420 APPENDIX. 



porary sheds. I think there is no stock needs to be sheltered from 

 the stomi more than sheep, as we are subject to veiy sudden 

 changes of weather in this climate during the winter months. 



Of grain, we feed principally com and sheaf oats ; corn-cob 

 meal makes a very hearty feed. J have no doubt but sugar-beets 

 and other roots nn'ght be raised and fed to great advantage here, 

 but we have not got into the way of it yet. 



I think the best flocks of sheep in the State are of the Spanish 

 Merino, though some of them have been crossed more or less with 

 the Saxony. " In my opinion, the northwestern part of the State is 

 best adapted to sheep, the land being hilly, and a rich limestone 

 soil, well suited to the production of grass. 



A half bushel of com to the hundred, or a dozen sheaves of oats 

 once a day, is about our rule of feeding grain. 



On the"^subject of housing sheep, I am decidedly in favor of good 

 drj' sheds for them ; my experience is, that sheep should not be 

 suffered to get wet in the winter season. Last winter, I had 

 comfortable shelters for all my sheep, except one flock of about 

 200, which were exposed to the weather ; and I have no hesitation 

 in saving that they ate one-fourth more feed than any other flock 

 of the same number on the farm ; and the consequence of this ex- 

 posure was, that in the spring, when grass came, they were all 

 very poor, while the rest of my sheep were in good condition, 

 with full coats of wool on them. By feeding under sheds we save 

 all the manure, which is a very desirable object. 



LETTER FROM ASAHEL B. HODSKINS, OF WALPOLE, N. HAMPSHIRE. 



Dear Sir, — Your favor was duly received, in which you pro- 

 pound a series of questions, which I now proceed to answer to the 

 best of my ability. 



My stock of sheep amounts to over 400 ; about one half of 

 which are pure Saxonies, bred from the importations of G. and T. 

 Searls, of Boston ; the residue were bred from pure Merinos, and 

 which have been crossed with Saxon bucks since 1825. 



My sheep average 3 lbs. 2 oz. per head of clean washed wool, 

 which shrinks, in cleansing, from 22 to 25 per cent. I shelter my 

 sheep in winter. My shelter is formed by digging sufficiently 

 deep on a warm dry side hill, sloping to the south, and building a 

 smooth-faced stone wall, well pointed with lime mortar, below the 

 frost on the rear side, and across the ends and the middle, to sup- 

 port my bams, and rising 2^ feet above the ground on the rear 

 side, so as to fill against it to turn off water, and admit of a glass 

 window of 18 6x 8 glass. There are six divisions of my princi- 

 pal establishment, and one of these windows in each division, hung 

 to the sill of the barn, and turns upwards, to admit a fresh current 

 of air, which I think is indispensable to the health of sheep. On 



