228 MODES OF INSUEING EXERCISE. 



for the guidance of the pregnant ewe, has been followed by 

 wide -spread disaster, under circumstances which at least 

 give much color to the hypothesis that they are connected, 

 together as cause and effect. 



It by no means follows from anything which has been said, 

 that sheep require a very extensive winter range on grass. I 

 should decidedly object to their being allowed to feed down 

 all the grass lands on the farm at this period of the year, 

 and particularly the meadows. 



A few moderate-sized old seeded pastures about the sheep 

 barn, with a good amount of grass left on them, in the 

 fall, would answer every purpose; for the sheep with its 

 fluted teeth will not only take the grass but some portion of 

 its very roots. It wants but little each day, and the harder it 

 works to obtain it the better it is. 



Those who raise turnips for the sheep must obtain exercise 

 for them in some other way. A stack to feed from at noon 

 in fine weather, a quarter of a mile from the sheep barn, is an 

 excellent arrangement ; and who does not recollect the old- 

 fashioned, lively and merry scene of hauling out hay on an 

 ox-sled far from the dirty farm yard — the great oxen 

 hurrying forward as if satisfied some frolic was going on — 

 the feeder tossing the fragrant flakes right and left — each 

 succeeding flock pursuing with a Babel of cries — some of the 

 young ones bounding and kicking their heels into the air as 

 if greatly enjoying their fine run over the snow! 



I made it a rule in entering upon the writing of this book, 

 to look little after authorities where I believed the facts were 

 established by my own observations ; but the necessity of 

 winter exercise for sheep seems to be a much controverted 

 question in this country, and therefore I have largely 

 consulted the best European writers on the subject. I have 

 thus far been unable to find one who mentions the subject at 

 all, without distinctly insisting on the necessity of exercise ; 

 and when the destructive lamb epizootic of 1862 was termi- 

 nating its ravages, I addressed letters to a number of the 

 oldest and soundest breeders in our country, describing the 

 disease as I saw it, and asking their opinions as to it origin. 

 To no one did I suggest ^y own theory of that origin. In 

 every instance, I believe, the want of exercise was put forward 

 as either the leading cause, or as a cause second to no other 

 in its effects. Several also stated that they thought the 

 sheep " had been kept too long from the ground." 



