58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



late. If not due to lamb before April, good, fine, early cut 

 hay will be all the feed your sheep require until near lambing 

 time, when a small ration of grain, consisting of corn, oats, 

 oil meal and wheat bran, will be beneficial. On the other 

 hand, if you wish to feed a poorer quality of hay they will 

 need a small ration of grain from the time they go into winter 

 quarters. Right here is the stumbling block to some, in 

 the way of success. They somehow get the idea that 

 sheep can be wintered without grain and upon food which is 

 unfit for any other stock ; and, acting upon this theory, it is 

 no wonder that when spring comes and finds twenty-five per 

 cent of their flock dead they give up the business in disgust. 

 It is useless to expect something from nothing, but I claim 

 that there is no stock to which we can feed poor hay in con- 

 nection with grain and get as good returns as from sheep. 



Give your sheep dry sheds, with plenty of windows for 

 light and ventilation. One very important item is to keep 

 the air pure and fresh at all times ; this will require close at- 

 tention and a good deal of ventilation on warm days. 



Provide them with pure running water if possible, to 

 which they can have access at all times. The amount of 

 water which a ewe that is suckling a lamb will drink is 

 astonishing. 



See that the water-tanks are kept clean ; especially will 

 these need looking after during the spring, for the sheep and 

 lambs will start for water with their mouths full of grain, 

 some of which will be dropped into the water, and in a few 

 days of warm weather it becomes putrid, making the water 

 unfit for any thing to drink. 



Feed hay three times a day, and be sure that you are 

 regular in the time of feeding, then your sheep will soon 

 learn when to expect their feed, and after eating will be 

 quiet until time to feed them again. If the hay is fine, 

 feed them no more than they will clean up. Should the 

 hay be very coarse, what is left by the sheep, being freed 

 from dust, will make good feed for horses, especially those 

 that are inclined to be heavy. 



Let one man have the entire charge of the flock if pos- 

 sible, and don't allow strangers to go among them, unless 

 that man is with them. 



