50 The Shepherds' Guide. 



regularity, hurdling them off in such portions as the 

 sheep will eat clean, they will go far; and the land 

 will be so well manured as to produce an abund- 

 ant crop of wheat, oats, or any other grain the 

 next season. When this provision has not been 

 made, pumpkins may probably answer our pur- 

 pose. I cannot speak from my own experience 

 on this subject. I made the experiment this 

 year on a small scale, with a few weakly sheep, 

 lately imported ; but my pastures were very good, 

 and they refused them : but Chancellor Livingston 

 informs me that he fed them to his sheep the last 

 fall; that he found they ate them freely, and that 

 they agreed perfectly well with them. Should this 

 be confirmed, and if what I hear is true, that we 

 have in New-Jersey a pumpkin that will keep, if 

 preserved from the frost, for more than a year ; 

 we have in them an excellent substitute for tur- 

 nips, carrots, ^cabbages, or any other green food, 

 with the cultivation of which we are perfectly ac- 

 quainted ; and which we know we can raise in any 

 quantity, and at much less expense than any root. 

 At any rate, however, care should be taken during 

 the period when grass is scanty, to admit the 

 sheep daily to the fold, and give them some hay, 

 if they will eat it, or a very litde corn ; that they 

 may be in perfect good health, when they are 

 first confined to the fold : for if they are pinched, 

 and fail in the beginning of the winter, it is diffi- 

 cult to get them in good heart again. 



