APPENDIX. 423 



grass. The amount of slieep per acre that our lands will keep, 

 varies much ; some of them will support five to the acre through 

 the year. Lands will average about 25 dollars per acre here; 

 and we tliink wool-growing, if the whole business was properly 

 managed, and the sales of wool made understandingly, might be 

 made equal to any other farming business. 



We put in our bucks from the 20th of Nov. to the 1st of Dec. 

 We probably raise 80 per cent, of lambs to the 100 ewes. For 

 the two last winters our flock suffered severely from wonns in 

 the head ; before that our loss was merely nominal. We shelter 

 our sheep. Any kind of shelter that will keep otf the storms and 

 break the winds, and yet be airy, we use. 



[Messrs. Perkins and Brown use box racks.] 



We have as yet had no experience in the use of roots. We 

 feed the value of half a bushel of oats, or some kind of grain, 

 per day, to the hundred, unless we have them in as good condi- 

 tion as we wish them, without it ; or unless we have plenty of 

 fall feed on the ground, when the winter sets in ; in that case, we 

 want neither roots nor grain, except in extreme cases. We stall- 

 feed no sheep. 



The most fatal of all diseases of which we have any experience. 

 is that occasioned by the fly [CEstris Ovis), causing the worm in 

 the head. There is also a disorder of the feet, the fouls, to which 

 our sheep are very subject in summer. It is very easily cured with 

 tar only, and indeed will go off of itself, and is not in the least con- 

 tagious. Our honied cattle have the very same. We suppose it 

 to be entirely diflerent from foot-rot, but are not certain, as we have 

 no experience personally with that disease. [Messrs. Perkins and 

 Brown are right in their conjectures ; see Diseases of Sheep.] We 

 generally get along with as good common care of our flock as we 

 can, with but very little in the way of medicine. 



We think that most shepherds do not examine and compare 

 flocks enough to know what constitutes a good sheep ; and that 

 an animal combining constitution, quality of wool, as well as quan- 

 tity, would -not be prefeiTed by thousands, at least of those zvho 

 tiiink they understand the matter well. The last remark we sup- 

 pose to be the most valuable we can make. Our success must 

 mainly depend on our first learning what is a thoroughly good 

 animal, and in the next place, how to take good common care of 

 him, and finally, how to make the peculiar traits of a good sheep 

 as general in our flock as possible. We suppose, if our flock is not 

 what it should be, that we need a variety to make it so ; say very 

 fine sheep, very long-wooled sheep, and very thick-wooled sheep ; 

 each kind of good constitution, and given very much to wool, (i. e.) 

 woolly all over, in order to breed successfully. We believe any 

 traits may be imparted to a flock, and would like to see our brother 

 wool-growers getting clear, among other things, of that worse than 

 useless appendage, the horns. We think it best to class our ewes 

 for breeding, giving to our most perfect class our most perfect 



