SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 165 



Question. What kind of a fence do you use ? 



Mr. BowDiTCii. If you don't look out when you are buy- 

 ing sheep you will get jumpers. You want to be as careful 

 not to buy jumping sheep as you would be not to buy 

 a kicking cow. I have had some first-class jumpers, but 

 I do not like them. In using barbed wire you want to 

 put it on carefully, and notice exactly how your sheep go at 

 a wall. You want to put the barbed wire so that the barbs 

 will prick their noses. At one time I had some forty jump- 

 ers. I put a barb wire on top of the wall, and they had 

 some very sore noses for a day or two, but it kept them in. 

 They will jump an eight-foot wall if they can only get a 

 foothold. I put the barbed wire about three inches above 

 the top of the wall, so that when they put their feet on a 

 stone to jump, the barbs would prick their noses. 



Question. Have you put cattle and sheep in the same 

 pasture ? 



Mr. Bowditch. I have, occasionally. I think the sheep 

 do very well, but I don't think the cattle do quite so well, 

 because sheep feed so close. A pasture which I had of 

 some forty acres, which carried from early May until Sep- 

 tember 290 odd sheep, when I began to put sheep on it five 

 years ago would keep alive seven cows, — it would not give 

 them enough to eat. I see no reason, from the experience I 

 have had, why any numl)er of sheep cannot be kept together 

 if they are healthy and watched carefully, provided you give 

 them proper ventilation when you house them, for there is 

 no animal that needs fresh air as much as sheep. 



I think the best grain for sheep is a mixture of corn meal, 

 ground oats and shorts. I would say that in the summer 

 time I feed a very small amount of cotton seed, — just a bare 

 pinch. That is a highly concentrated food, and I would not 

 feed much cotton seed after the ewes are fairly with lambs. 

 I have had some trouble in using it. 



Question. Would you feed cotton seed to lambs ? 



Mr. Bowditch. No, not unless I wanted to have them 

 (lie before I was ready. 



Question. I would like to ask Mr. Bowditch if a small 

 flock of sheep could be profitably kept on a garden farm to 

 eat up the waste of the crops ? 



