'"1^1 ^^^•?. •^i^' LIBRARY €r CONGRESS. i|ap,.^l_. ®op5ri# :1«.---: Shelf ysA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^,; ■i^l THE AMERICAN MERINO: FOR WOOL AND FOR MUTTON. A Praotio&l Treatise on the Selectiot. Care. Beeedhstg aud Diseases oj" the Merino Sheep 4LL SEGTIOHS OF THE DHITED STATES. BY STEPHEN Lowers. + ... IlLUST BAT ED. .1> G^. NEW YORK: 0. JUDD CO., DAVID W. JUDD, Pees't, 751 BROADWAY, 1887. Entered, according^ to Act of Coi^ress, in the year 1886, by tlie O. JUDD CO., In the Office of the Libraiian of Congress, at Washington. CONTENTS. Letter of Request — - '^ Letter of Presentation ^ Chapter I. From Spanish to American - - H Chapter II. Form --- ^2 Chapter III. Fleece ----- -- - '^'^ Chapter IV. Blood --- ^^ Chapter V. Breeding ^'^ Chapter VI. Feed 59 Chapter VII. Pastm-e in the West ^^ Chapter VIII. A Mutton Merino '^^ Chapter IX. Lambing --- ^^ Chapter X. Care of Ewes and Lambs ^^ Chapter XI. Tagging, Washing, etc ^^^ Chapter XII. Shearing and Doing Up Wool-- -.115 Chapter XIII. Summer Management - -1^ Chapter XIV. From Grass to Hay - -.-.138 Chapter XV. Selection and Care of Earns. .. - -142 Chapter XVI. The Breeding Flock --1^5 Chapter XVII. Sheep Houses and Then- Appurtenances - 165 Chapter XVIII. Winter Management -. - - - 1 • • V VI CONTENTS. Chapter XIX. reeding for Mutton 189 Chapter XX. From Hay to Grass ..^ 200 Chapter XXI. Fodder for Sheep. .203 Chapter XXII. Systems of Sheep Husbandry _ .209 Chapter XXIII. Systems of Sheep Husbandly (Continued) 222 Chapter XXIV. Systems of Sheep Husbandi-y (Continued) - 234 Chapter XXV. Systems of Sheep Husbandry (Continued) .251 Chapter XXVI. Systems of Sheep Husbandi-y (Continued) i .264 Chapter XXVII. Diseases of the Merino— 'Taperskin " 277 Chapter XXVIII. Parasitic Diseases (Continued) 287 Chapter XXIX. External Parasites 301 Chapter XXX. Diseases of the Feet ...316 Chapter XXXI. Diseases of the Respiratory Organs 324 Chapter XXXII. Diseases of the Alimentary System 328 Chapter XXXIII. Blood Diseases 338 Chapter XXXIV. Diseases of the Nervous System 345 Chapter XXXV. Diseases of the Urinary and Reproductive Organs -- 348 Chapter XXXVI. Miscellaneous 353 CORRESPONDENCE. Mr. G. B. Quinn, the President, and Mr. J. G. Blue, the Sec« retary, of the Ohio Spanish Sheep Breeders' Association, ad- dressed a communication to Mr. Stephen Powers, in which they said ; Office of the Ohio Spanish Merino Sheep Breeders' Association. Cardington, Ohio. The breeders and owners of Merino Sheep find they are called upon to master new and, in many cases, fatal dis- eases not spoken of by the celebrated writers, Randall and Youatt. Among the writers on the Merino of to-day, we think some one should present to the public a practical treatise, which shall discuss the present management, diseases and breeding of Merinos and sheep of different bloods, comparing their merits in our States and Territories. We think the present magnitude of this industry demands - * * * the proper education of our shepherds and flock-masters in all the new diseases of Merinos which have been developed during the last decade, and in the older ones which yet, in some instances, infest our flocks. The Ohio Spanish Merino Sheep Breeders' Association, by their President and Secretary, would respectfully request you, at your earliest convenience, to condense your ideas on this subject into a suitable volume, to be printed and presented to the public for their enlightenment. You have perhaps observed the need and demand for such a volume, properly written and illustrated^ to be placed upon the market for the thousands of flock-masters of to-day. Should you comply with this request, and should it be pos- sible for you to give your time continuously to the volume until completed, we think the sheep fraternity of our country, and all who are interested, will freely patronize your work and appre- ciate your labors. (7) g THE AMERICAIS' MERIN^O MTo Powers replied as follows : Messrs. Geo. B. Quinn and J. G, Blue. Gentlejmen: — Together with your kind letter, inviting me to prepare a book on our National breed of sheep, I received a copy of the Register of your Association, containing a record of several hundred pure-blood flocks owned mostly in Ohio — a work carefully edited and printed, and substantially bound. Nothimg could afford more convincing proof than this elegant volume, of the solidity and the prosperity of your ancient call- ing in our State. I have undertaken to do what you ask, and offer you here- with a work on " The American Merino." I tender it modestly and without comment, except the simple remark that my task has been conscientiously performed, and that it is based on years of personal experience in sheep husbandry. "While it would be presumptuous in me to say that the volume herewith tendered to yourselves and the pubhc, fully meets the requirements of modern shepherding in the United States, it is not too much to aver that our great industry has outgrown the manuals heretofore published. Since the learned work of Dr. Randall was given to the world, the American Merino has not only crossed the Missouri and ascended the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, but has fol- lowed the dusty wagon- trail of the emigrant to California, where it attained a larger and hardier form and a new acclimation ; and, starting out thence afresh, north, south and east, it over- spread the whole mid-continent. With a scholarly pen this distinguished author traced the development of the American Merino to the banks of the Mississippi ; but the traits and needs of that great new branch or type of the race, which may be called the California Merino — the "rustler," as it is termed in the expressive vernacular — were httle understood by him. The work of Mr, Henry Stewart is invaluable to the American breeder of the English races, with their long category of special wants and ailments ; but it would hardly be claimed, even by the candid and painstaking author himself, that it is fully abreast of the advance of the Merino in the Far West. The present may seem to be a dark day for the breeder of Merinos, but the American future of this great race, potent FOR WOOL Al^^D MUTTOi?-. 9 from "long descent," is as well assured as that of the continent itself. In 1865, the Boston price of fine wool was one dollar and two cents per pound ; of coarse, ninety-six cents. In 1885 the number of Merinos in the world is at least one hundred per cent, greater than then, while the number of coarse-wools (owing to the actual decrease in England) has increased very- little, if at all. Yet to-day, the Boston price of Merino wool is thirty-four cents, and of coarse, it is thirty cents. In spite of the enormous increase of Merinos, their wool is proportionately higher than it was then. Even in 1866, before the tariif was increased, the actual an- nual revenue from the Merino sheep of the United States was two dollars and sixteen cents ; from the mutton-sheep of Eng- land, one dollar and seventeen cents. The breeder of the American Merino should not for one moment allow himself to be discouraged, if he is a good shep- herd. He can abate much, and yet make more money than the flock-master of other lands. Vermont, the mother of the American Merino, gave to Ohio and the West, a sheep incomparable in the whole world as a producer of wool ; and which has well fulfilled its destiny in our younger civilization. Let it now be the work of Ohio, of your Association, and kindred societies in other States, to give to America what the disciples of Daubenton created at Ram- bouillet : the farmer's sheep, a "mutton Merino," presenting in itself the best attainable combination of flesh and pelage, which, as a writer in the Breeders^ Gazette happily says, ' ' stands ready for a partnership arrangement with any domestic animal or any sort of crop the farmer may choose to cultivate." Against a National race of such a type^ the American Govern- ment can never afford to enact hostile legislation. While it is yours, gentlemen, to labor for the accomplishment of this highly desirable result, and to preserve in your several Registers that pedigree so highly valued by the breeders, let it be mine to give in the following pages, as well as I may, the present condition and directions for the rearing of the Merino. Stephen Powers. THE AMERICAN MERINO, CHAPTER I. FROM "SPANISH" TO ♦'AMERICAN.'* There are two etymologies given for the word "Merino." One, put forth in the biography of Consul Win. Jarvis, and adopted by the Ohio Register, traces it to two Spanish words meaning "from over the sea." The other, upheld by E. Ollen- dorf, a writer in the Breeders' Gazette, and some others, would derive it from Merino, the designation of a certain royal officer of Spain, years ago; one of whose functions was the assign- ment of their respective pasture grounds to the mountain sheep {Serranos), and the migratory sheep (Trans-humantes). Mr. Seth Adams imported the first pair of Spanish Merinos to the United States for breeding purposes, in 1801, bringing them from France to Dorchester, Mass. In 1807 he became a citizen of Wacatomica (now Dresden), in Ohio, and brought with him twenty-five or thirty sheep, the descendants of this pair. He continued to breed them for several years, under the very dis- couraging circumstances which attended pioneer life in those days, but finally sold out the flock and moved to Zanesville. Though this importation was of great benefit to Ohio and also to Kentucky (the first pair Mr. Adams sold in Ohio was to Judge Todd, of Kentucky, for fifteen hundred dollars), yet the stress of pioneer life was too severe, and there are not now any descendants of it positively recognizable. The credit of the first traceable importation, therefore, be- longs to Col. David Humphreys, who brought from Spain to Derby, Conn., in 1803, twenty-one rams and seventy ewes. But this now celebrated flock would have been lost to recorded history, too, though not to the blood and stock of the country, had it not been preserved by the one ewe bought by Stephen (11) X% THE AMERICAN MERINO Atwood. A Humphreys' ewe and a Heaton rara, in the hands of this noted and careful breeder, alone preserved for modern registers the blood of this large and choice flock. Still, for a time, Merino sheep were wonderfully papular. It is recorded that President Madison wore, at his inauguration in 1809, a coat made from wool grown on sheep from Col. Hum- phreys' flock, and a waistcoat and small clothes made from the Livingston French flock, of Clermont, N. H. Four lambs were sold in 1810 from the Livingston flock, at one thousand dollars each, and Col. Humphreys is said to have sold two pairs of Merinos at three thousand dollars a pair. (It should be borne in mind that one dollar then, represents at least two now). Col. Humphreys sold his half-blood Merino wool at seventy-five cents a pound; three-quarter-blood at one dollar and twenty-five cents; and his full-blood at two dollars a pound. Accordingly, very large importations of Merinos began to. arrive. Mr. Albert Chapman states that, in the years 1810 and 1811, one hundred and six vessels arrived at various ports of the United States, bringing in all, fifteen thousand seven hun- dred and sixty-seven sheep ! Of these, the vast majority were Merinos from Spain; and of the latter, it is considered probable that the greater number were purchased by that indefatigable patriot. Consul Jarvis. • It is not certainly known from what cabanas, or flocks, in Spain, Col. Humphreys selected his purchase, nor does it appear, that he considered it a matter of importance. Mr. Atwood said, in 1864, ** The original Humphreys' sheep were, in color, lighter than my present flock," while those imported by Mr. A. Heaton, " were short-legged, dark and heavy-wooled." The principal flocks of Spain from which Merinos were brought to America, were Infantados, Paulars, Escurials, Neg- rettis, Montarcos, Guadaloupes and Aguirres. It has generally been believed that Col. Humphreys selected his sheep from the Infantados, while Consul Jarvis bought from all the other flocks above named, except Infantados. Col. Humphreys mentions that a ram bred on his farm cut seven pounds and five ounces of washed wool. Mr. Jarvis says: "From 1811 to 1826 ****** my average weight of ■wool was three pounds and fourteen ounces, to four pounds and two ounces — varying according to keep. The weight of the wool of the bucks was from five and a quarter pounds to six and a half pounds, in good stock case, all washed on the sheeps backs." _, FOR WOOL AJ^D MUTTOI^. 13 14 THE AMEBIC AK MERIITO Many acrimonious controversies have been waged by the partisans of the different flocks in the United States, as to their respective merits and their purity. It is now acknowledged by the authors of the Ohio Register, that we probably have no pure sheep of any one of the above named celebrated cabanas in America; they have all been more or less mingled. But we have, perhaps, a million pure American Merinos of undoubted Spanish descent; and this one fact, which alone is of practical importance, should satisfy every breeder of this great and ancient race. This, I take it, is the true purport of the follow- ing sentence (p. 28) in the American Register, of Wisconsin : " The imperfect records of the Spanish Merino sheep, from their early importations until 1860, have been such that an absolute certainty is an impossibility, but the march of progress has been so grand, and the improvements so great, that any imper- fections that may have stained the blood of those early breed- ers, does not and cannot stain the blood of to-day." The Paulars were undoubtedly one of the handsomest flocks in Spain ; the wool was compact, soft and silky, and the surface not so much covered with gum. The Aguirres had more wool about their faces and legs than either of the other flocks. The wool was more crimped than the Paular, and less so than tho Negretti, and it was thick and soft. They were short-legged, round and broad-bodied, with loose skins. The Negrettis were the tallest sheep in Spain, but were not handsomely formed ; the wool was somewhat shorter than the Paular, the skin more loose and inclined to double ; many of them were wooled well on the face, and on their legs down to their hoofs. All the loose-skinned sheep had large dewlaps. The Guadaloupes were rather large-boned, but not handsome ; wool thick and crim- ped ; skins loose and doubling ; generally more gummy than any of the other flocks. The Escurials were about as tall as the Paulars, but slighter, and their wool not so thick ; they were plainer than the Negrettis and Aguirres, and not so well wooled on the faces and legs. The Inf antados were the largest and most popular flock ; their lambs, like the Paular, often have a hairy coat when born ; a mark of a good shearer. The Paular lambs often have butter-nut-tipped ears at birth. A black lamb is oftener yeaned from the Paular strain of blood, than any other ; but the best-informed shepherds nowadays, do not consider a black lamb any evidence of impurity of blood, though the color itself is objectionable. "When Col. Humphreys first began to sell pure Merinos, the FOE WOOL AND MUTTOK. 