146 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



through, over a flock fed three feeds without any attention 

 to regularity. 



At the first feeding the racks are cleaned out, and the 

 waste scattered over the floor. The fodder given may be, 

 as in the case under notice, of fodder corn, sown in drills 

 three feet apart and the seed six inches apart in the drill, 

 the variety sown being the Narragansett sweet corn. A 

 large majority of the stalks had ears on them, and the fod- 

 der cured in small stacks or shocks was bright and green. 

 There was no waste in the feeding of this, and the sheep 

 required no grain during the feeding of this fodder. 



At the second feeding, bright oat straw, at times sheaf 

 oats, was given in the racks, which were well cleaned up by 

 the sheep. The third feeding as long as the corn fodder 

 lasted, was given of this, and the racks were filled up with 

 clover hay for the night. After the appetite of the sheep 

 had become well measured by experience, there was prac- 

 tically no waste, and this should be made an important part 

 of the management, there being much cheaper litter than 

 good clover hay. 



But since the silo has been in use, the feeding of silage 

 has been found quite as safe and profitable for sheep as for 

 cows. Indeed its use has been so remarkably successful 

 that doubtless for the farm sheep, as well as for the flocks 

 on the ranges, this provision will be the common practice. 

 The old, but wofully mistaken impression of the tenderfoot 

 shepherd, that sheep would feed themselves on the open 

 range, during the Winters, has brought many a flock and 

 its owners to sudden grief, and this has become so generally 

 known that bis sometime practice, not of supporting, but 

 really of destroying a flock, is now a thing of the past, no 

 more to be thought of. The ranch sheep must be fed as the 

 farm flock is, for there is no pro-fit in stopping the growth 

 of a sheep as well as its fleece, for some months, and it must 

 be the custom to provide the Winter feeding precisely the 

 same as for the farm flock. The rustler among sheep is not 

 a profitable animal, and only the well kept flock will pay a 

 profit to its master. Consequently there will be fenced fields, 

 on which such crops as will suit each location and the 

 climate of it, must be grown for the Winter feeding, and the 

 silo must be an adjunct to this system. 



