APPENDIX. 421 



these walls are placed my barns, 126 feet long, with additional 

 supports between the divisions of a sill and posts, the whole facing 

 the south, with 12 feet doorway to each, and closed by four doors, 

 so as to shut the two bottom, and leave the top ones open, if 

 necessary. 



[Mr. Hodskin's racks conform to cut No. 2. (See racks.)] 



I do not give my sheep grain when 1 have good hay, except 

 wethers, which I fatten ; and to these I give 8 quarts of com per 

 day, and one bushel of potatoes, cut fine. To my lambs I give 

 four bundles of oats per day to the one hundred. P^or some years 

 past I have given to my breeding ewes 5 pecks of potatoes every 

 other day, to the 100, from the time they were put in winter 

 quarters till turned to grass. Three weeks before my ewes drop 

 their lambs they are provided with 8 quarts of com, and the same 

 quantity of oats, which is fed between potato days. 



I think sheep do better with a variety of food ; mine receive 

 hay three times per day, and once oat straw, the latter being fed 

 at night. I think they do much better thus fed than on hay only. 



My lambs begin to drop about the 12th of April. I shut my 

 ewes under cover nights, while dropping their lambs, but when 

 grass begins to appear, I turn them out in fair weather, near by, 

 where I can see to them often. I do not lose on an average two 

 in 100 ; I reared this year 139 lambs from 140 ewes, and gave 

 three others away, which were twin lambs. 



I think I have as hardy a flock of Saxonies as I ever saw of 

 Merinos, and are well formed ; but there are other flocks in this 

 tov^Ti as hardy as my own. I seldom lose a sheep except by dogs. 

 I do not know of a Merino flock, that produces so much money 

 per head as mine and some other Saxon flocks in this place. 



I do not believe that there is a flock of pure Merinos in New 

 Hampshire ; as to Saxons, there is one small flock in this place 

 which are all pure, and several, a part only. A mixture of Me- 

 rino, native, and Saxon abound the most in this section. 



I should have said, I never shut my sheep under cover in win- 

 ter, unless in some driving snow-stonii, and never close my back 

 windows except when the weather is very severe. I think when 

 sheep are provided with a comfortable shelter, kept clean and 

 well littered, they will seek it, when needed. 



I think salting another essential point of good management. 

 My practice is to keep salt by them in troughs, and interaiixed 

 with a little flour of sulphur ; at other times, a little tar. Both of 

 these substances have a tendency to ward off" scab, and other dis- 

 tempers. 



I also practise immersing my lambs in a decoction of tobacco- 

 water, say 7 lbs. of tobacco to the 100, to destroy ticks ; besides, 

 it keeps the skin healthy. 



36 



