CHAPTEE XXI. 



SHEEP FEEDING. 



Freshly grown, sun licked grass, is what the sheep 

 thrives on, what it has been accustomed to thrive on for 

 ages ; it is succulent and nutritious, tasty and sustaining. 

 Grass is in a prime state for grazing when light or sun 

 is plentiful, when gentle breezes stir the air and supply 

 the plants with an abundance of carbonic acid gas, when 

 water is forthcoming in mists and rains, causing the 

 minerals and decomposed vegetation of the soil to be- 

 come solvent and feed the root system. During what 

 may be termed the cool or moderate times of the year. 

 With such grass in reasonable supply, come and go, 

 throughout the year, the conditions for sheep are ideal, 

 and, providing the surroundings are hygienic sheep 

 ones, health is assured. 



But the grass is not always in a prime assimilable or 

 nutritious state. Much wet weather makes it slushy, 

 watery, and winter growth with a maximum of cold or 

 wet and a minimum of wholesome sun is, when it is not 

 quiescent, unsustaining. Condition making of the sheep 

 is here suspended, and supplying appropriate substitutes 

 for the subtracted qualities of the pasture prompts itself. 

 The burnt appearance of grass during a dry summer 

 spell does not suggest the pastures unsuitability for 

 sheep, for they will do very well upon this sun-cured 

 feed and fatten, but they should have plenty water, for 

 the moisture in the grass has evaporated. The saccha- 

 rine and fattening properties are there, but the digestive 

 and solvent aid of water is particularly required. 



In its free and natural state the sheep would, when 

 favourable pasture feeding was unavailable, change its 

 grazing quarters or resort to an altered diet composed of 



