FEEDING LAMBS. 167 



and the more we will have to feed the farm with, to feed 

 more sheep, to feed more acres of land, to grow more to 

 feed the sheep, and so on, to end where? I care not how 

 far the process goes on. I get a small margin of profit from 

 each mouth that the farm and I fill. 



What do we grow for stock food? Corn, clover, alfalfa 

 and oat hay. 



What do we like best for a forage crop? Alfalfa. Our 

 land is not all dry enough or fertile enough to grow it. Next 

 and everywhere available comes red clover. Oat hay, if cut 

 when in bloom, is very good indeed amd will make milk 

 in ewes or fatten lambs. We seed our clover and alfalfa 

 with oats and mow for hay, and thus far have not failed 

 to get a good stand. We use no grain but corn for fattening, 

 but like oats for thoroughbred lambs or ewes. 



The intensely practical character of Mr. Wing is in no 

 way clouded by his love of a pleasant rest, and it savors of 

 ancient times, when the shepherds rested under the shade 

 of a spreading beech, and sang songs and made love to the 

 shepherdesses, whose hands carried the crook, and whose 

 care for the tender lambs is set forth so picturesquely and 

 pleasantly in the old school book of the Latin poets, which 

 every shepherd boy should study, not only for the accurate 

 pictures of ancient shepherd life, but as well for the valua- 

 ble details of the good management of a flock. It may not 

 be out of place in these more serious and essentially prac- 

 tical pages, to recommend every shepherd, old or young, 

 to procure and study these ways of the old Roman shep- 

 herds, who certainly are able to tell us much of present in- 

 terest on the subject of the shepherd's pleasant ajid profita- 

 ble occupation. It brings us into love with a sheep. 



It will be noticed that the figures given by Mr. W T ing 

 include the original cost of the ewes in the account, and this 

 cost is of course to be added to the profit The experience 

 of the author in feeding lambs, goes to show that this state- 

 ment is really under the possible figures of profit, and it is 

 to be considered that to a farmer, the considerable quantity 

 of the best kind of manure made is quite sufficient to pay 

 well for the time and care spent in the keeping of a flock. 



