SHEEP AND WOOL. 211 



proof of the fact already alluded to, that the finer the 

 wool, the more delicate and tender the animal. 



The general health of sheep, and, consequently, 

 their profit to the owner, is so much influenced by 

 the treatment they receive during our severe win- 

 ters, that a few remarks on the wintering of sheep 

 will not be out of place here. 



In few kinds of business carried on by the farmer 

 is care more necessary, or skill and attention better 

 rewarded, than in the raising and keeping of sheep. 

 The finer-wooled varieties of this animal — those 

 from which the greatest profit is derived — are pre- 

 cisely the ones which suffer the most from neglect; 

 and the inattention of the owner often subjects him 

 to serious losses, which might, by proper precau- 

 tions, be entirely avoided. 



Sheep suffer most from maltreatment in the early 

 part of winter ; any injury arising from neglect then 

 being, from the very constitution of the animal, very 

 difficult to remedy afterward. There is a point in 

 the descending scale to which, if sheep are once al- 

 lowed to fall, ail efforts to raise them are usually 

 unavailing. 



One great cause of the 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 the fields long after the frosts 

 have destroyed everything that is green, and per- 

 haps after the earth is covered with snow, they 

 gather a precarious subsistence, and are rapidly 

 losing the flesh and strength which, with proper 

 treatment, would enable them successfully to com- 

 bat the rigours of winter, and what is termed the 

 faintness of spring. Better collect sheep into their 

 yards as early as the 1st of December, and com- 

 mence their regular feeding, than wait until January 

 before it is done, under the idea that in this way fod- 

 der is saved. There may be, indeed, a partial saving 



