SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 145 



The sheep should not be hungiy. They 

 should have a preliminary course of feeding 

 of some sort till their appetites are well sated. 

 Perhaps a fill-up on good grass pasture will 

 generally best accomplish this. 



They should go on the clover or alfalfa pas- 

 ture after eating all they will of other things 

 at about ten o'clock in the morning, at a time 

 when they naturally prefer to cease eating 

 and go to lie in the shade. 



They ■ should be given salt as soon as put 

 upon pasture, and salt mixed with air-slalied 

 lime should be kept before them. 



They should never thereafter be removed 

 night or day, rain or shine, as long as they 

 are desired to graze the field. 



Of course they may have the run of an ad- 

 jacent grass pasture, and be peemitted to go 

 and come at will, but they must never be taken 

 away even for a few hours and allowed to get 

 hungry and then returned to the clover or 

 alfalfa field. If they are, there is danger that 

 they will gorge themselves too suddenly and 

 bloating may result. 



The writer devotes this much space to the 

 subject because he has had a long and suc- 

 cessful experience in pasturing clover and es- 

 pecially alfalfa with sheep, and in this practice 

 he has found these rules essential to success. 

 It is well worth the risk, seeing that this pas- 

 ture returns such well-nourished and healthy 

 sheep and is so free from danger of parasitic 

 infection. The writer has, annually lost from 

 2 to 4 per cent from bloat on alfalfa pasture, 



