RULES FOR WINTER FEEDING. 145 



with the cheapest and most healthful out-door feeding, and 

 at the same time improve their lambs without cost and even 

 at a profit. 



The cow-pea is one of the best of these green pasture 

 plants for the South and middle States, and if gathered 

 the vines make excellent hay. It may be sown in the 

 corn or cotton, and pastured as long as it remains green. 

 The dry grain of it is seen to be equally valuable as the pea 

 or the bean. The common white bean is another neglected 

 crop, for a farm flock, as may be suggested by a reference 

 to the nutritive value of the pulse, as well as all its products. 

 When made into hay with the grain in it, all the pulse tribe 

 furnish the richest kind of feed for Winter use, both for a 

 store flock, as well as for fattening. 



Pumpkins and squashes are also not only nutritious 

 food, but healthful, and if chopped may be fed with much* 

 advantage. The common impression to the effect that these 

 gourds are undesirable on account of their undue action on 

 the kidneys, has no foundation in fact, and the seeds are 

 especially useful as a vermifuge. 



RULES FOR WINTER FEEDING. 



It is not altogether the kind of food given to a flock but 

 quite as much how it is given, that counts to the full benefit 

 of the shepherd. The sheep is a peculiar animal, not 

 naturally of a tender character, but due of the hardiest 

 races. Under domestication there is no other animal that 

 calls for the most careful management of the owner than 

 this. It is apt to fret, and soon fall into a poor condition, 

 unless fed at regular intervals, aaid these so distributed as 

 to secure the full digestion of the food. Once the sheep 

 are left unattended to, they become dissatisfied, and food is 

 wanted to make up for the loss occasioned by the nervous 

 excitement thus produced. The experiment has been tried 

 with two flocks, one* fed at six in the morning with strict 

 regularity, every day, at intervals of four hours, making 

 the last feed at six in the evening, when the racks are filled 

 for the night. At the third feeding the grain food is given, 

 the other three feeds being of coarse fodder, for the first, 

 and fourth, and hay for the second. This flock made on the 

 whole fourteen pounds of live weight for the average all 



