MANNER OF FEEDING SHEEP. 59 



A. Grain, vegetables, bundles of straw, or a hand- 

 ful of oats or other grain, will prevent the sheep from 

 growing poor. 



Q- In the month of October and November, when 

 sheep should be fed at the rack, what food is proper 

 to be first given them ? 



A. It is proper to begin with giving them such 

 things as do not keep, and which would spoil, from 

 not being well saved ; or such as are the least agree- 

 able, as wheat and rye straw, or both mixed ; but if 

 oat straw, which they like best, be first given them, 

 they will revolt afterwards at eating the others. 



Q. What quantity of straw is it proper to give 

 sheep ? 



A. The necessary quantity of straw for sheep de- 

 pends upon the size of the animal, and on the quality 

 of the straw ; it is necessary to give middling sized 

 sheep every day two pounds and an half of oat straw, 

 if you are careful to put back into the rack what falls : 

 a sheep eats every day, according to experiments 

 which have been made, a little more than two pounds 

 of this straw, and there is nearly half a pound left, 

 that they will not eat, and which is mixed with the 

 litter. There is still left some of the hardest part of 

 the straw, and from which it may be calculated that 

 a bundle of oat straw, weighing 50 pounds only, is 

 sufficient for twenty sheep of a middling size, if that 

 which falls from the rack is put back after each feed- 

 ing. 



Q. What quantity of hay should be given to 

 sheep ? 



