CONFINEMENT TO TAEDS AND DHT PEED. 221 



the yard they •will "pick it over," eatitig the hest pa;rts, and 

 leaving enough to keep the littering constantly reilewed. 



GoNPiNiNG Sheep is' Yards and to. Det Feed. — A 

 decided majority of Northern flock-masters prefer the strict 

 confinement of sheep to their yards during the entire winter. 

 They contend that the slightest taste of the pasture during 

 thawing weather takes off the appetite from hayj and'that 

 sheep' are equally healthy aiid e¥en more thrifty' under such 

 confinement. I 'dissent iroin bbtH'conelusioris.' - 



If sheep, long kept from the grass by deep snows, are 

 suddenly admitted to it iii 'consequence of a wirlter thaw, and 

 if they are' allowed TvhoUy to subsist; on it fbf "a, number of 

 days — as long as the thaw 'c6ntiiiUBS-4-'they ufique'stionably 

 lose condition and strength oH hferbage whitih has Beeii 

 rendered inhutritious by age and by repeated freezings and 

 thawingSi Thin ^breeding *wes and young sheep ; sometimes 

 suffer materially in! this ^a^; 'particularly iii the critical moiith of 

 March. When returned to their confinement and to dry feed, 

 they have no. vigorous appetite for it, and consequently do not 

 recover from their debility. In certain unfavorable seasons 

 they pine, and eventually peirish, if not solely from this cause, 

 yet with'the fatal termination accelerated and rendered inore 

 inevitable by it. Stronger sheep recover from its effects — 

 but of course any check in the thrift of a flock results in a 

 proportionable loss in some of its products. 



Having habitually and regularly fed turnips daily to 

 breeding ewes, young ewes, rams, and wethers, (when I have 

 kept the latter,) for the last fifteen pr twenty winters, I am 

 enabled to aflirm, of my own positive knowledge, that green 

 feed, administered in proper quantities, does not in the least 

 diminish the appetite for dry feed ; and that proper green 

 feed, so far from weakeniiig, adds to the condition and 

 strength of sheep, besides producing other good effects which 

 will be adverted to when I speak of the relative value and 

 infllience of winter feeds. The experience of the great body 

 of English farmers fully sustains these conclusions. The prac- 

 tice of wintering sheep exclusively on dry feed — say oii 

 meadow hay and straw, with or withoiit grain or pulse — is 

 substantially unknown in the arable districts of ' England. 

 For sheep qf every class not to reeeive green feed daily 

 would there lie an exception; ajid'jfaUenmgBiie&p receive it 

 in abundant quantities. 



The winter ^ass in ojir own Northern States, though 



