178 Soiling. 



(even if they were not good enough to win at the 

 New York State Fair) there were always a few fork- 

 fuls thrown into their winter racks in passing. The 

 sheep were delighted. The lambs grew as I never 

 had lambs grow before. It was not uncommon to 

 have them weigh 100 lb. at three months old, a gain 

 of a pound a day for every day they were old. Of 

 course, they had a lamb creep, as shown on page 183, 

 where they could run into a separate pen and help 

 themselves to bran with a little oil-cake meal in it. 

 Later in the season a little cracked corn was added. 

 I never had my ewes look as well or give as much 

 milk ; and when we came to shear them and their 

 lambs the next season, the increase was twenty-five 

 to thirty-five per cent. Thus I unintentionally 

 worked into the soiling of my sheep. The second 

 year soiling was begun earlier and continued later. 

 My sales of rams increased beyond all expectation, 

 and the third year a rough board shed was built with 

 a rough board roof, and soiling crops were put in 

 especially for the sheep, as hereafter explained ; and 

 that fall, as before stated, the flock won the Gold 

 Medal Flock prize with American-bred ewes and 

 lambs against the best flocks in the State, which 

 this would never have been accomplished except for 

 soiling. When in England in 1890 for the first time, 

 I saw how sheep were universally soiled, and how it 

 was that Americans have been obliged to keep going 

 there for show sheep. It was also apparent how it 

 had been possible for English breeders to produce 

 such grand specimens as are found in the several 



