12 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



My flocks ranged from full blood Merino to one-quarter 

 Merino and three-quarters Saxony, and vice versa. The 

 greatest number that I owned at any one time was five hun- 

 dred, not including lambs. In one lot of one hundred acres, 

 (including thirty-five acres of wood-land,) I pastured three 

 hundred sheep, together with fifteen head of cattle, and four 

 horses. In another pasture I kept one hundred and thirty, and 

 hired the remainder kept by the year, for one dollar each. In 

 winter, I separated them into five flocks — the lambs in one, 

 wethers in another, and the ewes in three. I fed principally 

 with hay, but always used some ruta bagas, English turnips, 

 and a little corn or oats. Those that I hired kept, were fed 

 with good hay and potatoes. I gave hay three times a day — 

 usually dropping it on clean snow a few rods from the sheds, 

 or barn. If sheep feed from a rack, they wear the wool from 

 their neck, and fill their fleeces with the hay seed ; if hay is 

 given under sheds or in the yard, they tread it in the dirt, and 

 waste it. 



Open sheds are sufficient protection for flocks in winter. 

 Confined air, and crowding in close quarters, are each highly 

 injurious. In spring, I always had my sheep tagged before 

 turning to pasture. By this practice, wool is saved, the fleece 

 is kept clean, and the sheep in a more thriving condition. 

 After washing thoroughly in running water, I let them run 

 seven or eight days before shearing, that the wool might be- 

 come a little softened with oil. Manufacturers like it better 

 in that condition, and it weighs more. A flock of four or five 

 hundred half blood Merinos usually averaged three pounds of 

 clear wool to the clip — sometimes a little more. A flock of 

 wethers only, average about five pounds each. Prices of wool, 

 of that quality, ranged from forty to fifty cents ; I have sold 

 some of the finest Saxony at seventy-five cents per pound. 

 Wethers I sold at three years of age to drovers — price, two 

 dollars each. They are seldom fit to sell at three years, and 

 after three years, they shear less wool. Farmers allow that 

 seven or eight sheep require an amount of food equal to one 

 cow. I kept ten cows, and the labor attending their keeping, 

 was, every year, equal to that required by five hundred sheep. 



Cows there, yield richer milk, and a much greater quantity, 



