SHEEP. 245 



Do fed from the barn before feed is so scarce that they 

 fall away for want of a supply. If they lose condition 

 before housing, they will hardly recover in the winter, 

 without extra keeping, and the consequence will be the 

 loss of lambs, or a stinted race ; loss of wool, and a poor 

 article, and perhaps a loss of sheep. It is an important 

 hinge, on which much turns. 



Sheep sutler in our long winters for want of green 

 food. Give them roots of various kinds, such as pota- 

 toes, carrots, beets, parsnips, and turnips. For a month 

 or so before yearing, they should not have roots, or only a 

 few, as they will produce a premature flow of milk, and 

 cause it to cake in the bag. At this time, they may 

 have a very few roots, to keep the bowels open, and pre- 

 vent their faltering for want of access to the ground. 

 Carrots are best, as they do not produce so large a flow 

 of milk as other roots, but tend in part to keep up the 

 condition. Do not feed too high before the yearing sea- 

 son. See remarks on the management of cows before 

 calving. The same apply to sheep. 



Give sheep, in winter, as condiments, salt, wood ashes, 

 clay, and pure earth. Give them also as salutary or 

 medicinal food, cedar, pine, spruce, hemlock, fir, and 

 other boughs. [See Browse, page 249.] And by all 

 means give them a good supply of pure water. As they 

 eat dry fodder, they will drink often and freely. They 

 cannot satisfy their thirst by eating snow, any more than 

 a man can by devouring snow or sucking an icicle. We 

 have kept sheep and cattle about the same distance from 

 water, say seven rods, and the sheep would go and drink 

 t^vice as often as the cattle. They would not eat more 

 than half an hour in the morning, before they would all 

 run and drink. They will go a considerable distance 

 for this purpose, if kindly invited at first, by a lock of 

 hay, or something else to entice them, instead of fright- 

 ening them with dogs and noisy boys, in the vain at- 

 tempt to drive them. 



lilr. Thomas Noble says, in the Ohio Cultivator, 

 ''My sheep consist of sixteen hundred head, and so far, 

 I have lost none. We cut all their feed, and the saving 

 thereby is at least one third." 

 21* 



