400 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



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to the ground, and refuse dry hay, a little grain assists materially in 

 keeping up their strength and condition. This may furnish a useful 

 hint for many parts of the South. When the feed is shortest in winter, 

 in the South, there are many localities where sheep would get enough 

 grass to take off their appetite for dry hay, but not qvite. enough to keep 

 them in prime condition. A moderate daily feed of oats or pease placed 

 in the depository racks, would keep them strong, in good plight for the 

 lambing season, and increase their weight of wool. 



Few Northern farmers feed Indian coi-n to store-sheep. It is consid- 

 ered " too hot and stimulating," and sheep are thought to be more liable 

 to become " cloyed " on it than on oats, pease, &c. I never have fed it to 

 sheep sufficiently to speak advisedly on this point. A neighboring flock- 

 master whose admirable arrangements for keeping sheep are only equaled 

 by his usual success, lost most of a large flock of lambs a few winters 

 since. They received all they would eat of the best hay, and, as the 

 owner supposed^ a half gill of corn a head per day. They were in fine 

 order in the beginning, and for some time into the winter. During a thaw, 

 when they got a little off from their feed, and looked " hollovv^," the shep- 

 herd, without the knowledge of the owner, increased the feed of corn. 

 This caused them to eat still less hay, and the shepherd not only continued 

 but increased the allowance of the corn as their appetite for hay dimin- 

 ished. In a short time they ate scarcely any hay, and soon after began to 

 eat their corn very irregularly. Their stomachs were now so completely 

 deranged, that they would not eat anything, in quantities sufficient for 

 their subsistence, and ihey perished rapidly and miserably. The same 

 consequences might doubtless have ensued from feeding other grains, in 

 the same improper manner. But I am inclined to think that the evil 

 would have been less rapid and remediless with some other grains. I do 

 not consider yellow corn a very safe feed, at least for lambs and yearlings. 

 From the obviously different character of the larger Southern varieties, 

 I presume they would be less, and very probably not at all, objectionable 

 for sheep feed. Haifa gill of yellow corn, or a gill of oats per head, is a 

 sufficient daily allowance of grain. While there can be nothing more ab- 

 surd than the German starving system to increase the fineness of the wool, 

 excessive fatness is not to be aimed at, especially in breeding-ewes. Store 

 sheep should be kept in good, fair, ^jZwrnp condition. Lambs and yearlings 

 may be as fat as they will become on i^opcr feeding. 



it will not do to suffer sheep to get thin in the winter, with the idea 

 that their condition can at any time be readily raised by better feed, as 

 with the horse or ox. It is always difficult, and unless properly managed, 

 expensive and hazardous, to attempt to raise the condition of a poor flock 

 in the winter — especially if they have reached that point where they mani- 

 fest weakness. If the feeding of a liberal allowance of grain be suddenly 

 commenced, fatal diarrhea will frequently supervene. All extra feeding, 

 therefore, must be begun very gradually, and it does not seem, in any case, 

 to produce propoi'tionable results. 



I have seen it stated that sheep will eat cotton-seed and thrive on it. 

 If this be true, this must, of course, be a far more remunerating applica- 

 tion of that product, than as a mere manure to soils. 



Feeding Roots, Browse, &c., in Winter. — Kuta-bagas, Irish potatoes, 

 &c., make a good substitute for grain, as an extra feed for grown sheep. 

 I prefer the ruta-baga to the potato in equivalents of nutriment. I do not 

 consider either of them, or any other root, as good for lambs and yearlings 

 as an equivalent in grain. Sheep may be tauglit to eat nearly all the cul- 



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