1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



4ia 



in the other such as will be hooted at, and re- 

 ported for you as scalawags. Now, as every good 

 citizen values his reputaiion (and what is a ruan 

 good for without it.) I ihinli this last item should 

 not be lost sight of. 



la my twelve years' experience in feeding, I have 

 found the breed of sheep to have much to do with 

 their early maturity, weight and fattening quali- 

 ties. I have had Leices'ers and their grades. Cots- 

 wold grades, South Down grades, Merinos and 

 their grades, and have always found tluU whi never 

 the Leicester blood pn dominated, I had an ani'nal 

 that would fatten quick at an early age, and make 

 good weight, and have had no trouble when the 

 animal has t)een half or more of Leicester blood, 

 with g iod keeping, to make him dress one hun- 

 dred pounds of mutton at twenty months old. As 

 to fine wools generally, I am fully convinced they 

 will not make me more than half the money for 

 winter feeding that coarse wools will. 



Conveniences for Fattening. 



After describing the general arrangement of 

 his barns, he says : — 



The next building I shall mention, which I will 

 call shed No. 1, is twenty-one by twenty-four feet, 

 sixteen foot posts — on the south side of the barn. 

 The upper part of this building is tilled in summer 

 with market hay, which is pressed out and sold in 

 the fall, the fl )or covered with sawdust and leaves. 

 I always anvise when practicable, to put in the 

 sawdust before harvest on the upper floar. It then 

 has time to g' t nice and dry, thereby not only pre- 

 serving the floor better, hut also absorWng the 

 more liquid manure from the animals. When the 

 time arrives, forty sheep are put upanri kept there 

 until they are sold in the spring. Of all my feed- 

 ing yards and stables, I always find that these sec- 

 ond-story sheep do the best. The lower part of 

 this building has manure piled under it in summer, 

 as I always like to have what manure is not used 

 in the spring under cover through the hot weather; 

 it is taken out clean in the fall, and the shed ar- 

 ranged the same as the upper part, and, together 

 with an open yard ahout twenty-four by sixty feet, 

 holds sixty sheep. These sheep always have the 

 run of this yard with tne shed, except when it is 

 stormj', and then tney are closely confined to the 

 shed. 



He then describes other buildings and sheds 

 of similar construction, but of different sizes, 

 sufficient for the accommodation of the six or 

 eight hundred sheep that he usually feeds. 

 Feeding Boxes. 



After much observation and experiment, 

 Mr. Winnie has adopted a crib or box of which 

 he gives the following description : — 



Length 12 or 14 feet ; width 22 inches. The bot- 

 tom, indicated by the dotted lines, slanting from 



Top board 8 inches wide. 



S^ace of 8 or 10 inches widi 



Bottom Board U or 12 iuth 

 es wide. 



End of Box. 



both sides and resting on a board in the middle, 

 forming a complete trough for grain or roots. The 

 bottom bide boards should be II or 12 inches wide 

 — then a space left of 8 or 10 inches according to 



size of sheep — then the top boards, 8 inches wide 

 — the ends and sides to match. Corner pieces of 

 scantling in the inside, of hemlock or oak, as pine 

 will not hold a nail or screw, the latter of which 

 is preferable in putting them together. 



The corn or other grain for seventy-five 

 sheep can be put in four of these boxes from 

 a bag on a man's shoulder in one minute ; and 

 hay, roots, «S;c., are supplied with ecjual facil- 

 ity. The sheep feed quietly, and no fodder is 

 lost, on the importance of which Mr. W. re- 

 marks : — 



It makes quite a difference whether five hun- 

 dred sheep waste a pint of grain per d^iy, which I 

 am saiistied was more than my whole fl )ck wasted 

 last winter, or whc'hcr they waste half a bushel 

 per day ; also whether we waste one hundred 

 pounds of hay per day, or whether four or five 

 hundred pounds will cover the waste for all winter. 

 These waitings are what hurts. 



These boxes have only to be turned over and 

 back agiiin, and they are clean. No dirt can get 

 in from the sides, as the space between the upper 

 and lower board is too narrow, and the !)ox being 

 from twenty-eight to thirty inches hiah, no dirt 

 can get in f^rom the top, consequently when the liox 

 is turned over and back again, it is always clean. 



What Grain is Best? 



I answer, for me, corn is the best for the main 

 fted, although I bke a few oats mixed to start with, 

 and have no oijeciions to beans, oeas and oil meal, 

 if they do not cost too much. Whenever thev cost 

 as much, or more than coin, Idispcn:^e wiih them, 

 as a sheep feeder must count his cost as well as his 

 reputation, if he intends to succeed. Atioh r 

 question iirises: "D<) you find whole or ground 

 feed best ?" For horses, cattle and pigs I prefer 

 ground feed, l)Ut for sheep, e>peciany fattening 

 sheep, I choosc whole or uuground feed. I find 

 that the sheep will grind it just as weil a^ the mill 

 to whi<;h we must give every tenth bushel, besides 

 having the trouble of hauling the frrain to and 

 from it. I also find that fat sheep will h)ld up to 

 their full feed nm.h better, especially in soft 

 weather, on whole, than on ground feed ; conse- 

 quently drawiny grain to and f om the mill, and 

 p.tying toll, is, in my estimation, labor and money 

 lost. 



"What Hay is Best? 



Emphatically I say clover, but it should be cut 

 early, and cured nice and green. Timothy is prob- 

 ably best for horses, but for cattle and sheep I 

 prefer clover, and would rather have a ton of 

 nice, green, tine clover, than a ton of liniothv, 

 although in markit erne tan of timothy will 

 bring as much as two of clover. I have sOlnetimes 

 fed !>ome timothy hay to my sheep, but always 

 found that it was not the kind for ihem; they 

 would grow lank and thin upouit — not a very good 

 sign that a fatiening animal is thrivicg well. As 

 soon a-i they goahe clover again they would plump 

 up and look full and nice, and I can assure you 

 uuless your sheep louk full and plump, they are 

 not.fattening very fast. 



Straw and Cornstalks. 

 One feed at noon of nice bright oat, barley or 

 pea straw, I prefer to hay, as they not only relish 

 it, but it is a ch:mge for thtm. Sheep are vcy 

 fond of variety, and will eat daisies, weeds, this- 

 tles or almost unything of the kind that is cut and 

 cured green. Nice green cornstaks are not very 

 bad for sheep, and when I have plenty of them I 

 always feed the sheep with them, at least once a 

 day, and consider them as good as hay. 1 prefer, 



