SHEEP UNDER FARM CONDITIONS 151 



the desired type. At this time it is impossible to 

 determine just what animals are best, because of 

 their immature development, but the poor ones can 

 easily be eliminated later on as age and develop- 

 ment demonstrate their unfitness. These selected 

 lambs should be kept constantly growing, since any 

 setback in their development will never be en- 

 tirely overcome by any subsequent care that may 

 be given. Good, fresh pasture is the prime req- 

 uisite for the most satisfactory growth of lambs. 

 Provision should be made for supplementary graz- 

 ing for late summer and early fall, when the or- 

 dinary clover and blue grass pastures are likely to 

 become dry and poor. The stubble may be utilized 

 to good advantage at this time, or a number of 

 autumn grazing crops such as rye or rape, sown 

 in the growing corn, may be used. 



DESIRABLE FEEDS 



The method of feeding depends very much upon 

 local conditions. The feeds given will depend 

 largely upon the character of the crops produced 

 upon the farm. Under ranch conditions, the range 

 is depended upon, to a large extent, for winter sus- 

 tenance as well as for summer, and alfalfa or 

 timothy hay will be practically the only feed avail- 

 able. This is usually used only in times of severe 

 storms. The best eastern farmers who keep sheep 

 depend largely upon clover hay and roots for the 

 feed for their breeding sheep in winter. It will 

 usually pay to feed a small grain ration even though 

 the animals are already in good condition. Just 

 what this grain ration will be will depend consid- 

 erably upon the kind and condition of the rough 

 feed. If clover or alfalfa hay is being used quite 



