SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT 187 



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ewes will often get too fat under such treatment 

 and somteimes refuse to breed regularly. He has 

 not yet found a solution of this problem. In Eng- 

 land, where this often occurs, the fat ewes would go 

 for mutton and there would end that difficulty, but 

 where one has a flock of pure-bred sheep of consid- 

 erable value this is not a satisfactory solution for 

 America. 



Some manner of exercising the flock will probably 

 prove the best cure for the sterility, but as a busi- 

 ness proposition with a grade flock it is no very 

 serious matter. 



Where one is within reach of tracts of rough and 

 poor mountain pasture the problem is solved in a 

 natural way by turning the flock onto this thin 

 grass where they must take abundant exercise by 

 walking and climbing and will not find an excess of 

 food. This is the natural way of preventing an 

 excess of flesh. 



It is not a safe plan to attempt reduction of flesh 

 by over-pasturing of small and fertile fields. The 

 result is to cause the ewes to gnaw the herbage 

 there into the ground and parasitic infection is 

 pretty sure to follow. 



THE USE OF RAPE. 



Eape belongs to the same order of plants as the 

 cabbages, and rape leaves have a similar taste and 

 appearance as cabbages. On rich soil rape yields 

 an astonishing amount of forage, which must be 

 eaten green, as owing to its watery nature it can- 