15 price did not generally exceed one hundred dollars per head; but, as we have seen above, they afterward commanded en- ormous prices. This was in consequence of the embargo and the war of 1812, during which, full-blooded wool at one time, brought two dollars and fifty cents a pound, (two dollars even as far west as Marietta, Ohio). But after this war closed there was a disastrous collapse; many pure Merinos were sold for one dollar a head; and many of the best flocks of the country were sold and dispersed. The extensive importations of Consul Jarvis also contributed to this cheapening. This country, therefore, owes an inextinguishable debt of gratitude to that plain, simple man, Stephen Atwood, who, with an abiding faith in the future of this breed of sheep, in 1813 paid one hundred and twenty dollars for a full-blood Humphreys ewe, and in 1819, bought five more of the same descent ; and with this little band as a foundation, breeding to Humphreys rams until 1838 (after which he could find no more that w;ere pure, and was obliged to depend on his own), for more' than half a century, whether wool was up or do wn^ tariff or no tariff, he kept his small flock together on his small farm, and bred it so pure that, in this day of many Registers, and of much "crookedness," the very highest warrant that C£in be given any sheep is, to pronounce it a "straight Atwood." His first fleece from this noted ewe, shorn in June, 1814, was three pounds and nine ounces. That he was a progressive breeder appears from the fact that, in June, 1857, he cut from a ram of the same blood, nineteen pounds and eleven ounces, though the same animal, next year, with another owner, yielded thirty-two pounds. Eecent investigations by the Ohio Register leave it doubtful whether this ewe of Atwood's was a Paular or an Infantado, They also show that Atwood was less careful in his records than in his breeding, and that the present blood of the American Merino is much purer than its recorded pedigree. While Mr. William Jarvis deserves the highest praise for the indomitable energy, perseverance and sagacity, which led him, as Consul to Lisbon, amid the conflicts of the Napoleonic wars, to gather up the wrecks of the ancient flocks of Spam, and dispatch ship-load after ship-load to America ; yet he ranks below Mr. Atwood m the singleness and steadfastness with which the latter held to his purpose and practice of breeding for fi^f ty years. Mr. Jarvis put on his farm at Weathersfield^ 'Vt., three hundred sheep of the Paular, Aguirre, Escurial, Montarco and Kegretti flocks. According to the Spanish cu^ 16 THE AMEEICAK MERIKO torn, he bred each of these separately until 1816 or 1817, when he mixed them together. In 1826 he committed the mistake of crossing with the Saxony Merinos, a mania for which was at that time over-sweeping the country. But this country is in- debted to Mr. Jarvis for most of the admirable Paular blood it has received ; and there were men who bought of him pure Spanish Merinos, and who were not swept away by the Saxony mania which passed over the country. To him, ultimately, we Fig. 3.— MERINO EWE. are indebted for the fine flock of the Messrs. Rich, of Vermont, which has been a prolific mother of Western studs. Mr. Chap- man says, with the fervor of a strong partisan: "Let us all especially revere the memory of Thurman and Charles Rich, whose firmness and judgment were not shaken, and who have left unto their heirs and the land, the goodly heritage of the Rich flock, without even a smell or rumor of Saxony upon its outermost skirts." At this point I will present a sketch of a Paular Merino ewe, figured in the Albany Cultivator, December, 1840, of which the owner says, " Her form at any rate is genuinely MeHno,'" though he complains further on: " Still it must be acknowledged that the Merino, compared with the improved breeds of sheep, is an ill-formed animal." FOE WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 17 By way of contrast, I give next a group of two ewes of the American Merino, owned by G. B. Quinn, Esq. , Brown's Mills, Ohio. {See Frontispiece.) The greatest breeder America has yet produced, Edwin Ham- mond, of Vermont, now appeared upon the scene, to give that improvement to the Merino form, which the contributor to the Cultivator had sighed for. Before Hammond, there was only the Spanish Merino ; after Hammond, there was a truly Amer- ican Merino. We may believe that this great specialist began with about such material as that figured above ; for " Old Black," which he bought of Atwood, in 1849, is thus described by Mr, Randall : "He was long, tall, flat-ribbed, rather long in the neck and head, strong-boned, a little roach-backed, deep-chested, moder- ately wrinkled ; his wool was about an inch and a half long, of medium thickness, extremely yolky, and dark-colored extern- ally ; face a little bare, and not much wool on shanks. He did not possess a very strong constitution." He weighed about one hundred and thirty-five pounds, and cut about fourteen pounds of wool, unwashed. This was certainly not very promising material. I would not, if I could, trace Mr. Hammond's wonderful career through all the intricacies and niceties of his art. He developed ultimately three lines, or sub-families, in his flock — "the dark or Queen line," "the light-colored line," and the "intermediate." The best sheep of his flock were, almost in- variably, produced by crossing between these lines. But we may profitably trace a few of his foot-steps, as they are imprinted on the records. "Old Black" lived nineteen years, attesting the vigor created by Atwood's open-air shep- herding ; but Hammond soon found (or created) better material. His own ram, " Wooster," bred in 1849, weighed only one hun- dred and five pounds, but_sheared nineteen and one quarter" pounds, unwashed. He served three hundred ewes when he was a year old ! He was compact and short-legged; head short and thick ; very wrinkly ; wool about two inches long. " Old Greasy," bred in 1850, weighed one hundred and ten pounds and cut twenty-two pounds. " Old V/rinkly," bred in 1853, weighed oiieliundred and thirty pounds and sheared twenty- t hree poun ds. In breeding, next, from *' Little Wrinkly," Mr. Hammond suffered a backset in weight of fleece, though his wool was very fine and even. But " Sweepstakes " (1856) went up to o ne hundred and f orty pounds in weight of carcass, 18 THE AMEKICAK MEKIlirO and twenty-seven pounds in fleece. In this noble animal, perhaps" tlip art of the master reached its culmination; he united in himself the blood of the three lines, and is believed to have produced more scoured wool in one fleece, than any other ram which Hammond ever owned. •'Young Matchless" was a model of compactness, strength, and symmetry ; had immense constitution, and did more than any other ram to impart the short, thick, round carcass so con- spicuous in the American Merino; while "Long Wool" im-^ proved the fleece above any other, perhaps, especially in length. But "Sweepstakes" combined both or all these excellences, and transmitted them to his progeny. Mr. Hammond died in 1870, but the year 1856, which marks the birth of " Sweepstakes," may be assumed as the starting- point of the American Merino. In 1861, Mr. Randall instituted certain measurements of carcass on a ram and three ewes of his flock (which was of the Hammond blood) ; and a few of these, with the Austrian figures reduced to English, will be of interest here as showing the points in which the American Merino is an improvement over the Spanish. 1 5 1 1 11 , Infant ADO. Eam.^ lbs. 104 73 100^ 70 122 114 12-3 100 ft. in. 1 lOi 1 10 1 lU 1 9h 10 10 10 11 ft. in. 5 8 5 4i 5 7* 5 4 3 n 3 m 4 3 11 ft. in. 5 2h 4 m 5 U 5 2 4 41 4 4i 4 3 4 01 ft. in. 7i ilwe... 7 Nbgeetti. Kam 7i Ewe 6 American. jjam 9 Ewe 8 Ewe 8 Ewe 8 From these figures we learn the almost incredible fact that, while the Spanish Merinos were nearly two feet longer in all, and a foot longer in the neck, they weighed from twenty to twenty-five pounds less, and were not so broad across the hips by about two inches ! Tlieir fore-legs were also six or seven inches longer than those of the American Merino J FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON'. 19 Livingston gives the weight of the unwashed Spanish fleeces at eight and one half pounds for the ram, and five pounds for the ewe. Even in Randall's day, the American Merino un- washed fleeces were nearly double these weights. In Spain, the best rams yielded only about six or eight per cent, of their weight in wool ; in America, about 1844, it had increased to fifteen per cent. ; and in 1861, Hammond's celebrated ram, *' Twenty-ouieT^er Cent." had increased the proportion to the figureswhich gave him his name. There were forwarded to the Paris Exposition, American Merino fleeces (twenty-one rams, forty-six ewes), of which the per cent, of wool, to live weight for the whole, was 22 ; of the best thirty, 25.2 ; of the best six , 30.1^ of the best one, 36.6 . With this notable improvement in compactness of form, and wool-bearing capacity, there has been no deterioration in the fineness of the fiber, but, perhaps, the reverse. Youatt gave as the average diameter of the Merino wool-fiber in his day, one- seven hundred and fiftieth of an inch ; of Saxony wool, one- eight hundred and fortieth of an inch. In 1878, measurements of wool made in Vermont, as stated by Hon. Henry Lane, of that State, showed rams' fleeces with a fiber of the diameter of one-nine hundred and thirty-fourth of an inch ; and ewes' of one-one tnousand and fifth of an inch. But it may well be questioned whether sheep yielding such a fine fiber as this, and such an enormous percentage of wool to, live weight, are desirable ; they are generally lacking in vigor.. The best shepherds are beginning to acknowledge that the hot- house forcing of the American Merino's wool-bearing aptitude, has been, in many instances, carried too far. Thus, in report- ing the annual "State Shearing" of Vermont for 1885, Mr. ^ Albert Chapman says: *'It will be remarked that there is a j falling olf in the weights attained by rams and ewes one year old, a very good indication that our breeders are becoming con- vinced that the forcing system to attain large size and heavy fleeces the first year, is neither desirable or profitable, and the gains in the mature sheep show that slower development tends to much better and larger improvements in the end." In the percentage of scoured wool, per fleece, there has been, perhaps, a slight improvement over the Spanish, in the great \ mass of American Merinos and high-grades throughout the coun- \ try ; but the enormous development of yolk, under the housing I and other artificial treatment of the stud flock, has tended to / prejudice the breed in the rainds of njany. caref ul conservatiye / THE AMEBIC AI^ MERIITO wcol-growers. I have the authority of Messrs. Coates Brothers, of Philadelphia, for saying that fleeces have been shorn in this country which yielded only twelve and one-half per cent of pui-e wool. In 1876, " Patrick Henry," bred by L. P. Clark, of Vermont, yielded a lieece of thirty-seven pounds, which turned out nine pounds and ten ounces of clean wool, or twenty-six per cent. " Bascom," owned by Capt. J. G. Blue, of Carding- ton, Ohio, once gave a fleece of twenty-nine and one-quarter pounds, which scoured nine and one-quarter pounds, or thirty- one and six-tenths per cent. The heaviest known fleece yet cut from an American Merino, was one of forty-four xoounds and four ounces, which was yielded by " Buckeye," a ram owned partly in Huron County, Ohio, partly in Michigan, at the " State Shearing" of the latter State in 1884. For detailed histories of noted breeders and their flocks, the reader must consult the voluminous registers of the various National and State Associations. But there are a few items, which may be given here as landmarks in the progress of the American Merino. While the written or printed histories of the Adams, Humphreys, Heaton and Jarvis importations are practically lost, owing to numerous transfers, the flock of C. S. Eamsey, Castleton, Vt., has an unbroken traditional record from the Humphreys' importation to the present time. In 1809, Israel Putnam, of Marietta, Ohio, bought of Seth Adams some full-blood Merinos, and founded a flock, which was continued by his son, L. J. P. Putnam, substantially to the present time, but without registration. June 13, 1811, Dr. In- crease Mathews, of Putnam, Ohio, bought an Infantado ram and two ewes, just imported into Alexandria, Va., and had them brought in a wagon to his farm in Ohio, where he kept up a pure flock until about 1850. In 1811, Col. Humphreys sold a ram for sixteen hundred acres of Ohio land to Paul Fearing and B. I. Gihnan, of Marietta, Ohio, and this ram was brought on and laid the foundation for a flock which was kept up many years. In 1826, Col. John Stone and George Dana, of Belpre, Ohio, bought a number of pure Merinos from the celebrated Wells flock, of SteubenviUe, Oliio ; and Col. Stone kept up a flock over half a century. The Wells flock, just mentioned, was founded in 1815, and continued to 1829, when it was a grand flock of three thousand head, shearing about five pounds of washed wool per fleece. It was then sold and scattered. For some reason a cloud has always rested over the importa- FbR WOOL AN"D MUTTOIS". 21 tions made subsequently to 1812 ; hence the fine flocks of " Black-top " or " Delaine Merinos " — locally known by way of emphasis as " the big Merinos " — found in Washington County, Pa., tracing to the Meade importation, and with some admix- ture of Saxony in several cases, founded about 1826-30, have been regarded as Pariahs and outcasts, whose abode was without the camp. But, in view of the fact that these same flocks have contributed, perhaps more than any others within its borders, to set Washington County at the very forefront of the United States in the production of sheep and wool, they can rest tran- quilly under this bar sinister on their escutcheon. Presenting themselves with a modest register, in which no special effort is made to conceal the stain in their blood (if it be one) the *' Victor-Beall Delaine Merinos " ought to be recognized as an excellent variety of the American. The flock of Daniel Kelly, Wheaton, 111., has a record dating from 1829. That belonging to Alex. Fraser, East Troy, Wis., originating from Atwood Mermos, has a record reaching back to 1846. The spread of the Merinos over the Far West is traced to some extent in subsequent chapters. 22 THE AMEEICAi^ MEEIN^O CHAPTEE II FORM. Correlation of Carcass and Fleece.— In the appendix to The Practical Shepherd, Mr. Randall gives some valuable tables, which go to show that small sheep produce proportionately more vv'ool than medium or large ones. I shall abridge these somewhat, and give, first, a table which is based on six hundred and fifty-five sheep, divided into lots according to age and sex. These tables represent the results of three years' observations. Age. Sex. Average Weight of Body. Average Weight of Fleece. Pounds of Body to One of Wool. 1 E 55.74 5.07 11.01 2 E 67.03 4.94 13.54 3 E 75.99 5.18 14.58 4 E 82.49 5.06 16.33 5 E 74.67 4 75 1568 6 E 79.00 4.78 16.49 1 W 64. 2S 5.16 12.43 2 W 84.23 5.G9 14.77 3 W 88.86 6.45 14.57 4 W 103.94 7.04 34.04 5 W 97.72 7.12 13.71 Per Cent of Wool to Weight of Body. 8.10 6.90 6.41 5.88 6.00 5.70 7.50 6.49 6.58 6.65 7.00 From this table, it appears that ewes shear their heaviest fleece at three years old, but gain in weight until they reach the age of four. The percentage of wool to live weight de- creases every year (with the exception of one) until they are six years old. It shows also that, for the first two years, ewes are more profitable as shearers than wethers ; but after they begin to btar iambs, of course, they fall a little behind in their per- centage of wool to carcass. The second table is based on the EOR WOOL Al^D MUTTOK. 23 same number of sheep, classified by weight, for the same num. ber of years. Per Cent of No. in Weight of Average Average Pounds of Wool to Lot. Lots. Weight. Weight of Body to One Live Fleece. of Wool Weight. 