254 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



those on the Gulf of Mexico, grazing may be furnished 

 much later and earlier than further north. 



Prominent among the foods that may be grown for 

 such fattening are rape, kale and cabbage. Such foods 

 also as winter oats, winter rye, crimson clover and vetches 

 may be utilized more or less. These crops would be 

 grazed in part and in part used as soiling food, as in ad- 

 verse weather they should not be grazed. The condition 

 of the ground may also make grazing impracticable in 

 very wet weather. 



While being grazed the ewes and lambs will fare bet- 

 ter if they may have access to a grass pasture. Where 

 this is not obtainable they should be given fodder in the 

 cured form. The effect upon the digestion will be favor- 

 able. More or less grain will be helpful to both ewes and 

 lambs, but especially when they can feed largely on rape, 

 kale or cabbage that is well headed. The amount of grain 

 called for is much less than when the ewes are confined 

 and fed chiefly on dry food. 



There may be instances in which it may be desirable 

 to cut the green food and to feed it to the flock on the 

 soiling plan. By this method the food may be made ac- 

 cessible to the sheep with more uniformity than when 

 they are grazed. They will be less exposed in bad weather 

 and less food will be wasted, but, of course, more labor is 

 involved. In the absence of experience in growing lambs 

 thus the method that will certainly prove the most profit- 

 able cannot be given. 



The room for the industry — That the room for the 

 industry as conducted at present is not unlimited will be 

 very evident when it is remembered that winter lamb sold 

 at the prices which now prevail is, in a sense, a luxury. 

 But that it may be greatly extended cannot be doubted. 

 In many important centers it is not known at present, as 

 it has never been introduced into these. At the present 

 time it is only used in but few of the metropolitan cities 

 of the republic. 



