178 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



pasture not contaminated by the presence of any 

 old sheep, the lambs remain healthy and thus a new 

 and healthful stock can be had even from a diseased 

 flock. None of these diseases originates spontane- 

 ously. There are no other known hosts of these 

 diseases than sheep, goats and perhaps deer, so it 

 is merely a question of starting with the lambs, 

 born free of all parasites, and keeping them in 

 health by putting them on fresh and uninfested 

 pasture. 



USE OF SOWN PASTURES.. 



The easy way of management is to use only the 

 wild or natural grass pastures, the same ones year 

 after year, but there is often great good resultant 

 from sowing special pasture crops for the flock. 

 Rye sown in the fall will afford very useful pasture 

 before Christmas and again very early in spring. 

 If vetches are sown with the rye in mild latitudes 

 they will together in spring make good grazing, and 

 clover sown in March will take the land after the 

 rye is gone. Eye is not a rich grazing crop ; in fact, 

 is a poor one, but it adds the element of succulence 

 to the diet and thus has its value. Then it gives 

 employment and exercise in the way that the ewe 

 likes best to take it, wandering about the field and 

 picking here and there. Then there is almost no 

 danger at all of parasite infection from grazing 

 rye, or from grazing any sown crop for that mat- 

 ter. Eye where clover is sown with it should not 

 be too closely grazed after the clover gets started, 

 and it is well to cut it for hay before it heads. If 



