PRAIRIE MANAGEMENT. 141 



south of here, have, the present winter, scarcely foddered at 

 all. I apprehend, however, that our winters here will 

 always be variable, and that it will be far more difficult to 

 predict their length and intensity than in New England. In 

 relation to the value of blue grass for fall and spring pasture, 

 Thomas N. Welles, of Peoria, in a communication to the 

 Prairie Farmer, remarks as follows : — ' My .sheep have had 

 no feed of any kind, since the first day of April, except pas- 

 turage, (blue grass,) and they are now (May 10th) fat. 

 They were put upon it as soon as the snow would let their 

 noses to the ground. Last fall my stock were kept upon the 

 grass till the 12th of November, when the herbage was cov- 

 ered with snow. Had the climate been open, the sheep 

 would have required little else than the grass. The tame 

 grasses, and especially blue grass, even if fed through the 

 summer and fall, will afford good feed about six weeks later 

 in autumn, and six weeks earlier in spring, than the prairie 

 grass. If shut up all the summer and fall, the blue grass 

 affords the best feed all winter, when the snow does not 

 cover it.' The winter adverted to was the severe one 

 already mentioned. 



" ' What are sheep chiefly fed on?'' 



" It is doubtful if any fixed mode of feeding has been adopt- 

 ed except in particular instances. Every sort of feeding, ac- 

 cording to circumstances, is practised. Some feed almost en- 

 tirely on the wild grass and hay of the prairies, which, when 

 cut on uplands and well cured, is believed by sheep-keepers 

 to be as good as any other, though more of it in weight will 

 be required than of good English hay. Some feed this hay 

 with a proportion of oats in sheaf, and roots twice a week, 

 and this is undoubtedly, with salt, good treatment. It is 

 found to be decidedly better to keep sheep up in small 

 flocks, with very little ground to run over, while kept on hay, 

 than to let them run out a part of the time, and get such 

 grass as they can pick, while there is not enough to sustain 

 them. They eat much dirt in such cases, are liable to be 

 poisoned, and lose their appetite for hay. A settled course 

 of feed of one character, embracing proper variety, is found 

 here, as at the East, decidedly preferable. The old rule, to 

 keep them at grass, while they can be with profit, and then 

 to put them to hay and keep them at it, works as well here 

 as anywhere. 



" ' /i is reported that sheep removed from the old States be- 



