Soiling Sheep. 179 



long and medium wooled families of that celebrated 

 sheep country. These sheep were by education un- 

 adapted to our general method of pasturing. They 

 are too large and too much affected by the sun to 

 work as most American pastured sheep are obliged 

 to, and as only an American merino is willing to do 

 over scanty pasture. There is, I believe, but one 

 way to treat the English families of sheep to make 

 them equal to English-bred and English-fed sheep, 

 and that is to soil them. 



Results. 



From 1877 to 1883 my Cotswold flock won over 

 $1,000 in premiums, besides several gold medals, 

 flock prizes. 



The following table of comparison of the amount 

 of wool taken from the same sheep following a year 

 at pasture and after two years of soiling shows the 

 effect of their having an abundance of food during 

 the entire year, so that there was no check in the 

 growth of wool : 



1878, thirty head of sheep pastured year before 280 pounds. 



1879, twenty-eight head of sheep partially soiled year 



before 330 ' ' 



18B0, thirty-seven head of sheep principally soiled year 

 before 550 



Those clipped in i88o were wintered mostly on 

 silage and bean fodder. In every other respect 

 they were cared for as in the previous years. It 



