164 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



Here are the details: 



21 lambs, weight 1280 Ibs, price $5.75 173.60 



22 ewes, weight 2480 Ibs, price $3 60 89.28 



24 fleeces 24.00 



Expense 24 ewes at $3 $72.00 



5 tons hay 20.00 



100 bushels corn 25.00 



1 ton wheat bran 12.00 



129.00 



Balance profit 



Two of these ewes died and I kept at home some of the 

 ewe lambs, so that the real profits are greater than these 

 figures, but these are the actual sales thus far, and there is 

 no guess work, as the ewes actually went with their lambs 

 to market, only I have guessed a little as to the amount of 

 hay and grain consumed, as they were fed along with the 

 other ewes that have not been sold, but I think that I have 

 allowed very liberally for the amount of food eaten. 



Now it is literally true that this lot of stuff did not re- 

 ceive twenty minutes a day of attention. A self-feeder was 

 kept tilled with corn meal and wheatbranand to this the lambs 

 went at will, and the ewes were mainly fed 011 clover and 

 oat hay attid ear corn thrown to them in their hay mangers, 

 which are the ones that have troughs in combination. A 

 little oil meal was given the lambs and I think that it was 

 a decided benefit, and have not charged it to them, because 

 I am confident that I have charged them with too much of 

 other things, and I do not know just what amount of it they 

 ate. These lambs were dropped in March from common 

 ewes with a dash of Shrop blood in some of them and were 

 sired by our Dorset ram, Alan. They have made us 

 more money than the earlier lambs dressed at home and 

 sent by express to New York, when the trouble of dressing 

 and shipipng is taken into account. 



If these profits are much less than sometimes reported, 

 let us remember that days of great profits on small trans- 

 actions are, perhaps, about over in this world. 



I am sure that the fertility left on the farm by these 

 sheep, as by all our sheep, much more than paid for the 

 trouble of caring for them. 



When the last of the fat lambs was on the car and be- 

 fore the draft could get back to vex us we threw our cares 



