AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 225 



which induces the ewe to lick it, after which she will gene- 

 rally allow it to suck. If not, the ewe with her lamb should 

 be placed in a separate inclosure (of which several should be 

 previously prepared) and fed with the most nutritious fodder, 

 particularly with nourishing liquids, that the udder may be 

 uncomfortably distended ; and if this be not sufficient, sho 

 must be tied by the legs till the lamb has been once suckled; 

 after which there will be no farther difficulty.' 



Sir John Sinclair observed, that ' there is no food of which 

 sheep are fonder than pea-straw ; and where circumstances 

 are favorable for that crop, peas ought to be cultivated more 

 for the straw, from the advantages that would thence be de- 

 rived by the sheep-farmer.' Mr. Young al.^o observes, that 

 ' the straw of early white peas, applied to sheep, is the most 

 valuable return made by straw.' 



A writer for the New England Farmer, vol. iv. p. 234, 

 with the signature M. R. C, gives the following judicious 

 remarks on sheep. 



' Perhaps there is no domestic animal that requires more 

 nice and constant attention than the sheep, and n j other that 

 will more richly pay for generous keeping. Though he may 

 not bfc more liable to disease, nor require a better quality of 

 food than neat stock, still that management which will keep 

 cattle in good case will not answer for sheep. His habits 

 and mode of feeding are entirely different. For instance, in 

 the winter season a cow may be kept tied to the stall twenty- 

 two hours out of the twenty-four, nnd, if well fed three times a 

 day, keep her flesh and get sufficient exercise for her health. 

 Serve a sheep in the same manner and it would not proba- 

 bly live a month. It is natural for sheep to move about and 

 change situation. Turn a flock of hungry sheep into a pas- 

 ture, they will run to the end of it before they begin to eat ; 

 feed them in troughs, they will run over all till they come 

 to the last, when they have it in their power. They are 

 almost continually shifting situation from hill to dale, from 

 one kind of food to another ; and it is a fact that sheep will 

 thrive better on two or three different kinds of ordinary fod- 

 der, than they will to be confined to one kind that is of a 

 superior quality. 



' The proper time to yard sheep in the fall is while they 

 are yet in good order from fresh feed, and before the frost 

 takes the nourishing qualities from the grass : but a time 

 in which many sheep are not folded ; they are left to nibble 

 over the frozen pastures till they lose the flesh of half a 



