174 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



culent grazing only through the warm months of sum- 

 mer. The grazing of this character for autumn fatten- 

 ing consists mainly of dwarf Essex rape and mature corn. 

 The succession in the central states is not far different, 

 but cowpeas and the sand vetch are more used in these. 

 The succession in the southern states begins with such 

 winter grains as rye and the sand vetch. Then follow 

 such crops as corn and the sorghums and cowpeas ; also 

 in some parts the velvet bean, not heretofore mentioned. 

 The cowpea may be made to cover much of the entire 

 summer and autumn. The autumn fattening foods will 

 be corn, mature, and possibly soy beans, mature, which 

 have not been previously mentioned. The extent to 

 which winter grazing on rape, kale and crimson clover 

 may be conducted has not yet been fully determined in 

 the South. There would seem to be no good reasons, 

 however, why these crops could not be made to furnish 

 excellent winter and early spring grazing for sheep and 

 early lambs in all parts of the South where winter cab- 

 bages can be grown for the northern market. The Canada 

 field peas, and also the common vetch sown with enough 

 oats to sustain them, furnish fattening food for grazing 

 in certain areas of the mountain states. Field roots, of 

 course, may not be grazed in the fields in winter where 

 they remain frozen for any length of time. 



Grass pastures for winter grazing — In the northern 

 states no grass or clover will compare with blue grass. 

 Of course, this question is not of much practical impor- 

 tance when the snowfall is such that the ground is sel- 

 dom bare in the winter. In other areas it is seldom cov- 

 ered much of the winter, and in these the character of the 

 grazing is a matter of much importance. When such 

 grazing is considerable in supply it may furnish a large 

 proportion of the food, and what is almost equally im- 

 portant, the exercise thus given to the breeding ewes is 

 greatly helpful to them and to their progeny. Some other 

 grasses are good, but not so good as blue grass, since they 



