SHEEP. 85 
through the winter. Where hay is the principal feed, it may 
be well, where it is convenient, to give corn-stalks (or ‘blades’) 
every fifth or sixth feed, or even once a day; or the daily feed, 
not of hay, might alternate between blades, pea-straw, straw 
of the cereal grains, etc. Should any other fodder besides hay 
be the principal one, as, for example, corn-blades or pea- 
haulm, each of the other fodders might be alternated in the 
same way. It is mainly, in my judgment, a question of conve- 
nience with the flock-master, provided a proper supply of pal- 
atable nutriment within a proper compass is given. Hay, 
clover, properly cured pea-haulm, and corn-blades are palatable 
to the sheep, and each contain the necessary supply of nutri- 
ment in the quantity which the sheep can readily take into its 
stomach. Consequently, from either of these, the sheep can 
derive its entire subsistence. Sheep should not run or be fed 
in yards with any other stock. 
“ The expediency of feeding grain to store sheep in the win- 
ter depends upon circumstances. Remote from markets, it is 
generally fed by the holders of large flocks. Oats are com- 
monly preferred, and they are fed at the rate of a gill a head 
per day. Some feed half the same amount of (yellow) corn. 
Fewer sheep—particularly lambs, yearlings, and crones—get 
thin and perish, where they receive a daily feed of grain; they 
consume less hay, and their fleeces are increased in weight. 
On the whole, therefore, it is considered good economy. 
Where no grain is fed, three daily feeds of hay are given. It is 
a common and very good practice to feed greenish cut oats in 
the bundle, at noon, and give but two feeds of hay—one at 
morning and one at night. A few feed greenish cut peas in the 
same way. In warm, thawing weather, when sheep get to the 
ground, and refuse dry hay, a little grain assists materially in 
keeping up their strength and condition. This may furnish a 
useful hint for many parts of the South. When the feed is 
shortest in winter, in the South, there are many localities 
where sheep would get enough grass to take off their appetite 
for dry hay, but not guite enough to keep them in prime con- 
