228 MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 



Petri allows on an average to a sheep, of hay, 3 to 3| lbs. 

 per head, and says : " In the winter a full-grown sheep of 

 70 lbs. live weight, eats, in fattening-fodder, 3 lbs. of hay, or 

 with some hay 3 to 4 lbs. potatoes, or 14 to 18 lbs. of cab 

 bage leaves, by which he weekly gains IJ lbs. of flesh and 

 wool." The following example, of a slaughtered sheep weigh- 

 ing 116 lbs., gives the proportions of the parts : 



Thaer was a long time at the head of the distinguished 

 agricultural school of Mogelin, in Prussia, where many ex- 

 periments were conducted in sheep management under his 

 own eye. The late Judge Bbel, in his Farmer's Companion, 

 speaks of him as one " who has not, perhaps, his superior in 

 the practical and scientific business of farming anywhere." 



Thaer says, " The quantity of hay which is given to sheep 

 is very different. In poor sheep-folds it is considered much 

 to allow 3,000 or 4,000 lbs. of hay to 100 sheep for a win- 

 tering. In better conducted ones 7,500 lbs. is considered 

 the minimum for 100 sheep : 3^ lbs. of dry fodder for a sheep 

 daily are necessary, and the greater proportion of this in nu- 

 tritious hay, compared with dry straw, the better. Where 

 hay is not plenty, it is usual to have recourse to grain-fodder ; 

 oats, rye, and barley are equally good ; where peas, beans, 

 and vetches are largely cultivated, these may be used. The 

 grains are given them either threshed or unthreshed ; more 

 frequently they have the rough grain mixed with chaff some- 

 what moistened. It is customary also, especially with the ker- 

 nels of the leguminous fruits (peas, beans, &c.^, to soak them; 

 others prefer to fodder with the pods strewed on chopped 

 straw, &c. Sheep which have daily 1| lbs. of hay, and 1 

 lb. of potatoes, or 1 lb. of hay and 2 lbs, of potatoes, and some 

 straw, can be kept in a well-fed, wool and milk-producing 

 state " 