52 34 to 51 44.63 4.08 11.86 8.16 89 50 to 61 55.78 4.71 11.90 7.80 129 60 to 71 66.03 5.09 12.98 7.13 160 70 to 81 75.52 5.31 14.21 6.53 92 80 to 91 85.25 5.78 14.77 6.33 75 90 to 101 95.90 6.10 15.44 5.85 58 100 to 140 111.81 7.17 15.56 6.04 It will be observed from this table, that the percentage of wool to live weight, decreases steadily with the increase in the size of the sheep, until the last lot is reached, where there is an increase of the fifth of one per cent. But there were only seven sheep in this heavy lot, and if there had been a large .number to average from, the result might have been different. At any rate, the conclusion is irresistible, that young sheep are the most profitable as wool-producers ; also, the further con- clusion, that a wether at four years of age will yield more mut- ton, on an average, than he ever will afterward. Hence, that flock will pay best which has every year the highest percentage of lambs, notwithstanding the fact that lambs are subject to more accidents and fatalities than older sheep. Furthermore, since a ewe is more profitable as a wool-bearer than a wether, up to the time when she bears a lamb, and is more profitable afterward, by reason of her lamb, ewes are a better paying class of sheep than wethers. This would indicate the policy of selling off wethers closely, and buying ewes for breeders. I may add that M. Bernardin, the supevintendent of the Rambouillet flock of France, in a letter to Mr. W. G. Markham, states that: "Dividing a flock according to weight into four sections, we find the smallest sheep will yield twelve and thirty- eight hundredths percent of their live weight in wool ; the next largest, eleven and forty-one hundredths ; the next, ten and thirty-eight hundredths ; and the heaviest, nine and fifty- one hundredths." A small Merino is hardier and more prolific than a large one. . One hundred and twenty sheep, weighing ten thousand pounds, will not consume any more feed than one hundred weighing a like amount. On the score of mutton, the medium sheep is. 24 THE AMERICAN MERIKO not objectionable, because the butcher considers size as second- ary, and seeks for the carcass which is thoroughly well fattened. In proof of this, I give a list of the sales of mutton sheep made on two consecutive days in the last week of March, 1885, at the Union Stock Yards, Chicago, the second column showing the average hve weight, and the third column the price per hundred pounds. (Note how quality rules instead of weight) : — M. Av. Pr. I No. Av. Pr. 30 inferior 66 2 30 8l2:ood 106 4 00 10 inferior 80 2 75 52 good 95 4 00 126 inferior 60 2 95 125 good 90 4 15 67 common 81 3 35 506 Western 124 4 20 60 common 67 3 50 177 Western 100 4 25 89 common 73 3 50 169 good 118 4 25 287 common 70 3 55 58 good 108 4 40 171 fair 102 3 60 98 choice . 95 4 40 40 fair 87 3 75 171 choice 123 4 50 103 Western 71 3 75 3 75 10 choice 280 choice 100 139 4 50 98 Western 87 4 75 19 medium 83 3 75 75 good 109 4 75 179 medium 95 3 90 18 choice 112 4 75 90 3 90 3 60 189 extra ITO medium 117 94 5 00 62 common 87 3 90 80 common 88 3 25 Ii7 medium 88 3 90 102 common 83 3 87i 94 laeciium 87 3 60 100 fair 82 3 40 74 medium 91 4 12i 100 fair 82 3 50 63 choice 114 4.50 73 fair 91 3 50 3 50 95 ::ood TO ?;ood 88 108 4 25 30 fair 75 4 25 55 fair 78 3 60 Gi good 121 4 25 74 fair 77 3 65 3 70 S3 good 10 good 113 156 4 25 27 fair 71 4 40 136 fair 90 3 75 89 choice 105 4 50 110 fair 73 3 75 66 choice 135 4 75 32 fair 90 3 75 47 lambs 93 5 60 Race Type. — A perfect a limal should be symmetrical and well-rounded, without angularity ; the top and bottom lines straight, and nearly parallel to the root of the scrag or neck. Back straight ; ribs well sprung out, giving a round barrel, thick through the heart ; shoulders deep, chest broad, breast bone or brisket extending well in front and down ; hips long, straight and broad ; thighs well let down, and heavy ; neck short and powerful, without droop on top ; head broad, nose short and wriukly, nostrils not flat, but round and open ; legs stout, bony, standing wide apart at knee and hock. Experience has demonstrated, that great weight of fleece (if not the greatest), can be combined with constitutional vigor. The greatest amount of yolk compatible with perfect physical FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOST. 25 development, is admissible in a ram ; so long asthe skin remains a bright rosy pink color, and the yolk colorless, or nearly so, it is difficult to develop too much of the latter in the fleece. A. fleece opening buft or orange, is the choice of many breeders, but a yolk tinted lemon, or nankeen, is objectionable, and still more so, one of a greenish tinge ; they evince a morbid habit of body which is associated with clot or induration of the fleece. Wrinkles are not a distinctive race characteristic of the American Merino ; for full-blooded and very fine specimens can be found which are perfectly plain. They are an individual characteristic, and are generally (not always) associated with the highest development of the wool-bearing aptitude. Nature, uncontrolled in her breeding operations, seeks to perpetuate race characteristics alone, so that the labor and skill of man must continually intervene to preserve certain desirable features in the individual. Hence a somewhat greater degree of wrink- liness is permissible in the ram than is desirable in the progeny, as a counter-check to this tendency toward reversion. But, whatever the keeper of the ctud-flock may choose, the judicious wool-grower, knowing that a nearly plain sheep is best fitted to cope with wind, and rain, and snow, and is easiest to shear, will look well to it that his rams shall not have the skin too heavily folded. The breeders and wool-growers of Vermont, "Western New York, Northern Ohio, and Michigan, carried the wrinkly habit of the Merino to a higher pitch than did those of Ohio, Penn- sylvania and West Virginia ; and coupled with this was a shorter and more yolky staple. These facts have established for the clips of the first- named States, a lower price, by two or three cents, in the Boston and Philadelphia markets, than is paid for the latter. To this, however, there is one exception, namely : that the wools of Northern, or rather Northern Cen- tral Ohio, sell from one to three cents higher than those of Southern Ohio, which is due to their greater uniformity of breeding, and more thorough preparation for market. Delaine Merino. — The longer stapled and plainer sheep of the three States mentioned above, find their culmination in Washington County, Pa., in the "Victor-Beall Delaine Merino," which is a cross between the old Pennsylvania "Black-top "and the "Spanish Merino." Their " scale of points" numbers one hundred, distributed as follows : Constitution, ten ; heavy round the heart, six ; short, heavy neck, six ; good dewlap, five ; broad back, eight ; well-sprung rib, five ; short legs, six ; 26 THE AMEBIC Alf MEEIKO heavy bone, eight ; small, sharp foot, ten ; length of staple, one year's growth, three inches, eight ; density of fleece, eight ; darkish cast on top, five ; opening up white, five ; with good flow of white oil, five ; good crimp in staple, five. Weight of rams at maturity not less than one hundred and fifty pounds, weight of ewes at maturity, not less than one hundred pounds. This family of sheep has been bred and kept in large flocks, without housing and without pampering. They have been bred also, to produce a short, sharp, and shapely hoof, in order to avoid one of the greatest curses of the Merino, a spongy, clubby hoof, and a consequent predisposition to foot-rot. National Improved Saxony.— This is the designation adopted by the present breeders of this fine class of sheep, whose seat is also in Washington County, Pa. They have a scale of points numbering one hundred, eighty of which admit to register, though no animal is eligible whose fleece grades in fineness be- low XXX (the two grades above being picklock and picknic). The points in the scale are otherwise about the same as those in the "Delaine" Register, though they tolerate no wrinkles, and only a slight dewlap. Constitution and evenness of fleece (" well covered on beily, face and legs"), are each fifteen points, which is well, in view of the ancient, hereditary defects of the Saxon. Mr. J. G. Clark, Secretary of then- Register, writes me that their rams, when full-grown, weigh from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty pounds, and some have gone over that ; ewes, eighty to one hundred pounds and over. Black-Top Merino. — Mr. W. G. Berry, Secretary of the As- sociation, writes me that the "Black-top Merino" breeders have in press a Register of about seventy flocks, principally in Wash- ington county, Pa. In default of more accurate information, I append the following extract from The Shepherd's National Journal. The editor, Mr. E. J. Hiatt, a veteran breeder of American Merinos, says : " The purity of the blood has not been questioned." He adds : * ' We have been acquainted with flocks for more than twenty-five years in which this blood pre- dominated. The quality of the wool was good. Specimens were exhibited at the Pittsburgh and Wheeling Fairs last faU. In some respects they showed a marked improvement over their ancestors of twenty or twenty-five years since. The strongest Improvement is noticeable in their increased size and their heavier fleeces. In size^ they are possibly a little heavier than FOE WOOL AKD MUTTON". ^7 the American Merinos, and longer in the legs, neck and head. They also shear lighter fleeces. Much of it grades XX and XXX delaine. The head, legs and belly are not covered with as long or compact a fleece as would be desirable." As this work goes to press, the expected Vol. I. of the Black' top Spanish Merino Register makes its appearance. I quote two paragraphs, as to blood and scale of points : " Sheep must be purely bred from the importation of Merino sheep from Spain in the year 1802, as bred by W. R. Dickinson. " Constitution, fifteen points ; size, twelve points ; general appearance, three points; body, fifteen points; head, five points ; neck, four points ; legs and feet, ten points ; covering, eight points ; quality, seven points ; density, seven points ; length, eight points ; oil, six pomts ; total, one hundred points.'* CHAPTER III. FLEECE. Structure of the Wool-Fiber.— The wool-fiber is made up of a root, and a stem or shaft, continuous with, and growing out of the root. The root exhibits a flask-shaped enlargement, which fits down somewhat socket-like upon a very small papilla or bulb in the bottom of the fiber-sack ; and this little bulb is the feeder of the fiber, the germ of it, which is able to i)roduce a new one if the old one is plucked out. The shaft of the fiber is composed of an outer cortex, an inner medulla, or marrow (though in a majority of wool- fibers this marrow is hollow nearly to the tip), and, thirdly, an intermediate fibrous portion, constituting two-thirds of the substance of the fiber. The cortex is formed by the growth of cells; these cells,' lengthening out and becoming flat, assume the form of scales, these being j)roduced one after another, just as a roof is made by the laying of one course of shingles after another, overlap- ping each other. (Vegetable fibers grow at the top, but hair and wool fibers grow at the root, the new portion constantly pushing out the old). The scales, overlapping each other, with free edges, constitute the felting property of wool, which hair, being smooth, possesses to a very limited degree, or not at all.* 28 THE AMERICAN MERINO This lapped arrangement of the scales of the cortex, can be de- tected by the touch, but not by the eye ; let a fiber be drawn between the thumb and finger from root to tip, and it will pass smoothly and sweetly through, but if it is drawn the other way it will go roughly. A hau- will go about as smoothly one way as the other. When a quantity of wool is pressed, rubbed or beaten, the free edges of the scales interlock in an infinite num- ber of places, and the whole is bound together in a close, dense it is felted. Round and Flat Fibers. — Although wool, as well as hair, is of a tubular construction, yet the cylindrical form varies with the climate. A cross-section of a fiber of wool, if strictly cir- cular, denotes that it has been grown in a cold northern climate, and is lank, long, and soft ; but if the cross-section shows a flat-sided or oval hair in the extreme, then the wool or hair is of tropical growth, and is crisp and frizzled. There is a change in these animal downs as we ascend from the equator to the higher latitudes ; hence our better class wool can only be grown in temperate climates. Too hot a climate yields a wool too crisp and too frizzly ; while, on the other hand, too cool a cli- mate, though yielding a wool that is soft to an extreme degree, gives too little of the curl or frizzle for many manufacturing purposes. This curl or waviness varies in different kinds of wool. The long Leicester wool has about eight or nine of these waves or curls per inch, but in a fine Ohio wool there are as many as thirty to thirty-three waves or curls per inch. The Crimp. — This is one of the nice points of a first-rate Merino fleece. While the hairs of the horse or the ox are straight, the wool-fibers of the Merino are beautifully wavy or crimped, and in the best-bred fleeces this crimp is perceptible by the naked eye to the very tip of the fiber, not being lost in a dark clot or induration. This crimp is caused by frequent, but somewhat irregular, well-marked, and more or less spirally ar- ranged thickenings of the cortex of the fiber. These thicken- nings of the cortical layer occur first on one side of the fiber, then on the other, which gives it its wavy and sinuous char- acter. Length and Diameter. — The difference in the length of staple or fiber of the different breeds of sheei> is very remark- able, extending from the longest combing wool to the shortest clothing staple. There is a gradation of seventeen and a half inches ; the longest staple being eighteen inches, and the short- FOR WOOL AND MUTTOl^. 39 est half an inch long, and the different breeds and crosses fill up a graduated scale between these extreme points. While the finest Silesian will yield a fiber one-fifteen liundredth of an inch in diameter, a Cotswold fiber will be double the size. This idea of measuring the size of fibers of wool with a micro- scope, is not a new one ; it was done thirty years or more ago, but was of no practical benefit. A wool sorter, who has worked at the business from his youth up, without intermission, and whose eyes have failed him so that he cannot read a daily paper without glasses, will tell without their aid the relative size of the fibers of wool so that the different qualities of cloth will be uniform, far more so than the Commissioner of Agriculture could select them with his microscope. But the microscope has shown us one very interesting fact, which the finest touch of the expert would hardly have detected, namely : that while the hair from the ox or horse, which falls out yearly, tapers its whole length, the Merino wool fiber tapers only for a short dis- tance at the top ; and when this hoggetty point has been shorn off with the first or lamb's fleece, the fibers ever afterward remain of the same diameter throughout their whole length. How THE Wool Fibsr is Planted.