384 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



times, they get enough gi-ass to take away their appetite for dry hay, but 

 not enough to sustain them ; they fall away, and towards spring they be- 

 come weak, and a large proportion of them frequently perish. I speak, 

 of course, of flocks of some size, and on properly stocked farms. A few 

 sheep, with a boundless range, would do better. 



Some of our flock-masters let out their sheep occasionally for a single 

 day, during a thaw ; others keep them entirely from the ground until let 

 out to grass in the spring. I prefer the former course, where the sheep 

 ordinarily get nothing but dry fodder. It affords a healthy laxative, and 

 a single day's grazing will not take off" their appetite from more than one 

 succeeding dry feed. It is necessary, here, to keep the sheep in the yards 

 until the feed' has got a good start in the spring, or they, particularly 

 breeding-ewes, will get off" from their feed, and get weak at the most crit- 

 ical time for them in the year. 



Yards should be firm-bottomed, dry, — and. they should, (in ZAw climate,) 

 be kept well littered with straw. 



My impression is that the yarding system will never be practiced to any 

 extent in the South. It certainly should not be, where sheep can get their 

 living from the fields. How far, and under what circumstances, they will 

 do this, has already been sufficiently discussed, in my preceding Letters. 



Feeding-Racks. — When the giound is frozen, and especially when 

 covered with snow, the sheep eats hay better on the ground than anywhere 

 else. When the land is soft, muddy, or foul with manure, they will scarce- 

 ly touch hay placed on it. It should then be fed in racks. 



These are of various forms. 

 Figure 31 gives the common box ^'s- 3i. 



rack, in the most general use in 

 the North. It is ten feet long, 

 two and a half wide, the lower 

 boards a foot wide, the upper 

 ones about ten inches, the two 

 about nine inches apart, and the 

 corner posts three by three, or 

 three and a half by two and a half inches. The boards are spiked on these 

 posts by large flat headed nails wrought for the purpose, and the lower 

 edges of the upper boards and the upper edges of the lower ones are 

 rounded so they shall not wear the wool oft' from the sheep's necks. The 

 lower boards and the opening for the heads, should be two or three inches 

 narrower for lambs. If made of light wood, as they should be, a man 

 standing in the inside and middle of one of these racks, can easily carry it 

 about — an important desideratum. Unless overfed, sheep waste very lit- 

 tle hay in them. 



A capital shed or barn rack is represented in the following cut. The 



Fi^. 32. 



BOX RACK. 



HOLE RACK. 



holes are eight inches wide, nine inches high, and eighteen inches from 

 center to center. Sheep do not crowd and take advantage ,of each other 



(744) 



