

 early, and, though the whole front was open, it did not freeze 

 all winter. 



He built no feed racks or troughs, nor has he until this 

 day, feeding the hay and mowed oats on the clean snow, en- 

 larging the circle each day until a storm came, when he be- 

 gan over again at the front of the shed. He raked up all 

 the oats each day and fed them to the colts. He fed his 

 turnips whole upon the snow', and no waste occurred. Sheep 

 feed far better that way than in racks, eating their rations 

 much better than in any other way. 



He sheared his own sheep, and he learned to dress a fat 

 one in good shape. If he had a fat sheep to kill, he shut it 

 up the night before, where it could get nothing to eat, so that 

 any bad taste or odor from the undigested food would be 

 impossible ; then he would hang the carcass in a dry cellar, 

 and would cut from it for family use until it was used up, 