— We have considered the fiber itself, somewhat ; now let us turn to the follicle, or sack, out of which it grows. This is formed of the epidermis and the dermis of the sheep's skin, turned inward and pro- longed in a very minute cylinder, which sometimes penetrates the tissues of the body one-twelfth of an inch. The blood- vessels are distributed in minute branches in the walls of this follicle, thickest at the bottom of it ; and they supply nourish- ment to the germ at the bottom of the sack, which molds it into the substance of the fiber. Besides the wool-follicle, or fiber sack, there are two other kinds : the sweat folhcle, and the yolk follicle, both of which are only about half as deep as the wool follicle. The sweat follicle has its mouth directly on the surface of the skin, this mouth being a pore : but the yolk follicle empties into the wool follicle near the mouth of the latter. The shaft of the fiber does not fit perfectly tight in its sheath or sack ; this leaves space for the yolk to surround the fiber down to its very root. In this space, also, parasites some- times harbor, such as the scab insect. The yolk is for the lubri- cation of the fiber, to prevent it from felting with its neighbors, while on the sheep's back. The free edges of the scales on the fiber, like little barbs pointing toward the tip, continually work 30 THE AMERICAl^ MERIKO the yolk outward toward the tip and at the same time expel dirt from the fleece. Thus we see how it is that the Merino, which has the finest and best felting wool (in others words, fibers with the greatest number of scales to the linear inch), needs also the greatest amount of yolk. Sorts m the Fleece. — The keen-eyed professional sorter tears a fleece into several sorts. " He will rapidly break off the coarse skirts for one sort ; then the head, and, perhaps, if the fleece is a cross between a native and some fine wooled sheep, he will discover a coarse streak running down the nape of the neck nearly to the shoulders. This also he breaks out, and places with the sort to which it belongs. The shoulders yield the finest sort of the fleece, and the sides a sort below. In this way each fleece is broken into at least three and often five dif- ferent sorts. A large factory has generally as many as eight clothing sorts, to which, where worsteds are made, are added as many long sorts — combing and delaine. On the sorting board the fleece loses its former identity. It is no longer known as fine, XX, half-blood, or by any other famihar name. Each fleece is resolved into first, second, third, etc., down to the bottom. The shoulder of the quarter blood rests in the bin with the skirt of the full-blooded fleece, and the skirt of the half blood may mingle in yarn with the shoulder of a common fleece. So unerring is the discernment of the best sorters that under microscopic tests it has been demonstrated that they can assort fibers as to fineness within a ten-thousandth of an inch." — American Sheep Breeder. In the Merino fleece, the wool on 1 and 2 in the diagram (Fig. 3), is finest, longest, and strongest ; 3 and 12, short, but close ; 4, rather longer, a shade lower than 3 ; 5 and 6, slightly coarser, not so close, and apt to be weak in fiber ; 8, lower still, and termed the britch or breech ; 7, good length, but slightly lower in quality than 1 and 2 ; 9, shorter, and loses vitality as compared with better parts ; 10, short and generally frowsy ; 11, shorter than 12 ; 13, the cap ; dry and harsh ; 14, fribby, and and of little value ; 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14 constitute the skirt> To economize the number of sorts, is very injudicious ; as good, even sorts cannot be made without strict adherence to the division of the fleece into its separate parts, so as never to allow the ridge to adhere to the shoulder, or similar errors. Exception may be made in cases of high-bred wool, up to seven-eighths blood and above, as here the distinction is so FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 31 trifling between the shoulder and other parts that a mere skirt- ing is needed. Grades of Wool. — There are two great divisions into which wool is graded — carding, or clothing wool, and combing wool. The clothing staple may be very much crimped, and very short, since tne fibers are mingled in every way by the cards, leaving the ends to project in a nap which conceals the warp and woof ; but combing wool should be long and straight, since the fibers axe to be laid side by side, end to end, and spun into yam for Fig. 3.— niAGKAM OF FLEECE. worsted goods. The finer the fleece the shorter the staple which can be used for combing. A coarse combing wool ought to be six inches long, while a fine XX staple only two inches long could be combed, though it should be two and one-half. Coarse fleeces are not graded very closely, while fine fleeces are subjected to closer grading. A staple an inch and a half long could be worked upon French combs ; but for English machin- ery, the length of the staple must be determined by the machines following the combs. The ability of a Noble comb to handle short wool is not the guide for the buyer of wool for the Eng- lish system. The good qualities of pure breed, soundness and evenness of wool, from well-fed and carefully handled young sheep, allow a margin in selection in favor of the minimum 32 THE AMERICAN MEEHJTO length of staple. A diagram will help to an understanding of this subject : Superfine | '^XXX^* [ Saxony. Fine. .. . I II per cent, combing (delaine) j XX. ^Merino. T.^^,. \ 50 per cent, conabing ( No. 1. Quarter - blood and Medium|75^ a .. ^ j .No. 3. T Downs. Coarse- ( Cotswold, Leice?ter, Combing, f Lincoln. Carpet. [^Chourro. Whence these Grades Come.— Picklock and XXX are now confined almost exclusively to Washington county, Pennsyl- vania, and the "Pan-handle," where a few flocks are still care- fully bred, yielding the Electoral or " noble " wool. In the last three decades, the amount of Saxony has much decreased, while the proportion of fine and medium to the whole product of the nation, has vastly increased, owing to the spread of the American Merino. Occasionally, a Merino fleece grades XXX ("XX and above" is intermediate), but here a touch of Saxon blood may be suspected. The greater part of American Merino wool grades XX, and of this the best samples come from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Vu'ginia. The grade known as X is generally obtained from the full-blood Merino of Wisconsin and Michigan, and also from the finer crosses (half-blood and above), though the latter are often graded into "combing,' and designated as delaine. Central Wisconsin has many choice delaine fiocks ; those of Messrs. Rich & McConneil, of Ripon, have yielded staples four and seven-eighths and four and five-eighths inches in lengthy respectively. Michigan wools long suffered from the same faults as those of Vermont and Western New York, short and gummy ; but lately much improvement is manifest, and they often rank with the best Ohio. Missouri now furnishes a considerable quantity of combing wool, the Merinos of that State having b-^en crossed on the large native stock. The greater part of No. 1 and No. 2 now come from this cross. Kentucky yields a large percentage of comb- ing wool. Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado wools have greatly improved in the last decade ; they now fall only five to ten cents the scoured pound, behind the best Ohio. California and Texas wools rarely ever yield any combing wool, but would do so, were it not for the semi-annual clippings. At the close of the war, Texas wool was fit only for carpet filling or, at best, for coarse blankets ; now there are large flocks that grade up FOR WOOL AiiTD mutto:n". 33 to X, and above. Twenty years ago, Santa Fe wool was fit only for carpets or horse blankets ; but the introduction of Merino blood has raised the grade up to No. 1 and low X. Montana fleeces are the best of the whole Territorial clip. A considerable combing and delaine wool comes from Oregon and Washington Territory. Vermont always furnishes a class of wool which will yield a large percentage of fine combing, together with a good deal of unwashed and un-merchantable. Effect of Climate on the Fiber. — It was the opinion of Dr. Randall, that a hot climate, with its consequent rankness of vegetation, would coarsen the fiber of sheep taken to it from a colder region. This opinion does not appear to be sustained by modern investigators. Mr. G. W. Bond, an eminent expert of Boston, exhibited to a scientific society some skins of Arabian sheep ; some of them covered with hair alone, and others with similar hair, but having a thick undergrowth of wool, which proved to be as fine as the finest Saxon. Mr. Mark R, Cockerill imported some Saxons in 1824 or 1826, and kept them in Missis- sippi (Madison County), a quarter of a century. At the World's Fair, in London, 1851, samples of their fieeces were brought into competition with German wools. The latter were recognized by the jury as the finest and longest on exhibition, but those of Mr. Cockerill received two prize medals, of the same grade as German, and were reported by the expert employed by the jury "as most approximating to the character of German wools.'' Mr. Graham, the author of a popular hand-book on Australian sheep, states it was the general belief that the climate of Darling Downs, a region within the tropics, was too hot for the growth of good wool ; but that the superintendent of the Clyde Com- pany, by a " careful and judicious system of selection," suc- ceeded in producing " as good wool as any grown in Australia, although it still bore the name of hot-country wool.'''' Effect of High Feeding. —Prof. Sanson, an eminent zooto- mist of France, in a report to the French Academy of Sciences, which is perhaps the highest scientific body in the world, gives the following summary of the results of his investigations on this subject : " 1. The precocious development of Merino sheep, having the effect to carry their aptitude to produce fiesh to the highest de- gree that sheep can attain, exercises no influence on the fine- ness of their wool. This preserves the diameter which it would have had it developed in normal conditions, for the reason that 34 THE AMERICAN MERIKO this diameter depends upon the individual and hereditary- aptitudes. 2. The influence exercised by the precocious development upon the hair of the wool exhibits itseK by an augmentation of the length of the same hair ; its growth, resulting from the formation of epidermic cellules in the hair-bulb, being more active. There is, therefore, more woolly substance produced in the same time. 3. The precocious development does not vary the number of hair or wool bulbs existing for a determinate extent of the sur- face of the skin. It produces, therefore, no change in what is vulgarly called the tasse (density of staple). The modifications which the staple of wool presents in this respect are only ap- parent. By increasing the length of the hairs, the precocity necessarily increases that of the locks of wool which they form, which makes the fleece appear less dense." To sum up aU in a word, high feeding increases the length of the staple and the secretion of yolk, but not the diameter of the fiber, or the number of fibers to the square inch of skin. Very high feeding, or pampering, increases the yolk in a geometrical ratio to the fleece. This ought to operate as a safeguard for the protection of the sheep from this pernicious practice ; but it does not wholly, for, unfortunately, the ' ' big fleeces " of the fairs and public shearings are always weighed "in the grease," instead of scoured. The chief defense instituted by Nature against this evil of pampering is, that sheep so treated often suddenly and mysteriously die. Length and Density. — A fiber two and a half inches long which is perfectly sound and true, is better every way than one which is three inches long, but has a ''joint" or weak spot caused by poverty or sickness in the animal, which will cause one-half inch to break off in the combs. It is better, because the existence and nourishment of the sheep during the growth of that half inch cost sometliing, while that half inch is prac- tically a total loss to the manufacturer, and tends to discredit both the fleece and the grower. No one will dispute the proposition that it should be the cardinal object of the wool-grower to produce a sheep having the greatest possible number of fibers to the square inch of sMn, and those fibers of the greatest possible length. The striving for the attainment of either of these objects has more or less tendency to defeat or repress the other ; yet not so much as a FOR WOOL AND MUTTOK. 35 certain school of breeders would have us believe. Density, though the expression of an exceedingly valuable constituent of the best fleece, is an illusive term, or perhaps more accurately, a term liable to be misapplied. When a fleece on the back of a sheep is grasped in the hand and offers a firm resistance to com- pression, presents a good handful, it is called dense by super- ficial men, without further examination. But it may not be true density at all ; it may be yolkiness carried to the exagger- ated state. A fiber is entitled to so much yolk as will thor- oughly lubricate it from end to end and make it glisten ; but this substance should not collect in lumps. A fleece with a fiber three inches in length, may carry as much weight of yolk as one of only two inches, yet not feel or be pronounced by the award- ing committee as " dense" as the latter. Strength OF Dry and Yolky Wools.— Some years ago I addressed inquiries to a number of experts, as to the compara- tive strength of dry and yolky wools ; and, contrary to my pre- vious belief, they all replied that yq"0 General Management. — When a rain is coming on, look out for a shower of lambs ; a falling barometer generally portends an increased activity in the sheep-stable, and indicates the necessity of greater watchfulness. The first thing in the morn- ing, of course, the shepherd will go through the stable and look carefully for newly dropped lambs. As soon as convenient, the doors ought to be opened and the flock allowed to drift leisurely out into a yard (not to receive feed, as then they will rush out too rapidly), to allow the ewes with lambs dropped during the night, to become separated from the others. If any irregularity appears, if any ewes have abandoned their young, careful search must be made through the flock for those which give indications of having been recently parturient. There may be twins ; they may be separated ; one may have been adopted by a strange ewe, herself on the point of yeaning, and she may now be paying attention both to the stranger and her own lamb ; or she may (such is the extraordinary stupidity of which young Merino ewes are capable), even have neglected her own lamb in her devotion to the one previously adopted. When a ewe is seen to remain apart and take no notice of the flock for two or three hours, she ought to be gently caught and examined. Young Merino ewes are apt to be troubled by a retention of the foetus, which may be due to several causes : Scirrhous os uteri, firm adherence and abnormal conditions of placenta and uterus, loss of power of expulsion by the uterus, paralysis, deformities, torsion of the uterus, and others. The first of these causes is most likely to be present, and it may in- duce a labor so protracted as to make the ewe disown her lamb. Let the operator, having laid the ewe carefully on the left side, sit at her back, and with the forefinger of the right hand, feel for the foetus per vaginam. He should rest satisfied with nothing short of the fore-feet, or head, or both. If this can not be had, tlie mouth of the womb is evidently closed, but a patient search will seldom fail to reveal a very small and tightly corded orifice. If this can not be discovered, one must be fretted away with the finger-nail, or with the point of a knife-blade closely pressed against the finger. After this has been gradually en- larged so as to admit one finger, a second finger may be inserted, then a third. Delivery can be successfully accomplished in three cases : First, when there is a presentation of the hind-feet ; second, of the head and fore-feet ; third, of the head witti one or both of the fore-legs doubled back, though in this case the labor Ib FOR WOOL AN'D MUTTON". 