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up his mind that he will have pelts or pulled wool to sell in the spring. 
The flock should be well sorted if a large one, and all the weaker ones 
put out, so that they can be better cared for. Those ewes intended to 
breed should also be put out; and, unless in small flocks, no ewe should 
be permitted to drop her first lamb until her third year. When there 
are but few, and they are well attended to, it may do to stint them to 
the ram in their first year ; but the practice is not a good one among 
fine-wooled sheep. With the large long-wooled breeds it is different; 
though even these I should prefer to give another year’s growth. 
Whatever may be the condition of the sheep, let no man flatter him¬ 
self that he has got ready for winter unless he has provided ample sheds 
for their accommodation. Sheep cannot be profitably kept or wintered 
without them. And if the farmer is not prepared with sheds, he had 
better let sheep alone. The shed, however, need not be an expensive 
one. A bank of turf, four feet high, will form a good wall, and poles or 
rails, resting one end on the bank and the other on a pole some seven feet 
high from the ground, will form the foundation ; cover this with straw 
or coarse grass, and your shed is complete. All the sheep asks from 
you is a dry place, not a warm one. It will stand any amount of cold, 
but it must be dry. If the farmer have any doubts on this subject, it 
would be well for him to get his clothes thoroughly wet, and then stand 
out of doors in a cold, driving wind. The experiment once tried, if he 
be a humane man, he will never after neglect to provide ample sheds for 
his stock. The sheds should be so arranged as to be able to fodder the 
sheep under them when wet. But while they should have shelter, they 
must not be crowded too closely. One hundred is as many as ever 
ought to be wintered in a flock, and they should have free access to 
fresh air and to water. No animal suffers sooner from a confined, bad 
air, or seems to relish the pure, fresh air so well as the sheep ; and no 
animal, not even excepting man, is so naturally neat and cleanly in its 
habits, or so dainty in its tastes. The expense of providing sheds, even 
where lumber and timber is scarce, is so small in comparison to the 
advantage, that no man should think of wintering sheep without them. 
It is not necessary to have barns, for sheep like their hay quite as well 
from a stack as from the mow. Sheds and yards, however, must be kept 
dry with fresh litter, always bearing in mind that in every situation the 
sheep must be kept dry. Where economy is any object, racks and feeding- 
