92 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



after shearing particularly the delicate Saxons. I have known 

 forty or fifty perish out of a single flock, from one night's 

 exposure. The remedy, or rather the preventive, is to house 

 them, or in default of the necessary fixtures to effect this, to 

 drive them into dense forests. I presume, however, this would 

 be a calamity of rare occurrence in the 'sunny South.' "* 



V. VALUE OF SHEEP TO THE FAEMEE. 



The following suggestive remarks are from the Country 

 Gentleman, and are worthy of every reader's attention : 



" Sheep are profitable to the farmer, not only from the pro- 

 duct of wool and mutton, but from the tendency which their 

 keeping has to improve and enrich his land for all agricultural 

 purposes. They do this : 



"1. By the consumption of food refused by other animals in 

 summer; turning waste vegetation to use, and giving rough 

 and bushy pastures a smoother appearance, and in time erad- 

 icating wild plants so that good grasses and white clover may 

 take their place. In this respect sheep are of especial value to 

 pastures on soils too steep or stony for the plow. In winter, 

 the coarser parts of the hay, refused by horses and cows, are 

 readily eaten by sheep, while other stock will generally eat 

 most of that left by these animals. 



" For these reasons, among others, no grazing farm should be 

 without at least a small flock of sheep, for it has been found 

 that as large a number of cattle and horses can be kept with 

 as without them, and without any injury to the farm for other 

 purposes. A small flock, we said perhaps half a dozen to 

 each horse and cow would be the proper proportion. A va- 



* Sheep Husbandry ; with an Account of the Different Breeds and General 

 Directions in regard to Summer and Winter Management, Breeding, and 

 Treatment of Diseases. With Portraits and other Engravings. By Henry S. 

 Randall. New York : A. O. Moore. This work is bound with " Youatt on 

 the Sheep," under the general title of " The Shepherd's Own Book," and the 

 volume should be in the hands of every one who would make sheep-breeding 

 hia principal business. 