89 difficult. All other presentations must be corrected ; some -per- Bon with a small hand should thrust the foetus back and en- deavor to turn it in such a manner, as to bring on one of the above presentations, preferably that of the head and two fore- feet. Such interference as this is risky, still it is always best to resort to it promptly, as soon as it is ascertained that there is a false presentation, for protracted labor is apt to result in the strangulation of the lamb and the eversion of the uterus. More than that, it frequently disheartens the ewe, and makes her in- different to the lamb. From the time the head distinctly emerges from the mouth of the womb, the labor-pains may be so assisted by the operator as to complete the delivery in twenty minutes. With the fore-finger hooked in the under side of the jaw, and the remainder of the hand grasping the fore-legs, the operator may draw gently, in unison with the pains, gradually increas- ing the draught. If the pulling is distributed equally between the legs and the jaw, it may reach twenty or twenty-five pounds without injury to either ewe or lamb. It is far better to employ whatever force may be necessary, even to the fracture of the lower jaw (this may occur, and yet the lamb survive and re- cover), than to allow the ewe to linger for hours in agony, in a hopeless effort to expel the foetus from a womb which has an insufficient exit, or none at aU. After the lamb has drawn a few breaths, the umbilical cord may be severed a foot or • more from the lamb, which should then be laid under the ewe's nose. If she falls to licking it, all well ; but if the parturition has been too painful, she may take no notice of the lamb. But if confined with it in a very small ptn, where she can see no other sheep, she will generally own it in a few hours. Foster Mothers, Substitution, Etc. — ^When a good milker loses her lamb, her services are not necessarily lost ; there are various ways of rendering her useful in the flock. If she is extremely attached to her lamb, and lingers about its dead body, she may be made to adopt a stranger by clothing it in the skin of her own, but this ruse Avill not deceive a sharp ewe. Let the skin be taken off without the head, but with the fore-legs to serve as sleeves, and with the tail, for it is at the root of the tail that the mother always seeks the scent by which she recognizes her offspring. The skin should be removed within twenty-four hours, else it will putrefy and sicken the lamb. A ewe may be induced to adopt almost anything if, immedi- ately after parturition, her own lamb is taken away before she 90 THE AMERICAN MERIKO smells it, and another, after being rubbed in her liquor amnii, is laid under her nose. A little salt rubbed about the rump may- persuade her to fall to licking it, and thus develop a fondness for it. But all these substitutions are extremely hazardous; the master may have to keep the foster-mother alone with the lamb, and contend with her for weeks, whipping, scaring her with the shepherd dog, etc., to accomplish the desired result. If a ewe owns her lamb at all, and has milk, however little, with a prospect of giving more, it is far better to leave the lamb with her and supplement her supply with the bottle. A lamb once taken away from the mother is a source of infinite "pot- tering." "Resuscitation of Chilled Lambs.— It is surprising to the novice, how near death a lamb may pass and yet be brought back by the help of man. If the thumb and fingers tightly clasped on each side of the chest, discover the faintest throbbing of the heart, it is worth while to attempt to restore it, if the lamb is a good one. (Even in a well-bred flock there are some- times lambs so puny and flaccid — generally covered with min- ute pellets of wool, tightly curled down, plainly revealing the skin and prophesying a poor shearer— tliat they are not worth much exertion). The quickest way, and in extreme cases, the only way to recover it is, to plunge it up to the neck into water as hot as the hand can bear. But this should be only a last resort, for there is great danger that the water will obliterate the scent at the root of the tail by which the dam recognizes her own. For the same reason, it is dangerous to carry the lamb away at all, especially if wrapped in malodorous carpets, or the like. It is better to bring out hot flannels and wrap up the lamb, leaving the head out for the mother to smell occasion- ally. A very good way, when the case is not desperate, is to fold the legs neatly, and hold the lamb between the ewe's hind- legs until it is warmed enough to suck. A lamb once severely chilled must be closely watched for several days afterward ; it is liable to a relapse unless highly nourished. If dropped in cold weather, a great many lambs would never succeed in getting the teat, unless assisted. It is an extremely vexatious task for one person to attempt to hold a struggling ewe on her feet, and teach a very young lamb to draw. It is best always to cut the matter short by laying her on her left side, the lamb on its right. Then with the thumb and finger of the left hand, hold the jaws apart and milk a little into the mouth. The taste of the warm milk will generally induce it to FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 91 draw, as soon as the teat is introduced into its mouth. How- ever bright the lamb may appear, it is never safe to take any- thing whatever for granted as to the establishment of working relations between ewe and lamb, unless the latter is actually seen to suck. Cossets. — It is only a very valuable lamb that will repay the master for bringing it up by hand himself, and the hired help or the children will generally feed it so injudiciously through the summer, as to render it nearly worthless. I make it a rule of my flock, whether a lamb is to be reared by hand or not, that it shall not receive anything whatever but fresh ewe's milk into its stomach for the first day ; and the longer cow's milk can be withheld, the better. If no fresh ewe has a supply to spare, I make no scruple to draw on one that soon wiU be fresh. Cow's milk is too constipating, especially if not fresh. Constipation is at best the greatest banc of the young lamb's life, and it is well to allow the cosset, once a day, for a week or two, to have its fill of the freshest ewe's milk obtainable. If a young lamb is fed a few times with a teaspoon, it may be taught to suck a leather in the bottom of the trough, and thus much trouble be avoided ; but some are obstinate and must have the bottle. Sucking is better than drinking ; it is slower, and causes a freer secretion of saliva. . A Good Practical System.— Mr. Geo. S. Corp, of Morgan County, Ohio, in the fall removes the first sixty ewes served, keeping them separate. Eight or ten in every flock of sixty will " miss " at the first service. In two weeks after the service begins, he puts ' ' teasers " into the flock every day, as he brings them in, to discover those that require a second service ; and these are drafted into the second division of sixty. So with the second division, and the third, etc, Thus, when the season is ended, he has the divisions composed of about fifty each, which is the largest number he wishes to have in one flock. When lambing comes on, one division at a time requires attention ; the first and the last dates of service are recorded, so it is known when each division is done with. Bulletin boards hung on the wall have slips of paper pasted or tacked on them for " lamb records," showing date of birth, sire and dam of each. This lamb record is to be returned to the Secretary of the Ohio Eegister, of which Mr. C. is a member. Not satisfied with providing lamb pens for ewes that disown their lambs, he has enough to hold every lamb that will be 93 THE A.MEKICAK MERIIfO dropped in two days or more. They are thirty-three in num- ber, in two barns, ranged along the two opposite sides, about four feet square, made of plasterer's lath, each with a little hinged door, hay rack and feed box. The building, which may be called the nursery, has a row of these on two sides of it, the row on the warmest side of the house having a stove about the middle of it. This stove is fenced about with lath. There are cages of different sizes, some only half as large as a mocking- bird's cage. These are furnished with handles and may be set on top of the pens or anywhere else near the stove. Lambs shut in them will be dried and warmed, and they can not wander off, as they have a propensity to do if not restrained, as soon as they begin to get warm and limber. Now this row of lamb pens on one side of the house (they are permanent) might be labeled milk ; that on the other side, NO MILK, though this is not actually done. When a lamb is stout and the ewe has milk, both are put at once into one of the pens on the " milk" side ; when the ewe has no milk or the lamb is weak and needs help, both are put at once into a pen on the ' ' no milk " side. This saves the shepherd considerable trouble. When he comes into the stable with a bottle of warm cow's milk he does not have to pudder about, catching this ewe and that to see whether she has a supply of milk ; he simply takes the row as it comes. Sometimes the ewe's milk will "come" in six hours, sometimes in twelve, sometimes in thirty-six ; in a very rare case it never comes. In the interval of waiting, the lamb and the ewe require gentle and patient care and liberal feeding. As fast as lambs gain strength enough to go alone, they and their dams are removed to a separate flock until the limit of fifty is reached, when still another flock is started, etc. The bran boxes in the pens are about six inches square and an inch deep — a lath forms the sides — and are tacked on the top of the sill. The hay racks are also made of plasterer's lath, against the wall, having a depth a little greater than the width of the siU. After trying the patent rubber nipples of drug stores, Mr. C. threw them aside and made a little plug of soft poplar, with a bore about the size of a small wheat straw. At first he attached a cloth to this, but he presently found that the lamb would suck it as well without the cloth. He now uses this altogether. He has two or three "lamb creeps" in different parts of the building. One of these is formed by a board i)laced high enough to allow a lamb to pass under, but too low for a sheep. Another FOB WOOL AND MUTTOm 93 has its entrance through a little hinged doer, which is propped open wide enough to admit a lamb, but it will catch a sheep by the shoulder. In these joens he has little troughs containing bran or ground feed for the special benefit of the lambs. Whether lambs are dropped in February or Ai)ril, whethe** they are grown for wool or mutton, it is of immense importance to keep them growing rapidly. They will, in ten days, take more than their mother's milk, and the little feed bestowed in this way will prove to be the best investment the flock-master can make. They can be weaned a month or six weeks sooner, if fed this way, and still be as large as usual, if not larger. This gives the ewes more time to rest and recuperate, and the added growth and strength of the lambs are a wonderful protection against parasitic diseases. Feeding with Cow's Milk.— It is sometimes desirable, where young lambs are fed with cow's milk to keep milk warm for some length of time. This can be easily accomplished by hav- ing a double tin can made, leaving a si^ace of an inch between the outer and inner walls which can be filled with sand. The top and bottom should be soldered securely to both walls after putting in the sand. A tube an inch long must be placed on top and open into the inner cavity where the milk is put. Once warm the sand, and it will keep the milk warm for some hours. Lambs fed on cow's milk, like those whose mothers receive only corn and hay, are very prone to constipation, which is the greatest pest the shepherd has to contend with. 1. Never feed with cow's milk, if possible to avoid it. If used, let it be fresh, diluted one-third its bulk with water, and weU sweetened with pure, white sugar. 2. If fed every hour or two, after the first three or four feeds, it is not easy to give a lamb too much. Lambs are oftener starved to death than over-fed. 3. If constipation has already set in, do not dose the lamb with black molasses, magnesia, lard or the like. Give it an in- jection with a bulb-syringe, very gently, with blood-warm water, first oiling the tube with castor-oil. If necessary, repeat the operation. But all the nostrums, laxatives, injection-pipes, and what not, fall immeasurably behind grass-made milk in value as pre- ventives of constipation. Diseases of Lambs. — This remark as to grass leads to a men- tion of the so-called '' lamb cholera " — a clear misnomer, since the malady has been distinctly shown to be non-epizootic. It 94 THE AMERICAN MEEIKO generally attacks the finest, fattest lambs of the flock ; indeed, almost the only strictly safe generalization which may be made on its causes is, that it does not assail an under-fed flock, or a flock ranging on the sweet grasses, and the clear, running waters of a hilly country. For this reason. Southern Ohio has been almost exempt from its ravages, and I am chiefly indebted for information to observers livmg on the flatter, sourer lands of Northern Ohio, among whom I may mention Capt. J. G. Blue, of Morrow County ; Mr. William Cattell, of Columbiana County ; and Mr. G-. W. Hervey, of Jefferson County. The lamb is taken very suddenly and violently ; falls on the ground in a tremor, with spasmodic kicks ; sometimes froths at the mouth and throws the head back, further and further every minute, until finally it almost rests on the shoulders ; the eyes are rolled up and have a fixed, staring look. Death usually ensues in a few minutes, and dissection reveals " the first stom- ach full of cakes of curd ; the lungs seemed full of blood, and just inside the rectum was a slimy, watery appearanee, with considerable wind. No diarrhea apparent in those ; but I noticed in some a discharge hke diarrhea, after they were sick, but before they died." I never lost but one lamb from this disease, a hand-fed pet ; it had the above symptoms, and its stomach was very acid and tightly distended with gas. As with all ailments to which the sheep is hable, prevention is a hundred per cent better than cure ; but in this case the preventive measures must be brought to bear upon the ewes. One excellent, practical shepherd recommends to take a half- gallon of tar, mix into it all the salt it will hold together, and smear the salt-troughs with it, withholding all other salt, so as to compel the flock to lick this. The lambs will soon learn to partake with their dams. Another recommends grain and dry feed to correct the flatulency and acidity of the stomach. Better than either, perhaps, is sharp wood ashes, or lime, well mixed in the salt, say in the proportion of one part lime to ten of salt. If the lamb is seen as soon as attacked, and the shepherd is skilled in drenching, so that he can perform the operation with- out strangling the animal^f which there is great danger, especially when it is unable to swallow readily — let him admin- ister an ounce of Epsom salts in a teacup full of warm water ; it may save its life. Or, put a lump of tar, as large as a hickory nut, well back on the base of the tongue, and shut the mouth and hold it closed to compel it to swallow. FOR WOOL AND MUTTOX. 