26 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



that they will lodge, then great good may result from 

 grazing them down for a time by sheep. Early sown 

 crops will profit the most from such grazing, as the graz- 

 ing tends to make the crops ripen somewhat later, hence 

 the grazing down of late crops may so defer maturity in 

 these that they would pass the season most favorable to 

 maturing under the best conditions before maturity is 

 reached. When the area to be grazed is large relatively 

 in proportion to the number of sheep on hand, the graz- 

 ing may begin on spring-sown cereals as soon as the sheep 

 can obtain food from the plants, but cereals fall sown are 

 not usually grazed thus early, as the season for grazing is 

 so much longer than with cereals spring sown. 



Grazing cereals with sheep may harm the crops 

 rather than help them under certain conditions. Harm 

 will follow if they are grazed on these crops growing on 

 clay soil so moist that impaction will result from the graz- 

 ing. Such soils do not receive benefit from impaction, 

 but usually the opposite. Such grazing is seldom prac- 

 ticable on stiff clays, and generally is not needed, as on 

 such soils crops do not usually grow too rankly. Harm 

 will follow the grazing of winter crops much beyond the 

 season when spring growth begins, although winter rye 

 may in some instances be pastured with advantage to the 

 crop for two or three weeks subsequently to the opening 

 of the growing season, and harm will follow if the graz- 

 ing is continued so long in any case as to reduce the pro- 

 duction of straw below what is necessary to produce normal 

 yields of grain. Such an occurrence follows pasturing 

 too long continued in all instances, and it is accentu- 

 ated when the weather turns dry. The necessity, there- 

 fore, for exercising correct judgment when grazing such 

 crops is ever present. As the nature of the weather can- 

 not be forecasted with certainty, the prudence which 

 stops short of adequate pasturing is to be commended 

 rather than the temerity which hazards pasturing unduly 

 severe. 



