144 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



fast, and as well for fattening sheep, as the protein tends 

 to make a more useful meat than fat, and the tendency now 

 is to favor meat rather than a load of fat on the carcass. 

 Turnips and ruta-bagas, among the roots, are seen to be 

 well balanced food, and being completely digestible without 

 waste, are not only of superior value for this in itself, but as 

 well to aid in the digestion of other and less digestible food, 

 of which it has been already mentioned that less than half 

 is digestible, in some of them. 



It is also worthy of notice that the products of forest 

 land are especialty valuable for the leaves, as well as for 

 the young twigs, which are greedily eaten by sheep and 

 form naturally the bulk of the food in wooded localities. 

 The author's experience goes to show that the fine brush of 

 trees, especially of the small growth, may be cut and 

 stacked with great advantage for the Winter browsing of a 

 flock, which will feed at a stack of this stuff in preference 

 to the hay, or even sheaf oats. This fact is of value to 

 Southern shepherds where so much land is left to grow up 

 with brush, when throvnu out as old fields for a resting 

 spell, to slowly recover its lost fertility. The very common 

 sassafras is especially palatable to sheep, which will browse 

 down quite large shrubs of it to the roots. The tonic, as well 

 as nutritive character of the sassafras, is excellent, and 

 tends to keep the sheep in the best of health. Sheep have 

 been kept the whole Winter in the South on this kind of 

 feeding, leaving hay for the small growth of the old fields 

 and spending the most of the time in the thicker woods 

 rather than pasture on the open ground, although the grass 

 may be quite abundant. The sweet potato, too, is eagerly 

 eaten by sheep, who will eat off the vines when they are 

 fully grown, thus saving a large quantity of excellent pas- 

 ture in a season when it comes in very acceptably. South- 

 ern shepherds, too, may follow the common method in 

 England, and the European countries, where root crops, cab- 

 bages, rape and the so-called collards a kind of cabbage 

 which grows up to a tall plant are grow r n as the usual Win- 

 ter feeding MI the open fields. The really drier climate of 

 the Southern Winter, as compared with that of Europe, too, 

 adds greatly to the advantage of Southern shepherds who 

 by growing these crops will be able to furnish their flocks 