95 Excess of Milk.— When the ewes are on a full feed of grass, it frequently happens that a good milker will accumulate a supply of milk so large, as to cause one or both of the teats to become swollen and tender. If the lamb is vigorous and per- sistent, it will generally reduce one teat to use, but there is great danger that it will rest content with that one, and neglect the other, which will then speedily become useless. The milk must be drawn gently, and the ewe confined on dry feed three or four days. Care must be taken not to let her out too soon, or the operation will need to be repeated. Fouling. — The tail of a very young lamb sometimes becomes so firmly glued to the posteriors by the gummy excrement, that further defecation is rendered impossible. The best thing to do is, to remove the obstruction and dock the lamb at once ; but if, on account of warm weather, or for other reasons, it is not deemed expedient to do this at the time, all the parts should be scraped clean with a cob and well sprinkled with road-dust, or something similar. CHAPTER X. CARE OF EWES AND LAMBS. There is nothing within the compass of the art of man which will promote a flow of milk so well as grass ; and there is noth- ing else which wiU set a lamb up on its legs as well as a supply of grass-made milk. In the pastoral states, grass must neces- sarily be the main dependence of the shepherd ; but in the older East, the pressure of other branches of spring work on the average farmer (for it is chiefly as a component of diversified farming that the Merino has an assured future in the agricul- tural States), will probably always cause a majority of northern flock-masters to have lambing over and out of the way before much grass grows. Feed for Ewes. — When a Merino ewe lambs as early as February or March, it is a long time and a hard task for her to make milk on dry feed until grass comes. What little she may 96 THE AMERICAiT MERIKO make will be constipating ; there is great danger that the lamb will die of costiveuess, after ten days or two weeks. A guide as to condition of the suckling ewe, is the softness of the fgeces ; they should not be in pellets. One of the best shepherds of my acquaintance, Mr. William F. Quinn, of Washington County, Ohio, feeds his ewes regu- larly, mangels, cut and sprinkled with bran. He has tried pulping, but prefers to cut them by hand into longish pieces, as large as one's finger. Pieces of this shape are not liable to cause choking. He finds that his ewes take more satisfaction in chewing these pieces than in gulping down like pigs a quan- tity of cold, watery mash, and are more benefited by them, on account of the more perfect admixture with saliva. Clover hay, bran, bruised oats, bright corn -fodder, fodder- corn (if cured without must), linseed meal, cotton-seed meal are all excellent. If the ration is increased gradually, there is hardly any danger of over-feeding with any of them, except tlie linseed and the cotton-seed meal. There are cases so well authen- ticated, in which linseed meal has produced abortion, that we are not at liberty to disregard them. Still, I never saw a case of injury resulting from its use. One of the best practical shep- herds of my acquaintance, Mr. L. W. Skipton, employs it habit- ually. To accustom his ewes to it, he at first mixes it in very small proportions with wheat bran, which he generally wets into a stiff slop ; at the outside, he never allows more than a gill of the linseed meal to each sheep. Probably most flock-masters would find less trouble in teaching their sheep to eat it dry, mixed with bran. But all these dry feeds, however excellent, do not equal roots in supplying the place of grass. And of these, probably, there is nothing superior to the white sugar beet for producing a flow of milk. I would name, in the order of their general availability, the white sugar beet, the mangel, the ruta-baga, and the white turnip. If no other succulent feed is at hand, small potatoes and apples can be given with great advantage. If the flock is small, it will be better to wash and slice the roots, or pulp them in a mill for the whole flock. If it is large, there will be a majority of them robust, and hearty enough to eat the roots whole, if scattered on the hay orts, in the racks where they will be clean. The dainty ones can be culled out in the course of a few feedings and placed in a separate flock ; this will reduce the labor of pulping. An excess of cold, watery feed is injurious to pregnant ewes. FOR WOOL AND MUTTOI^". 97 as it is likely to produce abortion. After parturition has taken place, there is little or no danger. Keeping the Stable Clean.— From the succulent feed, on which alone the shepherd can hope for a modicum of success wit'ji the breeding flock, there will be an immense increase of the exhalations which are so fatal to the health of sheep. The urine decomposes and gives off ammonia. There is nothing so abominable as a slippery, reeking stable-floor, from which the lambs, slipping between the slats into the hay-racks, carry tilth upon the hay ; they also discolor the ewes' fleeces by gamboling upon them when lying down, and they so besmear each other that they are almost unrecognizable by their own mothers ! Nor will it answer merely to heap up litter, in the hope of smother- ing the stench. The manure must be removed, clear down to the floor — which should be of earth — every week, or oftener, if the stench can not be suppressed ; and the surface sprinkled with lime, if the offensive odor is very persistent. On dry feed, the steady dribble of orts from the hay -racks, with a little ad- dition of straw or chaff, will absorb all the urine and prevent the escape of ammonia nearly all winter ; but on succulent feed this will not answer. The manure must be removed with the utmost vigilance. The sheep's nostrils are near the ground ; the shepherd may perceive nothing amiss when he enters the stable, while the flock are sickening on ammonia. Lambing in the Field. — When the lambing season is some- what protracted, the latter part of it will probably extend into the grass, and there will occur spells of sharp weather of some days' duration, when the ewes will have to go afield some part of the day at least. It is desirable to keep them housed from cold winds as much as possible, but they cannot be confined alto- gether. On such days, the shepherd should watch the flock carefully, for there is a fatality (or, rather, an explainable nat- ural cause), which brings lambs fastest in the roughest weather. There ought to be a piece of good pasture, pref erabl}^ of orchard grass, held in reserve near the sheep-house for such weather. When a lamb is dropped, unless unusually vigorous, it will rapidly chill in a cutting wind. The shepherd can decide what to do in five minutes. Let him be provided with a light wheel- barrow, a piece of soft wool-twine and a sheep-hook. Capture the ewe, lay her on her side ; take a turn in the middle of the string around the lower hind-leg and secure it with one knot ; draw in the under fore-leg, and secure m the same way ; then 98 THE AMERICAN MERIXO the upper hind-leg ; lastly, the upper fore-leg, and make fast. Lay the lamb between her Lind-legs to keep it warm, then wheel them gently to the stable. Here, if assisted to suck once, it will probably do well thenceforth. When the flock is brought in after a windy day, care must be taken that no lamb is left behind. They are apt to hide away duriQg the day in sheltered crevices. Goitrous Lambs.— Under the headings " Congenital Goitre," and "Imperfectly Developed Lambs," Dr. Randall treats at great length certain abnormal phenomena appearing in very young lambs, which in all probability are reducible to the same category as regards their cause, and that cause wholly adven- titious. Under the heading of "Goitre," I shall have something further to say in a subsequent chapter ; at present it will be sufScient to note somewhat more particularly the effects of too high feeding with grain, especially with com. Mr. H. Miller, of Delaware County, Ohio, in a communication to the Ohio Farmer, stated that he had had occasion to suspect that exces- sive corn-feeding of the ewes produced goitre in the lambs ; and, by dividing the flock into two portions, and feeding one lightly and the other heavily, he satisfied himself, by the absence of the malady from the progeny of the lighter-fed ewes, that his suspicions were correct. The flock-master of extended experience will often, in his earher career, find himself wondering why it is that the fattest, *' stockiest" ewes in his flock will occasionally yean the small- est, whitest, most puny lambs. Sometimes, however, instead of being phenomenally under-sized, the lamb will reach the average stature, or even exceed it ; but it will be of a flaccid, soft, muscular development ; the under-side of the hoofs very spongy ; the skin pallid, especially around the hps, nose, the septum of the nose, the cihary caruncles, and the natural ori- fices of the body. It is weak — the least obstruction of the liquor amnii or slime about the nostrils will prevent it from getting its breath : the liquor itself is colorless, a robust lamb being generally enveloped in yellow liquor. If it survives at all, it will be hours before it can stand, even under the stimulus of warm sunshine. The ewe will be subject to garget. The probability is, that the mother of this lamb was over-fed on corn. She may have been sterile the preceding year, and consequently fat at the coupling season, and she remained so throughout the winter, to the detriment of the lamb as above FOR WOOL Xl. 11 10 14 14 17 83 20 21 30 8 15 18 20 Washed. Un- j Ferc'tage washed. lost. Lbs. Oz.lLbs. Oz. 7 00 5 10 7 08 7 0,3 5 04 6 08 6 00 FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 109 FOUR-TEiLR OLDS. THREE-YEAR OLDS. ^^'^''''^WashedA No 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 U,c- loashed. lost. Lbs. 5 6 5 6 10 11 8 7 6 7 6 10 5 6 5 7 Oz. Lbs. Oz. 8 04 OS 12 04 I 13 00 11 12 9 12 10 00 10 02 10 08 8 00 11 08 7 02 9 06 Sheep^s No. 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 Un- '^"*''^^- j ica^hed. \ lost. iLbs. Oz. Lbs. Oz.! 81 10 82 1 9 83 11 84 I 10 10 06 9 03 11 OJ 11 00 10 12 10 00 9 03 10 00 9 03 10 08 10 00 9 00 10 04 8 12 10 00 11 00 10 00 10 00 Of course these tables do not make a thoroughly fair exhibit, since the unwashed fleeces had only eleven months' growth. In the computations herewith following, I have in every instance added one-eleventh to the unwashed weights, though that gain is doubtless somewhat inaccurate, since the fleece would grow less than an average during the twelfth month. But it is prob- ably as near an approach to correctness as will ever be attained until some experimenter who can afford it shears a flock at the same date for several years, alternately washed and unwashed. I find that the three-year-olds suffered an average loss of one pound, fourteen and two-thirds of an ounce per fleece, or nine- teen per cent, on an average fleece of eleven pounds. The four-year-olds suffered a loss of three pounds and one ounce, or twenty-nine per cent, on an average fleece of ten pounds and six ounces. The five-year-olds suffered a loss of two pounds and one ounce, or twenty-four per cent, on an average fleece of eight pounds and eight ounces. The six-year-olds suffered a loss of two pounds and one ounce, or twenty-four per cent, on an average fleece of eight pounds and eight ounces. In looking over the above tables, the reader will perhaps be surprised to observe that generally the heaviest fleeces, which doubtless lost most in the scouring-tub, lost least in the brook 110 THE AMERICAi^ MEKI]S"0 or washing process. The explanation of this fact is, that where very yolky sheep are housed, the yolk becomes more or less inspissated, so that it does not yield to the solvent action of cold water. In confirmation of the showing of the tables in this respect, I will adduce a remarkable experience which was given me by another breeder of full-bloods, a perfectly trustworthy gentleman. He had a ram which he had shorn three years, and his heaviest fleece in that time was twenty-two pounds and twelve ounces. The fourth year he took him into the water, and with his own hands \s ashed him thoroughly. After a lapse of two weeks he was shorn and yielded twenty-four pounds and four ounces ! There were occasional disturbing factors which produced ap- parent discrepancies in the above tables, as, for instance, the suckling of a lamb one year and not the other ; but, as a geo- logist would say, the extent of the plateau is so considerable that the location of the "fault" is scarcely discernible. Now, the average shrinkage on these four lots of sheep was twenty-four per cent. Reasoning from this fact, the farmer would probably arrive promptly at the conclusion that the de- duction on unwashed wool ought to be twenty-four per cent., (say, one quarter), instead of one-third required by the manu- facturer. But this view is erroneous. The fallacy lies in the fact, that the basis of all calculations as to the value of wool is the scoured pound, in other words, clean wool. This is the foundation of all reckonings. The manufacturer simply ascertains what the scoured pound is worth in the markets of the United States — X, XX, XXX, or picklock, quarter-blood or common, medium, or whatever the grade may be. Then he glances at a table in which are given the average rates of shrinkage of washed and unwashed wools, of the different grades, from different sections of the country ; with the value of each per pound. To illustrate, let us take the general average for the United States. Messrs. David Scull, Jr. & Bro., wool commission mer- chants of Philadelphia, in a letter to myself, stated that the rate of shrinkage in scouring is sixty-seven to seventy per cent, on unwashed Merino wool, and forty-eight to fifty -two per cent, on washed. (My friend, Mr. W. M. Brown, Superintendent of the Beverly Woolen Mill, gave the figures as fifty-nine and forty per cent, respectively ; but the clips he was accustomed to handle were lighter and drier than the average of the United States). FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". Ill That the figures given by Messrs. Scull are approximately correct, is shown by the following table, which gives the results of the scouring of seventeen fleeces sent by the Missouri Wool Grower's Association, from Sedalia, to Messrs. Walter Brown & Co., of Boston, and scoured by a professional scourer at Wal- pole, Mass. : 5 s ?^ 1<" tl 1^ V-^ ^1 iS. •'~ 1^ rc: a: i< s tl ■S'< i gS ^^ S CO Merino ewe. . Grade ewe . . . Merino ram. . Merino ewe. . Merino ewe. . Merino ram. . Merino ram. . Merino ewe. . Merino ram. . Merino lam. . Merino ewe. . Merino ewe. . Merino ram. . S. 1). ram.... S. D. M. ram. Cotsw'd ewe Cotsw'dewe. Tears 3 1 2 3 3 3 7 1 1 2 2 4 l 1 3 1 Days. Lbs. Oz. 372 15 5 365 8 10 372 28 4 376 17 8 376 16 ^ 370 28 14 1 360 21 1 360 13 7 365 12 6 360 25 7 358 18 1 ; 365 17 10 ! 371 25 IB ' ! 365 S ' 865 6 b 335 16 5 ^65 12 8 Lbs. Oz.iLbs. 14 13i 5 8 4 2 27 11 7 17 0^1 5 15 15 I 5 28 13 I 7 20 11 i 6 1^ 4 3 5 11 10 Oz. 9^ 14 14 IBi 6 15i 121 11? 12* 3i 6i 4* 7i 3 3 11* Per ct. 62.32 65.16 71.69 65.69 66.78 72 40 67.15 61.82 61. 