SHKBP HUSBANDRY. 357 



animal is more cleanly, nor is there any other that will so quickly refuse 

 to drink water the least dirty or stale. In every pen there should be a 

 separate trough which should always be kept so clean that the shepherd 

 would drink from it, and at least once each day it should be emptied, so 

 as to be sure of having fresh water. 



Pens should not be crowded, but they should have at least one cubic 

 foot of air space to each pound of live weight of animal, and it is better 

 not to have over twenty or twenty-five in a pen, and these should be so 

 assorted as to be nearlj' of the same weight and vigor. 



To a man who will give them the proper care, there is no more pleas- 

 ant or profitable business than winter sheep-feeding, or one that will 

 keep his farm is such a fruitful condition. 



Value of Different Kinds of Food. Experiments have been 

 carried on at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Wisconsin, to find 

 the results to be obtained as to cost and value of the different kinds of 

 food. An equal number of sheep were weighed and placed in different 

 sheds. The various flocks were fed on different kinds of food, which 

 were carefully weighed. The results seem to prove that oat-straw is a 

 valuable fodder, and that sheep can be maintained at four-fifths of a cent 

 per day, when the following prices prevail: oat straw 15 cents per hun- 

 dred, sugar beets 10 cents per hundred, bran at 60 cents per hundred. 

 To find the cost of keeping sheep it is only necessary to figure the value 

 of the produce at the place where you are located. In figuring out the 

 the result, the cost of preparing the crop for market and taking it there 

 should be deducted from the price for which it is sold. 



The amounts of food fed to four sheep for eight weeks, equalling the 

 amount fed to thirty-two sheep for one week, or two hundred and 

 twenty-four sheep for one day, were two hundred sixty-two pounds 

 oat straw, seven hundred four pounds of sugar beets, fifty-six pounds 

 of oats, and fifty-six pounds of bran. 



The result of their experiments were as follows : 



1 . Dry fodders and cut corn fodder gave good results, as the ewes so 

 fed were maintained cheaply, kept in the best of health, their fleeces 

 were in the best condition, and after lambing they gave an abundant 

 supply of milk. 



2. Oat straw as a fodder for sheep was shown to have a greater feed- 

 ing value than is commonly credited to it. Combined with a small quan- 

 tity of grain and succulent food it offers the best return for carrying 

 breeding ewes over the winter at the least expense. Ewes were kept in 



