MANAGING A FLOCK. 439 



of low degree tends to bring pure blood into discredit, and 

 is unprofitable. 



BEGULAKITY IN FEEDING. 



All feeders who have studied the habits of the animals 

 they feed, have discerned that they take special note of 

 time, and are disappointed if the time is delayed only a few 

 minutes. It is a cardinal point to observe great regularity 

 in time and quantity for feeding sheep. It has been 

 observed that a careful and regular feeder will produce a 

 better result with inferior food, given at equal times and 

 in even quantity, than an irregular feeder as to time and 

 quantity with the best quality of food. It is said that " the 

 master's eye is worth two pair of hands," and it may as 

 truly be said that " the shepherd's eye, which takes note of 

 the individual wants of his flock, is worth a large amount 

 of carelessly-given food." 



The late John Johnston, of Geneva, N. Y., to whom we 

 have before alluded as a successful cattle-feeder, has also 

 been, under the old system, a successful sheep-feeder. In 

 a letter to the Hon. H. S. Randall, in 1862, he describes his 

 common mode of winter feeding. Mr. Johnston was a very 

 successful wheat and barley raiser upon a 300-acre clay- 

 loam farm, completely tile drained. He had large quanti- 

 ties of straw, and studied how to turn this into the largest 

 quantity of manure. He says : 



" I generally buy my sheep in October. Then I have a 

 pasture to put them on, and they gain a good deal before 

 winter sets in. I have generally put them in the yards 

 about the 1st of December. For the last 23 years I have 

 fed straw the first two or two and a half months, a pound 

 of oil-cake, meal, or grain, to each sheep. When I com- 

 mence feeding hay, if it is good, early-cut clover, I 

 generally reduce the cake, meal, or grain one-half; but 



