SHEEP UNDER FARM CONDITIONS 1 53 



ing and management, and after having won more 

 prizes for fine sheep than all the other breeders of 

 the United States and Canada combined, says: "I 

 attribute my success as an exhibitor to the frequent 

 feeding of a great variety of green feeds or forage 

 plants. I find that cabbage and kale are extremely 

 valuable green feeds. Turnips, when fully ripe, are 

 also fine." It will usually be best to cut down 

 somewhat the amount of succulent feed given for a 

 few days preceding lambing time, and then increase 

 it gradually to its maximum after the lambs are 

 born. 



EXERCISE IN WINTER ESSENTIAL 



The ewes, during the winter, should be handled 

 carefully to prevent possible injury. Care should 

 always be taken that they are not rushed through 

 narrow doors, nor frightened by dogs, nor by 

 strangers going through the yards. It is also im- 

 portant that they have plenty of exercise. It is 

 usually possible to give them access to large yards 

 or to some open field where they may browse about 

 a straw stack, or in the standing corn stalks, on 

 such winter days as the weather permits. In case 

 of long-continued, heavy snows, when this sort of 

 exercise is not possible, a passageway should be 

 made through the snow from one barn to another, 

 or from the barn to the feeding racks removed to 

 some distance, so that the ewes will be obliged to 

 take exercise enough to keep them in vigorous con- 

 dition. Animals which have been kept closely 

 stabled during the winter have frequently borne 

 lambs which were so weak and delicate that very 

 few of them survived. This was due entirely to 

 the lack of exercise on the part of the mother. It 

 is preferable that the sheep should spend as much 



