80 THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



of dry fodder, the horse or cow yields 216 Ibs. of fresh manure- 

 equal to 46 Ibs. dry while the sheep gives but 128 Ibs. of moist 

 manure equal to 43 Ibs. dry. It ferments very quickly, and needs 

 therefore to be kept solidly packed under foot, and free from 

 access of air, or to be turned frequently when heaped in the yard. 

 When the manure, made in the ordinary course of feeding, pos- 

 sesses this high relative value, it may readily be believed that when 

 fattening sheep are highly fed with stimulating food rich in albu 

 men and phosphates, the starch and oil only being assimilated hi 

 the production of fat, and the others being used only in part 

 their dung forms a very rich and valuable manure. This is thor- 

 oughly well understood by English farmers, who practise the 

 feeding of sheep more with a view to the value of their manure 

 than for profit in other ways, and it is unfortunate for us that we 

 do not so thoroughly appreciate this as to practise it ourselves. The 

 following quotation from a paper upon this subject, read by an 

 English farmer at a meeting of a farmers' club, and reported in an 

 English agricultural journal, very clearly sets forth this view : 



" The manurial value of oil-cake, when used regularly on a farm, 

 can scarcely be over-estimated, the dung made in the stalls being 

 so vastly enriched as to enable it to be spread over an extended 

 acreage, with better results than could possibly be obtained from 

 the same bulk alone, whatever the area to which it might be ap- 

 plied, and the effect is discernible on the color and quality of the 

 pasture for a much longer period. The improvement effected on 

 grass-land by cake-fed stock is an example of the utility and value 

 of this excellent food which every one can understand, its action 

 in this way being quicker, and so distinct as to be unmistakable. 

 With sheep the improvement is peculiarly striking when netted 

 [confined by nets or hurdles] over a pasture field and largely cake- 

 fed, the droppings, both liquid and solid, being so regularly dis- 

 tributed over the surface, that every rootlet is reached and nour- 

 ished, and the herbage is accordingly forced into extraordinary 

 luxuriance." 



Another special branch of sheep keeping, which offers advan- 

 tages to farmers favorably situated for it, is the raising of a good 

 class of sheep to meet the demands of those who purchase for the 

 purpose of raising lambs, or for winter feeding and fattening. 

 Where markets are too distant to enable these branches of sheep 

 husbandry to be profitably followed, a good class of stockers or 

 drover's sheep might be raised. Half-bred, long-wool mutton sheep 

 could be raised in every western state and shipped to the great cen- 

 tral markets of Kansas City, Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo, and else- 



