SUMMER MANAGEMENT. 207 



WHEAT STUBBLE. 



Permitting sheep to run on ungleaned wheat stubble is 

 exceedingly dangerous, and should be avoided. This arises 

 from the inflammatory nature of wheat, if eaten in too large 

 quantities by herbivorous animals. Swine should always 

 precede sheep, unless the field is small, and the flock a large 

 one. Even under these circumstances it will conduce to 

 greater safety, if the sheep are full salted at the time, and light- 

 ly for one or two days following. There is no danger to be 

 apprehendedby allowing sheep to glean other stubble. The 

 lambs and least fleshy portions of the flock should have the 

 run of them. 



OVERSTOCKING. 



Said a foreigner to^the writer, " There are two impoTtaiit 

 errors committed by American agriculturists — they overdo, 

 and underdo ; the former consisting in cultivating too much 

 land, and overstocking, — and the latter in the slovenly per- 

 formance of their work, and heedless management of their an- 

 imals." There is no want of sagacity or truth in these as- 

 sertions, however unpalatable they may be. If overstocking 

 is an " overdoing," few of us can escape the charge, for it is 

 confessedly quite too common an error ; and to this cause, 

 perhaps, more than any other, the passing traveller may at- 

 tribute the emaciated carcases of sheep during the winter 

 which he sees around the dwellings of numerous farmers. 

 Too many of us imagine that sheep can be supported on little 

 or nothing ; while others suppose the larger the number they 

 can assemble on their premises, the greater, consequently, must 

 be the returns of profit, not being sensible of the fact that 100 

 sheep well fed and well managed are more lucrative than the 

 addition of one quarter more, if ill fed and otherwise indiffer- 

 ently provided. Charity should be extended to the inexperi- 

 enced under such circumstances, but withheld from those 

 who pertinaciously cling from year to year to this unprofita- 

 ble, and it may justly be added, inhumane policy. The well- 

 ordered husbandman will gather wisdom from seeing his er- 

 rors ; but the " overdoing" and " underdoing" not from his, un- 

 til gradual reduction to poverty make them too tangible lon- 

 ger to escape his observation. 



The number of acres required for the annual support of 

 one hundred sheep of the Merino and Saxon varieties, or 



