AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 227 



after mangers for hay, should be a place appropriated for 

 feeding out roots, which every farmer should raise to a cer- 

 tain extent. Although we cannot turn them to so good an 

 account as the English feeders do, on account of the severity 

 of our winters, still a proportion of them as food for our 

 stock is of great importance. In order that the farmer may 

 make the n.ost of his roots, he should have a cellar fixed to 

 receive them in the fall, Avithout too much labor, and ac- 

 cessible at any time in the winter, without endangering them 

 by frost. The cellar should be placed as near the yard as 

 practicable, with a watering-place at hand. A good way of 

 washing roots is to have an oblong box that will hold two 

 or three bushels, with the bottom perforated with auger 

 holes, and rockers placed on the under side of the box ; then. 

 by pouring in a little water and rocking them, the dirt will 

 directly wash through the bottom of the box. They should 

 then be cut fine with a sharp shovel, and they are fit for 

 feeding out. Browse in the winter occasionally for sheep is 

 very palatable, and is of considerable use in preserving their 

 appetite, and as a change of food, but care should be taken 

 to select the right kind. There are many kinds of hard 

 wood, of wnich the bark and buds are very injurious.^ The 

 bark of the black cherry eaten by ewes with lamb is almost 

 sure to produce abortion. Generally winter green is to be 

 preferred to any other browse. White and yellow pine are 

 best. 



' Regularity in feeding sheep is of prime consequence in 

 cold dry weather. It is not necessary to feed them oftener 

 than three times a day, if discretion is used in the quantity 

 of fodder. In warm weather, and especially if it is muddy, 

 they should have little at a time, and be fed four or five 

 times a day. Daubenton and others calculate that two 

 pounds of hay are sufficient for the support of one sheep a 

 day, (which, by the way, in our climate is not enough.) Cal- 

 culations of this kind, if made with the utmost accuracy on 

 one, or any number of sheep at one time, will not apply to 

 the same sheep at another ; because so much depends on 

 circumstances. A sheep that will eat three pounds of hay 

 in a cold day will not, perhaps, eat more than two in a warm 

 day following ; and still less in a damp one. Not that they 

 require so much more food in cold weather than in warm, 



* The wood disease, so much complained of in France, is wholly owing 

 to sheep's eating fresh buds. 



