288 
‘Pc RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Practical Sheep Notes 
Handling a Fighting Ram 
Is there anything I can do or use to 
cure a ram of the butting habit? I paid 
a big price for him. and want to keep 
him, but it is not safe for anyone to go 
where be is. lie will follow one about 
and butt eo hard it is dangerous. Sev¬ 
eral times lie has thrown down children 
and hurt them badly. W. J. C. 
White Plains, Md. 
There is no specific for a ram of that 
class, except to suppress him. lie has 
no respect for any human, unless he fears 
him, and then he will cringe ‘like any 
coward and bully. If lie wears horns, a 
blind can be wired across his eyes so he 
can see to eat, but not calculate an aim, 
but it must be strong leather, and wired 
permanently. String and oilcloth will he 
rubbed off at once. If hornless, he can¬ 
not be blinded. 
The owner can discourage him so ho 
will not attack him, and is perfectly safe 
while doing it. lie can invite attack, 
stand still with his side toward the ani¬ 
mal. with one foot just behind the other, 
nnd move back 12 inches at the psycho¬ 
logical moment. The ram has figured 
his aim to a fraction of an inch, and 
when it fails is mixed up, but may bo 
too stubborn to give up, in which event 
the man can stand about aud lot him 
try to get revenge until he gets discour¬ 
aged. There is no danger, anyone can 
do this. I am nearly the Scriptural age. 
nnd would smile to meet a ram that wants 
to “get me.” It will hasten respect to 
take a wire off a hay bale, double it to 
four, nnd short, and hand him an under¬ 
handed paste on the nostrils as he passes. 
Also to catch him when he quits, and give 
him plenty there. One or two lessons 
brings respect for the practitioner, but 
not for others. They must keep away, 
if afraid of him. I have had his kind 
for diversion. When mother was my 
present age one got in the yard and was 
eating her flowers. She “shooed” him 
with her apron, when lie backed and 
came. She grabbed an ax handle I had 
hanging in the wood-house, and said: 
“I'll show you about chasing me in my 
own yard,” and lie could hardly get about 
for a week. One lesson is enough for 
immunity for the teacher, but the wire 
method will not injure the sheep. 
Tf it is a horned ram, u yard of broom 
handle, sharpened at one end and wired 
lo a horn, will prevent backing, and this 
prevents rams fighting, but there is al¬ 
most too much slack if attached to 
a collar on the wool of a hornless sheep, 
and if this one cannot lie fixed with 
“blinders” or a stick, I would throw him 
into a hack field, or put up a notice, 
“Keep Out." W. W. REYNOLDS. 
Ration for Breeding Ewes 
I have 12 sheep; five are ewe lambs. 
Since last February I have kept them 
all together with the old ewes, and feed 
them once a day corn fodder, hay, aud 
once a day bean pods. What do you 
think of that ration V I am also feeding 
them n little grain, sometimes ground 
outs and sometimes whole oats. What 
kind of grain would you advise? I am 
looking for lambs about the latter part of 
February. 4« v * 
Wolcott, N. Y. 
Well-cured corn fodder makes excellent 
roughage for a flock of breeding ewes. If 
you have Alfalfa or clover buy they should 
he generously supplied with either of these 
products, but Timothy hay and corn fod¬ 
der do not make a very useful combina¬ 
tion. I take it that the beau pods have 
been nicely preserved. They are palatable 
and especially relished by the ewes. They 
will add protein to the ration, and would 
add materially to the usefulness of Tim¬ 
othy hay if this is tin* roughage you have 
on hand. Whole cate are quite as useful 
as ground pats for mature sheep; the ad¬ 
dition of 20 per cent of bran would in¬ 
crease their value, aud if the ewes arc 
thin in flesh the addition of 15 per cent 
of cornmeal and 10 per cent of oilmeal 
would he beneficial. There i« an advan¬ 
tage in having the ewes lamb in good 
flesh, for the milk flow is increased, and 
it is very important that young lambs 
have access to. an abundant supply of 
milk during their early growing stages, 
especially during cold weather. I would 
include the grain ration regularly, giving 
the ewes from one-fourth to one-half 
pound of the grain mixture daily, letting 
them have all of the corn fodder that they 
Will clean up with relish. Let them have 
what haj uiey will consume without 
waste, and provide them free access to 
fresh water, and no difficulty will be ex¬ 
perienced at lambing time. It is neces¬ 
sary, however, that they have a dry place 
to sleep, although this building need not 
necessarily be a warm building. It should 
be well ventilated, although at lambing 
time it is essential that comparatively 
warm stalls, well bedded, be provided. 