8t; 6''.05 C5 05 es.r.s 70.h2 56.39 48 05 30.03 4 .07 $4.04 2.26 5.45 3.90 3.55 5.75 4.66 3.57 3.45 5.44 4.33 3.46 4 69 2.25 214 4t3 2.97 We may accept therefore the figures sixty-seven to seventy as a fair percentage of loss, with this resei-vation, however, that ,a greater part of the unwashed wool of the Eastern States, as is evidently the case with that above tabulated, was taken from stud-flocks, housed sheep ; and that this percentage would be too high for ordinary Merino flocks. It may further be remarked, incidentally, that this table shows an invariable loss in the fleece between shearing and sorting. Now, let us suppose that the buyer purchases one hundred pounds of washed wool at thirty cents a pound. The shrinkage in scouring is forty-eight per cent. This leaves him fifty-two pounds of clean wool, costing thirty dollars. Now, suppose he wishes to purchase one hundred pounds of unwashed wool, how much must he pay per pound so that it shall cost him the same per scoured pound as the first lot? The rate of shrinkage here is 112 THE AMERICAl^- MERIIS'O sixty-seven per cent. That is, one hundred pounds of un- washed wool will yield thirty-three pounds of scoured. This gives a simple problem in the " double rale of three." If fifty- two pounds cost thirty dollars, how much ought thirty-three pounds to cost ? 52 : 30 : : 33 : 19.03. That is, the hundred pounds would have to be bought for nineteen dollars and three cents, or nineteen and three-tenths cents a pound. This would require a deduction of a little over one-third from the price of washed wool. The rates of shrinkage in washing are varied a great deal by methods of feeding, by housing, by individual peculiarities, by modes and degrees of washing. These variations appear con- spicuously in Mr. Breckenridge's flock, ranging from eight to thirty-three per cent. If such differences exhibit themselves in the flock of a man who is a very careful breeder and feeder, and who has studiously sought after uniformity of type, what may we not look for in the flocks of a whole county ? How wide will be the differentiations in a State ? In view of these facts it seems little less than a truism to assert that the " one-third rule " is a very raw and crude prin- ciple on which to conduct the purchase of wool. Shearing Without Washing. — Col. F. D. Curtis writes vigorously in the Country Gentleman on this subject : *' I had an illustration of the differences between sheep shorn and unshorn, as to comfort and growth of sheep and lambs, this spring. A number of my flock were sheared in April, and the rest not till the last of June, and then before most of my neighbors. Those sheared in April are fat, while those which carried their fleeces did not gain at all in condition. I am satis- lied that sheep should be shorn without washing, and that they should be shorn by the first of May, or in any latitude before they can be turned out to spring pasture. Of course this early shearing should not take place where there are no provisions made for sheltering them. Where they can be kept within a comfortable enclosure, they will do better without the hot and debilitating fleeces. Their lambs will get more milk ; the sheep will be more active, eat more, and have more vigor. I have sheared sheep the first of April (latitude forty-three degrees north), and had no trouble. They must be kept out of the wind and wet. "When shorn so early and before going out to pasture, except in rare cases, it will not be necessary to tag them before the FOR WOOL AXD MUTTOI?". 113 whole fleece is removed. There would be less trouble with ewes if they were sheared before having their lambs. The little lambs could get at the teat much better, and with a careful man to shear there would be no risk in handling the sheep. Lambs are often born after the ewes have been both washed and sheared, and do well. ****** A great deal of bother can also be saved, in trying to keep the sheep dry for the shearer, who very likely does not come. The annual bloating and starving of the sheep at shearing time can be dispensed with, as the sheep can be taken from the winter quarters, and when shorn returned to them. I am so impressed with the advantage of early shearing in this way, that I shall make it a rule to do so." In this section, Mr. M. Palmer, and Mr. J. Chadwick— the former after an experience of more than fifty years ; the latter with one nearly as long — have discarded washing, though both keep grade Merinos. Mr. Geo. S. Corp, owning about six hun- dred grade Merinos, has shorn them unwashed, about April 1, two years. Ho experienced a loss, one 3'ear, of nine dollars, and a gain the next year of seven dollars, saying nothing of the great gain in the condition of the sheep from being shorn early, without wetting. He will adhere to' the practice. Modes of AV ashing. — As wo wash in the river, we are ob- liged to wait rather late for the water to become warm enough. The extreme dates which I find, on referring to my farm jour- nal, are May 15 and May 29 ; the average will range between these two. When the washing season is at hand, I watcli my barometer. I want to have reasonable indications of a spell of rising, clearing weather, and I want to put the sheep into the water in the beginning of that spell, so that they may have as many days of steady sunshine as possible in which to dry off. Washing in the river, as I have said, involves the necessity of waiting, but it is a great convenience, especially if one can have a clean, gravelly beach on which to land them. In most places the bank is so sloping that it is necessary to build three sides I of a pen, but we are favored with an overhanging ledge of lime- stone. Jutting up against this, we put up three lines of port- able fence, making pens which front directly on the water. We crowd the foremost flock down the bank and keep them huddled against the u]pper pen, while three or four men catch and dip, and then pass them around the projecting fence into the first pen. They are now passed into the second pen, and the men at once proceed to washing, or else dip a second flock. 114 THE AMERICAN MERIKO bringing these latter into the first pen. In either case the sheep are well soaked before the washing commences. I frequently catch the flock of breeding ewes myself, as I am unwilling to have them abused. (I should have stated above that we catch all the sucking lambs out and leave them behind in tiie sheep house.) There are men who, when they stand in a line in the water and pass the sheep from man to man, will do nothing but swing the sheep to and fro. I watch the washers, and instruct them to squeeze out every part of the fleece. A man need only go out deep enough to float the sheep off its feet, then by taking the wool between his forearms, he can squeeze out considerable sections at once. They land on a stony beach and no dirt gets into the wool, if they do flounder about. It is true, they travel home by a dusty road, but the dust which set- tles on them does not amount to anything. We turn them on a clean sod pasture to dry off. I have several times had suckling ewes come home from washing, hungry, go on a white clover pasture, eat greedily, and die of hoven in a few hours. Managing in this way, four men and a boy or two will pass seven hundred and flf ty sheep throii^h the water, take up the fence, and get home by four o'clock in the afternoon, and the sheep will be washed clean ; that is, as clean as cold water can make them. I have seen an arrangement which would commend itself to the farmer living at a distance from any large stream, since it can be employed on a mere mountain run ; it consisted of a plank box ten feet long, six feet wide, and deep enough to swim the sheep. The stream was dammed up, some distance above the place, and while the reservoir thus made was filling, a hole was dug out and plank fitted in, as described above. Steps at the end led to the bottom of the box, for taking in the sheep, and when washed they were let out on an inclined plane made of rough boards, with strips nailed on to prevent slipping. Here the water was squeezed from the wool, and the sheep passed out upon clean sward. Some arrangement of this kind is better (for a small flock), than to drive them a long distance, over a dusty road, and expose them to the danger of contracting the foot-rot or some other contagion from " scalawag" flocks. Some writers recommend a waterfall and a spout, under which the sheep can be held and washed by a man, without getting into the water himself. If a man is afraid of a wetting, he can pursue this course ; but the sheep will not be nearly as FOR WOOL AXD ML'TTOX. 115 well washed as it would be if taken into deep water. If the washers can keep their bodies dry, they are not nearly so liable to receive injury from, their prolonged wetting. CHAPTER XII. SHEARING AND DOING UP WOOL. Length of Time Between Washing and Shearing.— How long a tune should be allowed to elapse between washing and shearing, is a question which must be determined by circum- stances. If the washing was done with thoroughness, the fleece was deprived of that modicum of yolk to which it is in fairness entitled to impart to it luster, elasticity, and, ir gen- eral, a good style ; and tlie farmer has a perfect right to allow his flocks to linger in the pasture until the sunshine has brought out the oily exudation, and until capillary attraction and the motion of the fibers one upon another have distributed it to the extremities. More than this honesty does not permit. When the wool has reached that condition of oiliness which may be found in a fine, healthy head of hair, on which a daily brushing has kept the natural oil distributed through its entire length, then, and not before, it should be shorn. What then shall be said of those flock-masters, who both keep such gummy flocks and so imperfectly wash them, that at shearing time the yolk may not only be seen glistening along the fibers in pellucid globules like glycerine, but even coagulated in yellow, pasty masses? Much depends on the weather after washing. If the sun is hot, ten days will be a long enough interval ; if the weather is cool and cloudy, two weeks will not be too long a period. General Managssient. — It is extremely convenient to have a pasture close at hand, from which the sheep can be brought up in small flocks as needed by the shearers. Thus they will keep full bellies, and the shearers will be troubled with fewer wrinkles. If a shower is threatening, of course the sheep will have to be closely housed over night. In " catching weather," we have frequently had to keep them confined until they became 116 THE AMERICA]^" MERINO very hungry and hollow. Of course, also, the sheep-house will be kept well littered. This is essential throughout the house, but is especially important in the limited space where they are crowded in, a few at a time, to be caught. If the litter is replenished here every few hours, it will clean off their feet so that they will not foul the shearing-table. "VVe generally fence off this small space simply with hay- boxes, and suspend an empty barrel in the passage-way through which the shearers enter. My shearing-table is about five feet wide, by fifteen feet long, and is supported on trestles which bring the table about up to the shearer's knees. Now and then a shearer prefers to take his sheep right on the floor. The reader may or may not be familiar with a contrivance for holding the sheep fast during the operation of shearing. It consists of a large wooden bowl, in which the animal is set on its buttock and which i)revents it from kicking. To this bowl is attached a frame Uke a chairback, both bowl and frame revolving on a pivot in the centre of the bowl. A strap passes diagonally across the frame, by which the sheep is lashed to it. This relieves the shearer of the strain of holding the sheep in position. By unbuttoning the strap, the sheep can be reversed for the other side to be shorn. I observe that our best shearers proceed with the fleece as follows : Beginning on the brisket, they shear down past the arm-pits, and then from right to left clear across the belly in successive clips or strips, until the whole belly piece is taken off and left hanging on the left side of the fleece. Then they open up the neck, and beginning at the ears, shear neck and bodr to the rump on the left side, running the shears round to the back- bone, and holding them in such a position that ijie clips or flutes left by them are parallel with the ribs, not only on the body, but on the neck. Then turning the sheep over, they shear the right side in the same manner. When clipped in this way, the sheep presents a zebra-like appearance, which is commend- able for its regularity and workman-like neatness. Much depends on the manner of shearing. The wool should not be cut twice, as this injures the appearance of the fleece when done up, also lessens its value to the manufacturer, as there will be more or less waste in the combs and cards. The shearer should keep the fleece together, not parting it on the shoulder as some do. I have seen shearers open the fleece on the right shoulder, running up the neck from the middle of this shoulder, and shearing to the middle of the left shoulder, and FOR WOOL a:^d mutto^^. 117 by the time the fleece was off this part was in pieces. I would give all such shearers the " go-by." Both shoulders should be left whole, as here is the finest wool of the fleece. Neither should the shearer cut a second time the portions clipped over in the spring in tagging ; the wool is so short here that it is of no value, and if little locks of it are seen about the fleece they give a suspicion of chipping or mincing. Sorting ind Marking Sheep.— Now is the time above all others in the year for the flock-master to subject the sheep to a critical examination, with a view to determine whether it is worthy of being longer retained. I find either of the following methods good : Have a rope hanging before each shearer with a strap at the end of it, which can be buckled around the sheep just behind the fore -legs in such a manner as to allow only its hind feet to touch the floor. This will keep it from escaping until the master, who is supposed to be occupied tying the fleeces, can find leisure to inspect the fleece and put such mark upon the sheep as he may wish. But a better way would be for him to turn over the tying to an experienced operator, and give his attention altogether to the inspection and marking of the sheep. I have a small grocer's scale on a low table, with a platform of light boards attached, on which the shearer can deposit the fleece. A single glance will reveal whether the weight of it comes up to the required standard or not, and a mark can then be affixed to the sheep accordingly. The average flock-master, who does not care to go to the ex- pense of having his flock entered in some one or more of the fashionable Registers, will scarcely find it worth while to fol- low any complicated system of record, such as is recommended by Dr. Randall. If he wishes to observe a system of number- ing, he will hardly find anything better for the purpose than Dana's ear-labels. If the breeding flock is so small as to require only one ram, the owner has no option, and will not be required to institute any very fine discriminations among his ewes. But if it is large enough to demand the services of several rams, it will then be advisable to record in a book a few points, as "length of staple," '' yolkiness," ''density," etc., with a view to assigning each ewe to such a ram as shall be most likely to correct her deficiencies. After trying several different plans of marking, I have adopted substantially the following : I employ red lead, or Venetian red, with linseed oil ; tar is highly objectionable, since it makes a lasting clot which has to be clipped off before the 118 THE AMERICAN MERIi^'O fleece can be used by the manufacturer. First, I affix the letter of ownership — on the left hip for a ewe, on the left shoulder for a wether. It is important to mark all sheep on the same side, so that the eyes of the master can catch the mark readily aa they circle around him. In addition to this, I stamp on the right hip the letter O, denoting that the animal falls below the standard and is to be drafted. I use the same letter during the lambing season, to designate a ewe which has shown herself unfit for further service as a breeder. The selection of two- year-old ewes for the breeding flock next fall should be guided more by the form than by the fleece, but the latter is important, and unless the breeder keeps a book record of each member of his flock, he ought to affix at shearing some mark to denote an extra shearer. Folding the Fleece.