[268] 



manure, the balance being spread on the pasture. From these and other 

 experiments made by me, I am positive that the manure of one sheep is 

 of more value than one hundred pounds of guano, which will cost at 

 least three and one-half dollars. Too little value is generally attached 

 to this element of profit ; probably from the fact that our fathers tilled 

 the land in all its virgin fruitfulness, and did not feel the need of it, 

 and we are still encumbered with their ways of thought and action. But 

 many of our best farmers are beginning to discover that, if the manure 

 is their only clear profit on stock, it nevertheless pays. 

 The profits of sheep-husbandry will largely depend on 



THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



No animal will endure neglect and thrive under it equal to the sheep; 

 and no animal will respond more generously to extra care and attention. 

 It is the prevalent idea and practice that sheep must take care of them- 

 selves. Hence small sheep, little wool and no profit. It would be as 

 reasonable to expect a good crop of corn without cultivation as to expect 

 a good crop of wool or mutton without the bestowal of proper care upon 

 the producers of them. Sheep will thrive in the summer season on almost 

 any of our pastures and old fields; it is consequently for the winter that 

 provision is specially to be made. And herein lies one of our chief ad- 

 vantages as a sheep-raising State. In the North they must be fed on arti- 

 ficial food from three to six months in the year ; here they need require 

 it scarcely as many days. In New York or Michigan it will cost from 

 $1.00 to $1.50 per head to winter them ; here they can be wintered 

 equally well at a cost of from twenty-five to fifty cents. The course 

 which I Avould recommend, founded on my own experience and that of 

 many of our most intelligent and successful sheep-raisers, would be about 

 as follows : Provide a field of such grass as grows late in the fall and 

 starts early in the spring, and which will keep green through the winter. 

 Orchard grass and red-top are perhaps the best, especially where blue 

 grass will not succeed. Let it make a good growth in the fall. Turn on 

 about the middle of November; and unless too heavily stocked, it will 

 furnish an abundant pasturage till the first of February. 



As early in the fall as possible, sow rye or winter oats in cornfields or 

 elsewhere. From the first of February till late in the spring, sheep can 

 have no better food than can thus be provided. By this method they can 

 be kept thriving through the winter at but a trifling more expense than 

 through the summer. But when the weather is stormy and inclement, so 

 that they are disinclined to graze, it will be advisable to feed them some 

 grain. At such times they need a more nutritious food to supply the 

 animal heat which the cold and dampness so rapidly abstract. For it 

 must be remembered that large, healthy lambs at yeaning time, and 

 heavy fleeces at shearing time, can be expected only from sheep that have 

 been kept in good order through the winter. 



