APPENDIX. 397 



precisely 3| lbs. of clean washed wool per head, and the yearlings 

 lacked only one pound in the aggregate quantity from them, of 

 averaging 3| lbs. 



The present season I am feeding the whole of my flock, except 

 the lambs, straw and oil meal, at the rate of one bushel to the 

 hundred per day; 318 lambs are fed with hay and an allowance 

 of two bushels of oil meal per day. I may as well say here that, 

 in my opinion, the oil meal causes the wool to be finer than the 

 grain ; it is moi-e economical also than hay — and therefore think 

 it the best feeding for sheep. Clover hay will certainly fatten 

 sheep, if well cured, but they eat very large quantities of it, and 

 we know that it costs more to cut and cure than herds grass ; 

 while oil meal costs at the mill Sll per ton; now a ton contains 

 40 bushels, which gives 27^ cents cost per bushel. If I then feed 

 150 days, as we generally do, then each sheep would consume 41 

 cents worth of oil meal, and no more. 



The quantity of hay consumed by sheep depends much on the 

 winter, and also on the condition of the lands. If the fields are 

 left rough in the autumn, with the pasture old, and the winter 

 like the last, and mild as the present so far, sheep would not re- 

 quire so much hay. But where the pastures are close fed by the 

 end of November, and where sheep are on hay for 150 days, I be- 

 lieve that each sheep will in that period consume 500 lbs. of hay, 

 if fed nothing else. In making this estimate, I of course suppose 

 that the sheep are to be shorn in as good condition as they were in 

 the previous November ; such is almost always the case with 

 mine, for I have no opinion of putting on flesh in summer to be 

 wasted in winter. 



In respect to the keeping of sheep through the summer, I 

 would remark that I have large fallows, and I change my sheep 

 from pastures to these ; after hai-vest they have a range on the 

 stubbles. I never turn from winter keep until the pastures are 

 good ; these I sow with plaster, which causes a great increase of 

 feed. 



[Mr. Johnston states that his ewes raise 90 per cent, of lambs.] 



In relation to my Bucks, I would say that I have been tempted 

 recently to purchase some from gentlemen who have from time 

 to time boasted of their large average weight of fleeces, as pub- 

 lished in the Cultivator and other papers ; but unfortunately thus 

 far none of them have produced anything near the average weight 

 of wool claimed for them, which I cannot account for, unless the 

 gentlemen do not wash as clean as we do in this quarter. Cer- 

 tainly the sheep are never in worse condition than when they 

 came into my hands. For several years past my flock has yield- 

 ed an average of from 3 to 3^ lbs. ; the last clip averaged 3 lbs. 

 10 oz., and this year I hope for more. 



Since I commenced purchasing high-priced bucks, it has been 

 my practice to put only one to the 100 ewes ; but he is pennitted 

 to remain among them only about 30 days, preferring rather a dry 



34 



