METHOD OF WINTER FEEDING. 71 



be instructed with great care, how much grain is to go to each 

 yard or stable according to the animals it contains. An over-feed 

 at the commencement is almost sure to bring on the scours, and 

 after the sheep are over it, it will take at least two weeks' good 

 feeding to put them where they started from. My mode, to avoid 

 mistakes, is to number my yards and stables, and count the sheep 

 in each yard and stable allowing to each sheep one-half pint of 

 grain per day to start with, unless they have been fed grain pre- 

 viously, when I allow a little more. I then make out a schedule 

 thus : No. 1 60 sheep at one-half pint per day is 15 quarts, which 

 divided into two feeds, is 7$- quarts to a feed ; so I write on the 

 schedule, ' No. 1 60 sheep must have Tfc quarts at a feed morning 

 and night,' No. 2 at the same rate according to number, and so 

 on until I get them all. This paper is tacked up in the place 

 where the feed is kept, and by going with the feeder a few times 

 to show him and see that he makes no mistakes, if he is a good 

 man he can do it as well as the farmer himself. As soon as the 

 feed is to be increased, a new schedule is made out accordingly, 

 and so on, until the sheep are fed one quart each per day, when I 

 consider them on full feed, especially if the feed is corn, beans, or 

 oil-meal, or a mixture of either. If oats or buckwheat compose 

 part of their feed, they should have a little more. Regularity of 

 hours is very important. Sheep should not be fed one morning at 

 five o'clock, the next at six, and the third at seven. Our rule is 

 this : Grain and oil-meal are fed at half-past five A.M. As soon as 

 the grain is finished, hay is given no more than the sheep will 

 eat clean. The different yards and stables are carefully fed each 

 day in the same order, which is important to avoid confusion and 

 mistakes beginning with No. 1, and so on through the list. 

 After breakfast, water is given, going around twice to see that all 

 are well supplied. The roots are next cut, (ruta-bagas, which I 

 consider best), and of these to my present stock of about 350 sheep, 

 I am now feeding 10 bushels a day. At eleven o'clock straw is 

 fed. Twelve is the dinner hour, and immediately after dinner the 

 roots are fed. The troughs and tubs are now all examined, and 

 replenished with water if necessary also salt, salt and ashes, 

 browse, litter, and anything else that may be needed, is supplied. 

 The evening and next morning's feeds of grain and oil-meal are 

 next prepared, and hay got ready for both night and morning. 

 At 4 P.M. feeding the grain is again commenced, followed as before 

 by hay, after which the water tubs and troughs are emptied and 

 turned over, and the work ic finished for the night." 

 The value of roots tor winter feeding is very inadequately esti 



