18 AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM 



dition of the Wiiolc llock, g-ive a clear profit on the con- 

 suniplion of the food from the ra-.k and tht* trough; and 

 the great advantage of this system will be found to be> 

 Ih.at a Farmer ma^', on the same ground, with a httle ad. 

 ditional care and attention, support four or five times as 

 many slieep Jls he did on his ofd plan ; because he: then 

 mad e his calculations onfy on what his pastures could do 

 for them in winter— and when he found that if he en- 

 creased his flock beyond a given number, they became 

 dirty nosed, roach-backed, coughing, losing their wool, 

 he considered himself overstocked, and killed or sold otV, 

 and so he was indeed as to the mere scuffling in winter 

 for the little herbage left by the frosts within their reach.- 

 There is no doubt that one hundred acres of good pas- 

 ture land, will support from the middle of spring till frost, 

 four hundred sheep. If it is profitable then to feed in win- 

 ter, it is clear, that every Farm may have its stock more 

 than quadrupled, because these one hundred acres under 

 the present practice, will not carry through the year more 

 than sixty or seventy sheep, even where by some tender 

 master, a little straw or corn fodder is thrown them to 

 pick under their feet. Salt should be given, where dis- 

 tant from the influence of salt water, in the troughs, or ou 

 flat stones ranged for the purpose, twice a week winter 

 and summer. Green food early in spring is very advan- 

 tageous to the ewes and lambs— Orchard grass, and the 

 Peruvian grass (so called in this part of the country) afford 

 early pasture, but I think the best way is to sow a piece of 

 Rye, every fall early on purpose — this will occasionally 

 afl>3rd a good bite through the winter, and in spring may 

 be fed as late as the 20th of April, and then give, if the; 

 season is favorable, a good crop of grain. 



To feed the flock securely and conveniently in winter^ 

 let there be a roomy pen fixed on a piece of dry ground, 

 with a thatched shed drooped to the north — open on all 

 sides but on the north, long and wide enough to admit the 

 racks and trougjis under cover, and to aflbrd room to the 

 flock to lie dr}. Beside a gate f©r th« attendant to go 



