414 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



p 



regard it as cheap, considering its great utility. We 

 invented a hurdle, made of wrought iron, well adapted to 

 the needs of small flocks in this country, and which we do 

 not describe, because we were unable to reduce its price 

 below $5 per rod. But as yet the ordinary wooden hurdle 

 is the only one obtainable. Such a movable hurdle would 

 remove the most formidable obstacle to keeping small 

 flocks upon almost every farm. Let us here note the 

 important results which might follow from the intro- 

 duction of such small flocks of sheep upon the so-called 

 worn-out farms of the older States. It often becomes very 

 difficult to seed down these long-cultivated fields without a 

 very large application of manure, which cannot be had. 

 With an easy means of confining sheep upon any such field 

 or portion of field, the fertilizer required for its renovation 

 could cheaply be manufactured upon the spot. By plow- 

 ing this field and sowing thickly with oats to be fed off by 

 sheep, and placing a few racks on one side of the field, into 

 which green food grown elsewhere upon the farm can be 

 placed, and then also feeding a small grain ration, which 

 will be repaid twice over in the growth of the sheep, the 

 field becomes fertilized by the droppings of the sheep 

 evenly distributed over the field. This experiment has 

 often been tried, keeping an accurate account of purchased 

 grain ; and the increased value of the sheep has not only 

 paid for the grain, but amply for the labor, leaving the 

 fertilization of the field as a clear profit. It should 

 always be a prime consideration in feeding sheep for market 

 to do as much as possible of it in warm weather. And, if 

 they are kept till January or February, still the feed should 

 be very generous in the fall, that they may be fat enough 

 for the butcher at the beginning of cold weather. It will 

 then cost but little to carry them to the later period in fine 

 mutton condition, so that this grain ration, given upon 

 the poor fields, will be profitable, considered only in refer- 



