222 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



given them.' They may be fattened in the winter ; but it is 

 commonly too expensive, ab they will require a good deal of 

 richer food than hay. When sheep are once become fat, 

 they should be killed ; for it is said they cannot be made fat 

 a second lime. The teeth of ewes begin to decay at five, 

 those of weathers at seven, and those of rams not until eight. 



Eives, Lambs, SfC. It is recommended to give ewes with 

 lamb a somewhat more than ordinary quantity of food for 

 a month or six weeks before they are expected to yean ; 

 not enough, however, to make them fat, as dangerous con- 

 sequences might attend their being in very high condition at 

 that period. Turnips are said to be injurious to ewes with 

 lamb, but may be well given them after they have yeaned. 

 If your sheep, whether store sheep or ewes with lamb, have 

 good hay, about a quart of potatoes a day to each will, it is 

 said, be very beneficial, and an ample allowance. But when 

 the object is to fat them, according to a writer in Rees' Cy- 

 clopedia, about a gallon of potatoes a day, with a little hay, 

 will be the proper quantity ; but this is dependent, in part, on 

 the size of the animals, and in part on the quality and quan- 

 tity of the hay which is allowed to them. Potatoes, besides 

 their use as food for sheep, are said to be very serviceable 

 as an article of diet, which usually supersedes the necessity 

 of medicine. They have, when given raw, an opening or 

 purgative quality, which is thought to be of use, and answer 

 a similar purpose with sheep which is effected with swine 

 by brimstone and antimony. Potatoes, baked, steamed, oi 

 boiled, will furnish more nutriment than those which are 

 raw. 



Care should be taken to place in the stable small tubs or 

 troughs of water for the sheep to drink in. They will do 

 very well in summer without water, as they feed when the 

 dew is on, but they need water in winter, especially if fed 

 mostly on dry food. 'When sheep have colds, and discharge 

 mucus from the nose, good feeding, together with pine boughs, 

 given occasionally, will cure them ; or tar, spread over a 

 board, over which a little fine salt is strewed, will induce the 

 sheep to lick up tar, and this will cure a cold."^ Half a gill 

 of Indian corn a day, given to each sheep during winter, is 

 recommended as keeping them in good heart, preventing the 

 wool from falling oflf, and enablin^r the ewes to rear their 



* Deane's New England Farmer. 



