PROVIDING SHEEP WITH WATER AND SALT 313 



should be made readily accessible to them in order that 

 their needs in this respect may be fully met. Water sup- 

 plied for sheep is not warmed as it is in many instances 

 for cattle. It has not yet been demonstrated that warm- 

 ing the water for sheep will repay the cost. 



While some classes of sheep may do with much less 

 water than others in winter, no class of sheep should be 

 denied access to it for a single day. The claim that snow 

 will prove a sufficient source of water is untenable. 

 Sheep will eat clean snow to relieve their thirst when wa- 

 ter can be obtained from no other source, but they will 

 not eat enough to supply their needs. Water obtained 

 from this source is unduly cold. Sheep may exist under 

 these conditions, but they will not thrive as they should. 



Ewes nursing lambs call for much water, and the 

 more highly that they are fed grain the greater is their 

 need for plentiful supplies of water, in the absence of field 

 roots. Without an abundant supply of water they cannot 

 furnish a full supply of milk for their lambs. The amount 

 of water that ewes thus fed will take will surprise those 

 not accustomed to such feeding. 



Sheep that are being fattened also call for more water 

 than sheep that are being simply carried through the win- 

 ter. The large amount of grain food that is fed to them 

 generates thirst, and the greater the degree of the concen- 

 tration the greater will be the thirst. No class of sheep 

 or sheep under no conditions will consume more water 

 than those that are being thus fattened. These should not 

 only have access to water, but they should have access 

 to it at will. The attempts to fatten them in the absence 

 of an ample supply of water cannot be in the highest 

 sense successful. 



Water should be made easily accessible to sheep. If 

 supplied in the yards or sheds, they will drink when they 

 would not do so if required to go (futside of the yard to 

 take water. It cannot be supplied to the ordinary flock 

 in better form than when supplied to them in tubs in the 



