198 How THE FARM PAYS. 



My plan of feeding sheep in winter is with cut " peas and oats J * 

 and turnips. They require little water, but water should always be 

 kept within their reach. They require also, as all other animals do, 

 a reasonable quantity of salt and a little sulphur occasionally. In 

 the spring of the year I turn the sheep onto the young wheat about, 

 the 1st of May. The sheep eat the wheat leaves off close, and cause 

 it to thicken and stool out; their droppings also serve as a top dress- 

 ing and their treading firms the roots of the wheat in the soil. 

 When the sheep are taken off the wheat, they are put on pasture,, 

 and I have received the most benefit from them when herded on rape. 

 The rape is followed by a mustard crop, and when this is done, the 

 land may be prepared for a crop of turnips of the softer kinds, 

 such as Yellow Aberdeens or Tankards, which are eaten on the land 

 by the sheep, as this is one of the best plans of bringing up poor 

 land ready for seeding. The greatest care should, however, be taken 

 when mustard or rape is grown, not to suffer these crops to seed and 

 stock the soil, but to plow under the refuse before it blossoms. 



Q. At about what date do you turn in the sheep on the turnip crop ? 



A. From the 1st to the 10th of October. I have fed a flock of 

 fifty sheep on two acres from that time up to the end of December, 

 or nearly three months, by giving them a little hay in racks made for 

 that purpose in the turnip field. Those sheep I purchased at the 

 sheep market in New York City, costing me $3.50 per head. I sold 

 them to the butcher for $9.00 each in January, or in about four 

 months after they were purchased, thus making $275 for the feed and 

 care, besides leaving the land in an improved condition on account of 

 the manure. The land was sown with oats, grasses and clover in the 

 spring. If I had purchased the manure for this land it would have 

 cost me fully $20, so that taking into consideration the labor in caring 

 for the sheep, and the cultivation of the land, I may say in round 

 numbers, that the four acres of rape and two acres of turnips gave me a 

 net profit of considerably more than $200. They were of mixed blood, 

 partly South Downs and partly Cotswolds what are called Canada 

 sheep a large bodied, thrifty sheep, which makes the best mutton of 

 any in America. I purchased them, as I said before, at the New York 

 market for the purpose of feeding off this rape and the turnips, and 

 to manure the land and prepare it for a future crop. 



Sheep should be kept out of storms. It is also better not to keep 

 over forty or fifty in a flock together. They should never be housed 

 in a damp building, as they are very susceptible to foot-rot, and once 

 this sets in it will work through the entire herd if not prevented. 

 When this trouble occurs the hoof is to be pared down to remove all 

 unsound horn and the diseased parts of the foot laid bare. These 



