ro MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



Sheep and fertilizer for gardeners — As is well known, 

 gardeners require a large amount of fertilizers. In some 

 instances they have found that they can obtain it more 

 cheaply by feeding sheep in winter than in any other way. 

 It may be ; in fact, it usually is, that both the food and the 

 sheep are purchased. In the fattening process large 

 quantities of the fertilizer are made and so near to the 

 place of application that, when all things are taken into 

 account, it is much more profitable to obtain it thus than 

 by purchase in the adjacent towns or cities. 



Some localities are much better adapted to such feed- 

 ing than others. Where it is to be markedly successful, 

 the sheep must be obtainable at reasonable prices, and 

 they should be brought to the farm without incurring 

 undue outlay, as the price of transportation. Suitable 

 food must be obtainable without excessive cost. The in- 

 dividual who feeds should have a thorough knowledge of 

 his business. When the animals so fed are marketed, it 

 should be with the best judgment. Thus handled, there 

 should be some profit on the sheep in addition to the fer- 

 tilizer. 



The profit, as in all fattening, may not come from the 

 increase made in weight during the fattening process, but 

 from increase in the weight of the animal when the fat- 

 tening process began. The person who must purchase 

 all his food will make less profit as a rule than the individ- 

 ual who grows at least a part of it. But, in any event, 

 safe buying and selling of the sheep and careful, judicious 

 purchasing and feeding of the foods should result in some 

 cash profit from the venture; thus furnishing the manure 

 without other cost than that involved in applying it. This 

 to the gardener should prove a great boon, as the fer- 

 tilizer thus furnished would add greatly to the efficacy of 

 the action of commercial fertilizers when these also are 

 used. 



Fertilizer from sheep is in some instances made in 

 very large quantities in feeding centers where sheep are 



