FEEDING FOR LAMBS. 141 



great advantage of crossing such a rani on a flock of the 

 common natives. 



The Winter feeding of a small flock may thus be made 

 the most profitable part of the farmer's work. There is a 

 wide scope for it anywhere, and if the lambs thus reared are 

 kept for a permanent flock, an equal profit might be made 

 every year. Some of the most successful farmers make a 

 practice of feeding sheep in this way to consume the rough- 

 ness of their crops, the straw, the corn fodder, or these made 

 into ensilage, with a moderate allowance of grain. It has 

 been found a good practice to cut the green corn stalks taken 

 from the usual husking and mixing them in a silo with the 

 straw. The fermentation the mass undergoes makes a large 

 quantity of the otherwise indigestible food available, and ex- 

 perience has shown that in this way the cost of the mixed 

 feed need not be over one dollar a ton, while it is worth 

 for feeding at least ten dollars. Indeed the silo has solved 

 for the farmer the question of profitable feeding of sheep; 

 for if one acre of silage will feed one cow one Winter, it will 

 feed seven sheep, and this is but one half as much as has 

 been shown to be easily possible for a dairyman to do with 

 his cows. Ihis fact may interest thousands of farmers who 

 are asking if the feeding of sheep on a farm can be made 

 profitable. There is not a locality in the whole Union, in- 

 eluding our neighboring enterprising Canadians, in which 

 this exceedingly profitable business may not be carried on 

 with entire success. It need only be done with caution, 

 with those inexperienced, to begin with a small flock and 

 feel their way to larger enterprise in good time. 



This enterprise is well adapted to the restoration of worn 

 down lands, on the thousands of farms in the Eastern part 

 of the Union. Any of these farms may be made by moderate 

 fertilizating, to produce fodder corn, oats, rye, and turnips, 

 with many of several easily grown green feeding crops, 

 such as oats and peas, rape or millet. The feeding of those 

 of these crops best adapted to it by the sheep on the ground 

 will afford an adequate manuring to yield a good crop of 

 corn, and double the yield of the first crops grown the first 

 year. This is a far easier enterprise, and less laborious and 

 freer from risks than the dairy. It costs less money to start, 

 and brings its rewards in less time. 