F. 0. M. 
Sheep in the East 
Tf appears that Tk K. Leikcrt, page 
1417, Dec. 28, 1018, lias kicked a wasp’s 
nest when he touched the 35-cent wool 
business. Thirty years ago, when old 
ewes were selling f<»r $1.25 in New York 
market, and 2,000,000 pounds of Austra¬ 
lian wool was riding outside of Boston 
in the harbor, waiting for the tariff to 
be lifted so that we would lie supplied 
with cheap wool, I had under my care 
among other tilings a snfnll flock, ?>5 
breeding ewes, whose average clip that 
year was nine pounds, for which wool 
the huckster paid 21 cents per pound. 
Some difference between George A. Post’s 
(page 115) check and mine, ho having 
received nearly ns much money for 50 
pounds as T received for over 200 pounds. 
Yet neither of these two fellow farmers 
seem satisfied, and there are many rea¬ 
sons why they should not he. 
Considerably over (10 years ago about 
the first thing that I can remember 
was running after my father’s sheep on 
the Welsh mountains, and a little later 
in life my dear mother would tie up two 
or three fleeces and send the boy to the 
woolen factory with it, about four miles 
distant, to be carded and rolled ready 
for spinning, which work was done at 
home, generally to the tune of an old 
Welsh hymn, “Happy Days.” Since 
reading Mr. Haight’s letter (page 120) I 
have wondered at the wonderful devour¬ 
ing capacity of wool the present or up- 
to-date machinery lias compared to 
those worked by the old water-wheel. 
Probably if there were a few more rollers 
or combs added to the machine that 
cleaned and rolled the 10 pounds in Mr. 
Haight's factory, no wool at all would 
he delivered. I never thought of weighing 
the wool that 1 carried home, blit' it did not 
seem much lighter when I returned than 
when I went, but then very likely the 
boy was getting tired, and his bundle 
seemed just as heavy <»r heavier. Pity 
Mr. Haight could not find another crow 
or two to pick at that 10 pounds of wool, 
then the poor farmer would have to go 
without stockings. 
The New York milk distributors have 
been at it for years trying to fill the milk 
producers with that kind of logic; but 
ihe gentleman that takes a rest twice a 
day on a three-legged stool with his head 
against a cow’s flank has solved the prob¬ 
lem in another way. In Westchester Co., 
N. Y., there are thousands of farmers who 
can hardly get buckle and strap to meet 
who are the owners of thousands of hills 
that cannot be cultivated properly, and 
the hay (?) got off them mown by hand 
would not pay for tlm raking; but still 
it is done year after year, and both the 
owner and the land getting poorer. Last 
Autumn I bad the opportunity of having 
February 15, IP 19 
an auto trip, and after returning was in¬ 
formed that we had traveled twenty-odd 
miles, and during the trip I saw some of 
the finest sheep pastures that are in 
North America, blit only one small (lock 
of sheep. During the Iasi 20 years t have 
lived in the west end of this county, anil 
have come in contact with many farmers. 
Most of those who visited my little patch 
became interested in the sheep, and were 
as surprised as though they were looking 
at polar bears. On inquiring if they did 
not keep slice, the reply invariably was: 
“Know nothin’ ’bout ’em.” Fellow far¬ 
mers, it’s time you did. If such men as 
E. ,7. Leikcrt, w ho*are interested in sheep 
husbandry, were to get together and see 
if a Farm HUreau agent could bo caught 
who would interest himself in putting 
“sheep on it thousand hills” the com¬ 
munity would call them blessed. 
TIM DICK TOPPER. 
Westchester Co., N. V. 
Acorns for Sheep 
This Fall, after the pastures were dried 
up and frosted, I noticed that my flock 
of sheep seemed to lie getting in better 
condition and fatter every day. I could 
not understand it, as 1 was not graining 
them, and usually under the same condi¬ 
tions they fell away. One Sunday when 
out for a walk I noticed them all working 
over the ground under some trees, as 
though finding some treat. Upon investi¬ 
gation I found they were eating acorns. 
There were several oak trees in the pas¬ 
ture, and I found they went to them 
each morning and several times during 
the day to find the newly fallen acorns. 
While I had known that hogs liked 
acorns, I never before knew that sheep 
would eat them. Having a wood with 
many oak trees in it on another part of 
the farm, which was not in the pasture, 
I gathered a large quantity of acorns 
and used them for Winter feed, thereby 
saving several dollars’ worth of high- 
priced grain. MARY PLUMMER. 
Pennsylvania. 
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