136 SHEEP OF THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH AMERICA. 



have hitherto prevented their rapid increase upon any large 

 scale. 



" The loolf is a great drawback on the pleasure and profit 

 of sheep-keeping. It is not only what the beast destroys, 

 but the expense incurred in watching against his attacks. 

 But the greatest loss sustained is being obliged to pen the 

 sheep every night, for safe keeping. * * * * Deaths, 

 from unknown causes, have swept away whole flocks, newly 

 brought into the State, which tends to dampen similar enter- 

 prises. Many sheep are often purchased from drovers, which 

 have been over-driven, and which has laid the foundation of 

 disease. From whatever cause it may arise, if the sheep are 

 poor in the fall of the year, great loss will accrue to the 

 owner. The dry, mild weather in autumn is often accompa- 

 nied with scanty herbage, and sheep rapidly decline unob- 

 served, the growth of wool concealing their poverty from an 

 unpractised eye, and a mortal stroke is inflicted before the 

 owner suspects it. It is a great point to procure sheep from 

 healthy flocks, if possible. When they are brought from a 

 distance, care should be taken that they are not over-driven. 

 Twelve or fifteen miles a day is far enough, and should never 

 be urged beyond their naturally slow pace. It behooves the 

 farmer to see that he has an abundance of nutritious food on 

 their arrival at their journey's end. Keeping sheep of all 

 ages in a flock, in a pasture barely sufficient for them, de- 

 stroys the young and the old. The strong, robust sheep eat 

 up all the food. In winter feeding, not allowing sufficient 

 trough and rack room for all the sheep to feed at once, with- 

 out crowding each other, starves the weakest. These are 

 some of the known causes of failure of success, and lest 

 there should be others of a local nature, I would advise 

 every new beginner to be moderate in the number of his 

 flock the first year ; two or three hundred is enough for the 

 ewe flock. 



" The Prairie grass is green, succulent, and nourishing, 

 until the first part of July ; Irom that time onward it becomes 

 less and less acceptable. If a flock is kept upon it, in the 

 latter part of summer it requires a large range and fresh pas- 

 turage. But a method is known to the frontier settlers, of 

 retaining spring herbage, until the approach of winter. Se- 

 lect a patch of prairie (some five or ten thousand acres) that 

 has not been burned the preceding year. The mass of old 

 dry grass, in the middle of Juno, is sufliciently combustible to 



