188 THE FARM. 



fifty sheep and receive larger profits than from any other investment of the 

 same amount, providing they will care for them in the following manner, 

 viz. : Have yonr sheep in good condition when you take them from pasture 

 to winter. Have a sheltered pen, with plenty of room, to protect them from 

 the cold and storms; have an out-yard where they can be allowed to go in 

 on nice sunshiny days, in which throw cornstalks, oat or wheat straw, if you 

 have plenty of it, for what the sheep do not eat Avill make manure, so there 

 will be nothing lost. Also keep the sheltered pen dry, by throwing in straw, 

 as fast as it is cut up in manure. Feed them on clover hay. If you do not 

 grow any buy it, for one ton of clover hay is equal to two tons of any other 

 for sheep, in my experience. Try and have your lambs dropped in January 

 or February. Build a small pen alongside of your sheep pen, cut a small 

 hole, so the lambs can get in, but not large enough to admit the sheep. Put 

 troughs in the lambs' pen, and feed them on ground feed. They will soon 

 find the hole and learn to eat, and if you have never tried it before, you will 

 be surprised how much faster they will grow, and you will also find that the 

 butcher M'ill buy yoiar lambs earlier, and pay a larger price for them than ho 

 will for your neighbor's, who does not observe the above advice. 



Feed Rack for Sheep — Feed racks for stocks are indispensable 



articles of furniture in the 

 /^/ ■ 7 sheds and yards of the farm. 



We give an engraving of one of 

 these, designed especially for 

 sheep. Its dimensions are 

 thirty inches high, twenty- 

 eisht wide, bottom fonned by 

 naihng together four boards, 

 eight or nine inches wide, in 

 FEED BACK FOH SHKEP. the shape of two troughs, or 



the letter W, resting on the 

 cross piece B. The novel feature, perhaps, is the cant boards A A, which are 

 hinged and then fastened by movable braces. These boards serve as par- 

 ticular shelter to sheep, both from storm and chaff from fodder; and by 

 moving the braces they assume a vertical position, and thus keep out the 

 sheep while one is filling in the grain. 



Why Sheep are Profitahle. — Sheep are profitable for several reasons, 

 among them being the small expense of maintaining a flock. By that we 

 do not mean the plan pursued by many of turning them into the woods and 

 fields to be called up occaaionally to be " salted," but they cost but little 

 when cared for, because they are not choice in the matter of feeding. They 

 greedily devour much that would be unserviceable, and for that reason are 

 a necessary adjunct on a form as a measure of economy, ^yhcre they become 

 serviceable mostly is on those pastures that are deficient in long grass, and 

 which are not used for making hay. It is on this short grass, even if scatter- 

 ing, that the sheep pick up good feeding and thrive well. In fact, long 

 grass is not acceptable to sheep, as they graze close to the ground. A flock 

 of sheep would almost starve in a field of tall clover, and will quickly leave 

 such for the privilege of feeding on the short herbage that grows in the fence 

 comers, in the abandoned meadows, and among the wheat stubble. The 

 crab grass, which becomes a weed on light soils, is highly relished by sheep 

 when just begiuuiug to spread out, and even the purslane is kept down by 



