APPENDIX. 435 



sheltered, but the stalls at all times well. ventilated and made to 

 accommodate not more than one hundred. The wethers ought not 

 to be allowed to go in the stalls with the ewes in winter, nor the 

 lambs the first season of foddering with either. The cribs should 

 be swept daily and replenished with hay, cut in proper season 

 and perfectly dried, and made from all the usual kinds of our 

 grasses — the more kinds the better, not excluding the sour ones 

 that grow upon our low lands ; and weeds and vines may also be 

 included to advantage. In addition to hay, about 12 quarts of 

 Indian com or an equivalent of smaller grain ought to be fed 

 daily to a hundred ewes, during three or four weeks in the rut- 

 ting, and four or five weeks in yeaning season — ^beginning the lat- 

 ter term three weeks before yeaning. Lambs ought to be fed 

 during the whole of the first winter with about six quarts of com 

 or its equivalent, daUy, to the hundred. Wethers fuU grown and 

 healthy will pass the winter very well without grain. 



That management may be perfect, it is very essential that ex- 

 ercise, fresh air, and green food, should be given our flocks through 

 all the winter, and as often as four or five times each week. THs 

 can best be done by driving them to the woods where they can 

 browse from the bushes, or boughs pendant from large trees. If 

 the browse is beyond their reach, it ought to be cut for them and 

 placed in rows from which they can conveniently feed without the 

 privilege of running over it. Nosnow is so deep as to prevent 

 this being done, for, led by the shepherd, they make their own paths 

 and use them when needed. 1£ browsing sheep is not practicable 

 with all wool-growers, they certainly can give their flocks exer- 

 cise in some other way, and green food also, by dealing out to 

 them potatoes, or some kind af'tuynips, which will be better than 

 nothing green ; turnips, howeyer, are not regarded in this place 

 conducive to the growth of wool. , 



In the season df shearing, sheep ought to be washed as clean as 

 possible in soft running water, and their fleeces sufiered to dry on 

 them, and then become a very little moist with the oil of the ani- 

 mal before shearing. No definite time can be fixed between 

 washing and shearing, for that depends on the weather. The hmiest 

 wool-grower wiU readily decide on the proper time to shear, and 

 be careful that his sheep do not wallow in the sand-bank or upon 

 ploughed ground, after the disappearance of snow in the spring, 

 and before shearing. 



Sheep of the Merino and Saxon family are smaller than most 

 other kinds, but they produce the finest wool known in this or any 

 other country. The size and quantity of wool per head has been 

 an objection to these sheep by some. It is calculated that if. the 

 cash income of a large,- coarsej individual sheep is greater than 

 that of a small, fine one, the coarse sheep are most profitable to the 

 wool-grower. These partial calculations are delusive ; for it re- 

 quires the same, or nearly the same quantity and quality of food 



