ESSAY ON SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 151 



I have reckoned the lambs at $2,50 each, only. Take the 

 price offered to Dr. Kittredge, for his lambs this year, viz, 

 four dollars each, for a standard, and how rapidly does the 

 balance increase, in favor of sheep.* 



OBJECTIONS ON ACCOUNT OF CLIMATE CONSIDERED. 



The advocates of Southern sheep husbandry, triumph in 

 the idea, that a climate like theirs, allowing sheep to run at 

 large through the winter,! is the only one where sheep can be 

 raised to advantage. But is there no substitute for a South- 

 ern climate ? " The great subject of shelter" says Ex. Gov. 

 Everett, '• has not been enough considered. Whenever you 

 cut down a large piece of woodland, you change the climate 

 of the tract of land which was shielded by it. When you 

 clothe the summit of a hill with a thriving plantation, you 

 make a milder climate for the slope. In short, if any one 

 doubts the extent to which climate consists in shelter, let him 

 remark the difference between the north and south side of a 

 high compact wall, when the snow is going off in the spring, 

 you will have a little glacier on the north side of the wall, and 

 dandelions in blossom on the other." 



Shelferfor Sheep, during five months of the year, will give 

 the climate they need even here. But the sheds should be im- 

 pervious to rain. A tight roof is far more necessary than en- 

 closed sides. A cold rain kills more sheep and lambs than 

 any degree of dry cold.* Almost the whole expense of shed- 

 ding should be laid out in the roof. The sides indeed should 

 be such that the sheep may be kept in, but except on the 

 north and east sides, the work should be such as will admit the 

 sun freely. 



Sheep need to leave the sheds and yards occasionally for 

 browsing and grazing, but after winter really sets in, this 

 should be done seldom. When the ground is bare, they will 

 find enough to keep them picking without satisfying them, 



* I might have allowed cows to average more butter, and calves to be worth 

 more, and still leave a balance for the sheep. 



fSee the " Plough, Loom and Anvil, " for Jan. 1851. 



X Even in the climate of Ohio, " thousands of sheep died for want of pro- 

 tection from the cold rains in the early part of winter." See the Wool Grow- 

 er, published at Buffalo. 



