SHEEP AND WOOL. 213 



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 particular attention, 

 not only to their sheep having an adequate supply 

 of food, but to the manner in which it is fed to 

 them. Manufacturers dislike to have the wool they 

 use filled with grass and other seed ; and, from the 

 additional labour such wool requires, usually compel 

 the grower to submit to a deduction of some cents 

 per pound. When hay is thrown from a stack or a 

 cowhouse where sheep are about, unless some care 

 is used, this result usually follows ; as the animals 

 are certain to collect under the falling hay, and their 

 wool receives and retains most of the seed scatter- 

 ed at such times. So, too, when fed from the com- 

 mon elevated rack, their wool will be injured by the 

 retention of seed dropped on their necks and backs 

 in drawing out their hay. 



To avoid this evil and loss, racks should be used 

 the sides of which are perpendicular, and which are 

 so low that the sheep, in getting his food, need not 

 fill his eyes and wool with dust and seed. Several 

 plans for very good racks have been presented in 

 the volumes of the Farmer ; and no one can fail of 

 constructing good ones if he only avoids the errors 

 of making them overhanging and setting them too 

 high. No animal whatever should be fed hay with- 

 out racks, though there are few cases in which their 

 benefit is so decided and apparent as in feeding 

 sheep. Where a number of sheep are kept to- 

 gether, and the hay for them is scattered over the 

 ground in the usual manner, the whole flock will dog 

 the heels of the feeder, and, by the time he has been 

 the rounds, the hay is so dirtied and trampled upon 

 that a large part of it is refused by the sheep and 

 lost. 



Some farmers maintain that drink and shelter are 

 unnecessary, or that they are, on the whole, disad- 

 vantageous to sheep. This must be a mistake ; for 



