MANAGING A FLOCK. 437 



and as green, succulent food goes much farther than the 

 same food dried into hay, so the capacity of these States 

 for the production of mutton and other meat will be vastly 

 increased. 



Ensilage being nearly as succulent as the fresh green 

 food itself, root crops will become much less important. 

 When the silo shall come into full use, sheep will really be 

 fed the same winter and summer ; and progress in fattening 

 will be nearly the same, a little extra food being given in 

 the winter, to keep up the animal heat. This succulent 

 winter food will have an important effect in improving 

 early lambs, causing the ewe to yield more milk; and the 

 lambs may make as good progress as if their dams were 

 upon pasture. 



MANAGING A FLOCK. 



The mode of conducting a breeding flock for profit will 

 vary according to locality and cost of food. Near the large 

 Eastern markets, and on land upon which sheep are kept 

 as the best compensation for the food consumed, the ram 

 lambs of the flock will principally be disposed of at a few 

 months old, as affording better profit at this than at any 

 subsequent period. The forty-pound fat lamb costs less in 

 food than any forty pounds of growth added afterwards, 

 and brings about three prices per pound. If, then, a flock 

 of common ewes is being crossed with a pure-blood South- 

 down or Cotswold rarn, for the purpose of laying the 

 foundation and building up an improved breeding flock, it 

 will be profitable to keep only the ewe lambs grade rams 

 should never be kept for breeding, but grade ewes will be 

 a great improvement over common ones when bred to a 

 ram of the same blood as their sire. So, in grading up a 

 flock towards a pure-blood mutton breed, about half of the 

 lambs each year may be sold for the early market. Each 

 generation will approximate nearer and nearer to the pure 

 blood until they are practically equal for mutton or wool. 



