Sheep Feeding. 59 



ing feed is available in reasonable quantity. In high 

 country much wet and cold with decimate underfed 

 flocks, but with a reliable supply of food the sheep, in- 

 cluding ewes, and lambs too, receiving adequate 

 nourishment, will not only resist a lot, but flourish. 

 The sheep is a restless and spiritless animal, whose con- 

 stitution readily caves in to bad treatment. It may, in 

 truth, be said that no sheep can be properly healthy and 

 profitable unless it receives sufficient suitable food, and 

 good running water wherever possible, which is just as 

 much of a necessity. The worst treatment that sheep 

 can receive is to be placed on insufficient and unsuitable 

 feed ; the best treatment, on a proper supply offering 

 variety with gradual and not with radical or sudden 

 change. No animal appreciates variety of food so much 

 as the restless sheep. A breeding flock badly dieted 

 may return a profit on the venture of a few shillings 

 per head, or a loss, but one well managed and reasonably 

 fed will return something nearer and even over 1 per 

 head. What science there is in growing wool and mut- 

 ton, after the breed is selected for the particular country, 

 rests largely, under modern conditions of sheep farming, 

 in the study of appropriate and balanced feeding 

 grazing the pastures with economy and care, to extend 

 their usefulness as far into the unfavourable season as 

 possible, and supplying substitutes when nature, by 

 cold or drought, calls upon the pastures to halt their 

 activity and take rest. It is only with the immovable 

 or fixed things in creation, such as plants, that the sea- 

 sons suspend or make active growth ; in the animal sec- 

 tion growth or thrift should be continuous. 



