NO. 14. 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



221 



Wintering SBiccp. 



In few kinds of business carried on by 

 the farmer, is cure more necessary, or skill 

 and attention better rewarded, than in the 

 raising and keeping of siieep. The fmer 

 wooled varieties of this animal — those from 

 which the greatest profit is derived — are pre- 

 cisely tlic ones which sufler the most from 

 neglect ; and, by the mattentionof the owner, 

 olten subject him to serious losses, which 

 migiit by proper precautions, be entirely 

 avoided. 



Sheep suffer the most from maltreatment 

 in the early part of winter; any injury arising 

 from neglect then, being, from the very con- 

 stitution of the animal, very diflicult to rem- 

 edy afterwards. There is a point in the 

 descending scale, to which, if a sheep is once 

 allowed to fall, it usually renders all elibrts 

 to raise them unavailing. 



One great cause of tiie losses sustained in 

 keeping sheep through our winters, is the 

 allowing them to "shirk" for themselves too 

 long in the fall of the year. Scattered over 

 tlie^fields long after tiie frosts have destroyed 

 t\ ury thing that is green, and perhaps after 

 1 the earth is covered with snow, they gather 

 a precarious subsistence, and are rapidly losing 

 the tiesh and the strengh wiiich, with proper 

 treatment, would enable them to combat the 

 rigors of winter, and what is termed the 

 feintness of spring, successfully. Better to 

 collect sheep into their yards as early as the 

 first of December, and commence their 

 regular feeding, than to wait until January 

 before it is done, under the idea that by so 

 doing, fodder is saved. There may be indeed 

 a partial saving of fodder, but fur too frequent- 

 ly such saving of fodder is the death of the 



sheep. 



Another thing that occasions great injury 

 to our flocks, is the keeping too many to- 

 gether. Observation must have convinced 

 every farmer that a small ffock of sheep, will, 

 with the same feeding, do much better than 

 large ones ; that from forty to sixty is as 

 many as can be advantageously kept together; 

 yet it is nothing uncommon for men who call 

 ji themselves good farmers, to keep from one 

 ^\ hundred and "fifty to three hundred in a flock. 

 j' Another great defect in the common treat- 

 il, luent of sheep, arises from tiiere not being 

 proper attention paid to the respective health 

 and strength of tlie animals, when flocks are 

 divided into sections. These things should 

 be looked to with great care, as to put a few 

 weak and sickly sheep with a flock of strong 

 hearty ones, is not only to ensure the loss of 

 the former, but frequently to endanger the 

 safety of the latter by the spread of disease. 

 In such cases the weak ones, which require 





01 



'ai 



pi' the best of the food given to the flock, are 



obliged to be content with the refuse of the 

 whole, or such as has been rejected or 

 trampled on by the strong; and the result is 

 as might be expected from such an unskilful 

 mode of proceeding. 



Every man who keeps sheep should have 

 one dcirartment of his flock devoted to his 

 weak or sickly sheep, and no sooner does he 

 discover one coming under either of these 

 classes, than it should be immediately taken 

 and placed where it can receive more atten- 

 tion and better food than is required by those 

 that remain strong. Sheep, when thus put 

 into the hospital, at this division may be 

 termed, should be fed with fine hay ; roots cut 

 fine and salted; oats in the sheaf, or an occa- 

 sional handful of dry corn ; and if every few 

 days a quantity of pine or hemlock tops be 

 given them, the efiect will be good, furnish- 

 ing a green, and for any sheep, a healthy 

 change of food. 



Those who wish to have their wool in fine 

 order, and in such a state as to command the 

 highest prices in the market, will pay partic 

 ular attention, not only to their sheep havinc 

 an adequate supply of food, but to the rnannei 

 in which it is fed to them. Manufacturer: 

 dislike to have the wool they use filled witl 

 grass and other seeds, and from the addition 

 al labor such wool requires, usually compe 

 the grower to submit to a deduction of somi 

 cents per pound. When hay is thrown fror 

 a sack, or a cow-house where sheep are pre 

 sent, unless some care is used, this resul 

 usually follows, as the sheep are certain t 

 collect under the falling hay, and their woe 

 receives and retains most of the seeds seal 

 tered at such times. So too wiien fed fror 

 the common elevated rack, their wool will b 

 injured by the retention of seeds dropped o 

 their necks and backs in drawing out theJ 

 hay. 



To avoid this evil and loss, racks should b 

 used the sides of which are perpendicula: 

 and which are so low that the sheep in ge 

 ting his food need not fill his eyes and wo( 

 with dust and seed. Several plans lor ver 

 good racks have been presented in forme 

 volumes of the Farmer ; and no one can fa 

 of constructing good* ones, if he only avoie 

 the errors of making them overhanging, ar 

 setting them too high. [See Farmers' Ca! 

 inet, No. 7, page 107.] No animal whatevf 

 should be fed with hay without racks, thoug 

 there are few in which the benefit is so d( 

 cided and apparent, as in feeding sheep.- 

 Where a number of sheep are kept togethe 

 and the hay for them is scattered over tl 

 o-round in the usual manner, ih'e whole floe 

 will dog the heels of the feeder, and by tl 

 time hehas been the rounds, the hay is ! 

 dirtied and trampled upon, that a large pa 

 of it is refuecd by the sheep and lot-t. 