— There should be near the wool-press a table or platform of amx^le size, on which fleeces may be deposited and spread out for folding. No fleece ought to be divided, however large it may be, for the sorter wishes to have the whole fleece before him, in order that he may divide it correctly into the different sorts. But it is permissible- to de- tach the belly -piece for convenience in shearing, if it is fol^ded into its proper place in the fleece. Tags, Etc. — The best course for the farmer to pursue in respect to that bone of contention, the tags, is to .sort out care- fully all very thick "sweat-locks," and the tags which are hard with dung, and wash them separately. Then the cleaner portions of the tags can be washed by themselves very much in the mode and measure of the wool on the sheep's back. The sweat-locks and the most objectionable tags should be put to soak m soft water for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, then washed out two or three times in warm soap-suds, and wrung out with a clothes-wringer. By this means they can be ren- dered white ; whereas, if washed aU together with cold water, the whole mass has a greenish cast, which is very objectionable to buyers. Tags washed thus thoroughly are perfectly entitled to be put inside the fleeces, a handful in each. Dead or pulled wool should be kept separate, because all parts of the fleece are mingled together, can not be sorted, and con- sequently grade about on a par with the lowest ; for this reason I prefer to remove the pelt from a dead sheep, as this retains eveiy sort of wool in its own position. With the pulled wool may be put all the bits from the shearing-table which are worth POK WOOL AXD MUTTON". 119 picking up at all, for the hairy locks clipped from the legs are fit only for the manure-heap. No wool which is damp with maggots, dew, rain, urine, or dung, ought to be rolled up in the fleece ; it will heat and im- part to it a dark color and an offensive odor. Tag-locks which consist mostly of dung (being different from "sweat-locks," which are entitled to go with the fleece), are worth only four cents a jDOund, and ought to be excluded. ' ' Cots and common " form the coarsest grades of wool ; the hard-matted locks have to b3 broken up by machinery before they can be used, and are then fit only for the lowest kind of goods. On these fleeces the buyer will probably insist on a reduction of at least five cents per pound. The hard clot-bur ought to be pulled out (if the farmer is so negligent as to allow this to grow and get into the wool, he had better remove it before shearing), but for the beggar-lice (Cynoglossum Morisoni), there is not much help, though it injures goods by specking them. It is the lolder's task to spread out the fleece on the table, weather side uppermost, clip off all the dung-balls, gather it as nearly aB possible into the shape and density which it had on the animal's back, and then fold it for the press. The breech is folded over first, next the flank, then the neck, and lastly the flank to which is attached the belly-piece (the belly-piece ought to be where the sorter can flnd and remove it before he unfolds the entire fleece). The fleece ought now to be about square. Across the middle of this square the folder lays his left arm, and with a dextrous motion of the right, folds (not rolls), one half upon the other. Working an arm under each end of the fleece, he lifts it from the table with the two edges of the fold against his breast, and lays it in the press. Wool-Press. — In my own practice, I have been able to do up wool most satisfactorfly with what may be called a rolling press (in contradistinction to a flat press), shown in figure 8. The outline dimensions are as follows : The table is two feet six inches high, two feet two inches wide, and four feet long. The leaves are four feet long and one foot wide. The box inclosed between the leaves is eleven inches wide. The head piece c c c, which is concave on the inside to adjust itself to the circum- ference of the fleece, is six and one-half inches high. The side- pieces of the table project far enough beyond the end to sup- port the roller, e, which is three inches in diameter at the thick- est part, tapering slightly toward the ends. The drop leaf, h &, is hinged, and falls forward toward the operator. When the 120 THE A.MERICAK MERHsTO fleece is placed in position the drop-leaf is raised to a perpen- dicular, where it is held by the upright, /, which works on a roller. This roller might be placed in the top of the table legs, instead of being a few inches from them, as in the en- graving. The ileece beiug now in the box, the leather band, d d, (six feet long and eleven inches wide) is carried forward over it, and the loop in the end is fastened to tlie roller by a little kon hook. One end of the band being fastened to the head-piece, when the other end is wound up on the roller it draws the fleece down into a tight drum-shaped package. Tiie strings, g, entering the three holes in the table frame, pass up through three others in FOE WOOL A:N^D MUTTON". 121 the bottom of the box at 3, 4, 5, and so along under the fleece to the head-piece, being fastened in creases at the top of it. The leather band has three shts in it, through which the ends of the strings can be reached with the ri^ht hand, while the left brings up the slack, and the knots are tied on the top of the fleece. The ratchet is now lifted, the roller runs back, the band is detached and thrown off, the drop-leaf is let down, and the strings cut with the knife, which should be kept lying at the foot of the head piece under the fleece. The strings are now drawn up and fastened in their creases, and the press is ready to receive another fleece. I find it an advantage to let the twine pay out from the inside of the ball instead of the outside. If the fleece was properly folded according to the above directions, it will come out from the press a cylinder (a better shape than a cube), and it will be so bound in one part by another that bulging or bursting is almost impossible. Storing. — A wool-room need not necessarily be ornate, but it shfmld be of ample size, convenient to the shearing-room, and made of dressed lumber. It ought to be furnished with win- dows, and yet so made that i t can be shut up perf ectl}' dark and tight enough to exclude bumble-bees, mice and rats, which are fond of burrowing in wool. If on the ground floor, it should be so high that rats can not bank up the earth underneath to touch the floor, as this will cause the wool to mold. But if space on the ground is considered too valuable to be appropriated to a room which is used only for a few months, it may be con- structed overhead, and the fleeces pitched up one by one from the press ; or the sheep may be hoisted into the second story by an elevator and be shorn there, as in a sheep-house to be described hereafter. The important point in storing wool is, to have the pile of such shape that the buyer can, if he wishes, inspect every fleece without moving it from its place. The best contrivance I have seen for this purpose, is one which is employed by Mr. C. C. Smith, of Waterford, Ohio. This consists of a double row of upright studding, running across the room nearly to the wall at each end. These studs are framed together into something like a corn-crib, the width of which is only sufficient to accomodate one average fleece. This frame-work consists of smooth, light slats, stretching across between the studding, far enough apart to prevent a fleece from slipping between, and all of them in- clined inward like the slats of window-shutters. This inclined position allows the fleeces to settle smoothly. The slats can aU. 12J^ THE america:s" meeixo be taken out down to the floor, and then slipped into place one after another as the fleeces are piled up. Fleeces stored this way will lose from two to three per cent, in weight in the course of six months; while a large pile close to the ground will shrink principally in the outside fleeces, and those in the interior will retain sufficient moisture to keep the shrinkage of the whole somewhere near one per cent. As a matter of course, very yolky wool will shrink more than the dry and light. I once had a pile of ram's fleeces lose about two and three-quarters per cent, in sixty-four days. Speed in Shearing. — The neatest shearer in the county in which I reside, once sheared for me fifty-eight head inside of ten working hours ; they were about three-quarter bloods. I challenge any man to leave a sheep in better shape than he does. In his prime, he averaged forty-five to fifty a day. Another noted shearer in this county, has sheared over seventy Saxons in one day— seventy-seven, if I remember rightly. But of such grades as are generally found in this county, an average good shearer, working by the head, will clip thirty-five to forty in a day. The practice of "paying by the head" leads to racing between the shearers and a slighting of their work. Leg-wool is of no value, it is true, but a shearer who does not trim it off neatly, as well as that from the body, should be dismissed. It is best to employ capable and conscientious shearers, and pay them by the day. Six cents a head, or two dollars a day is commonly paid east of the Mississippi. Where to Sell Wool. — The average farmer will almost invariably find it to his interest to sell his clip in his own wool- room, unless the amount of it is so small that he can transport it to and fro in a wagon. Warned by the example of neigh- bors, I have never shipped a clip to a storing-house or commis- sion-house. After his wool has once passed from his sight, the farmer is practically powerless ; he had better make up his mind to accept without complaint whatever is tendered. But in his own wool-room, especially if the clip is thoroughly good, he is independent. Qualities and Grades of Wool.— It may be well to give here a brief extract from a little book on wool, issued by a wool commission firm of Philadelphia, Messrs. W. C. Houston, Jr., &Co. * " In any section or State all the wools are bought at about the same figure, whereas one clip will often be worth five cents per FOK WOOL AJy^D MUTTOi;r. 123 pound more than another, on account of growth and condition. By growth is meant the length, strength and elasticity of the staple, the working properties of the wool, and whether it is healthy and of good grade, or weak, coarse and of wild and * frowsy ' character. By condition is meant whether the fleeces are light and bright, or heavy with grease and dirt, or dark in color. Condition relates chiefly to shrinkage in scouring for goods. The more a fleece loses in scouring, the less it is worth to a manufacturer, on account of the smaller percentage of clean wool it yields. It can readily be seen that poor or heavy con- dition may overcome the advantages of good growth. Wool may be of good growth like some breeders' clips of well-bred Merino, but heavy with grease, and therefore poor in condition. And similarly, wool may be light and bright (in good condition), but havmg a wild, coarse or weak staple, will be of poor growth. If a fleece is wild and poorly grown, it will go into low-priced goods, no matter how light it is, so that poor gi-owth may be counterbalanced by good condition. ** Good growth (sound, healthy staple) and good condition (a light, bright fleece) make up the first requisites of good wool. The growth and condition depend on care and intelligence in breeding, and also, considerably, on the locality where the wool is grown. In wild or prairie sections, the wool is apt to be 'brashy' (weak staple and of wild growth), and is generally discolored by the soil ; while in localities more under cultiva- tion the wool is apt to be of better growth and brighter. This is one of the reasons why Ohio produces better wool than Wis- consin or Minnesota. As the land of a section is brought more under cultivation, the wools improve. But this must be sup- plemented by proper attention to breeding ; for we have received some lots of unwashed from Iowa, that were better in grade and condition than shipments from Indiana and Illinois*. *' The terms 'growth ' and ' condition ' being understood, we pass to grades. Fine is the full-blood Merino. In well and high-bred washed wools, fine is sub-divided into X and XX, according to the fineness of the fiber. Fine delaine is the elas- tic and long staple fiber, of about two and one-half inches in length throughout the whole fleece. -Medmm is a three-eighths to one-half blood Merino cross. The proper crossing of full-blood Merino on a coarse-wool sheep produces medium grade. Medium combing is the long staple of the medium grade, about three and a half inches in length. A cross of Merino and Leicester gives 124 THE a:.iesicax mesixo medium combing — the Merino giving fineness of fiber and the Leicester length of staple. ♦' Quarter blood may be called a mongrel wool ; like a cur dog, it has no defined characteristic of breed. It is generally wool of common sheep, that don't contain enough Merino blood to class as medium. Quarter may be a run-out medium, or a coarse sheep not yet suiSciently graded up with Merino blood. It is of a wilder and not so close a growth as medium. It is difficult for our western friends to make the distinction between medium and quarter blood. In the West all wool between the fine and extremely coarse fleeces is classed as medium ; whereas here that range is split into a medium and quarter blood, the bulk of the wool sometimes going to the latter grade. AVe can hardly make the difference more clear than we have, except to add that in a real medium the Merino blood can be distinguished in the fiber of the wool ; whereas in quarter blood the Merino characteristic has entirely died out, if it ever was there. Quar- ter is a wild, coarse wool, as contrasted with medium, which is a closer and finer growth, approaching Merino. Coarse or quarter combing is the long staple of quarter blood grade. Common is the rough, hairy wool and cotted or matted fleeces. It is often a run-out Cotswold, and this grade is found mostly in coarse sections and in flocks that are run out. Common combing is the long, hairy wool, on the order of full-blood Cots- wold and Canada. " The grades fine, medium, quarter and common, apply to all wools. In unwashed wool there is httle or no difference in the price of combing and its corresponding grade of clothing, and the only advantage of taking out the combing is that it can be run a little lov,^er than clothing. For instance, medium clothing and combing sell at the same price, but as what is known as medium combing, is made almost a grade lower than medium clothing, we can sell more medium wool by making a medium combing ; the same holds true of quarter clothing and combing. In well-bred washed wools, the combing is worth more than the clothing, because it grades up better. Fine delaine is practically never taken out of unwashed wools ; and in fine washed, that is not well-bred and well-grown, there is rarely any to take out. Neither combing nor delaine are made out of dark, heavy, or poorly-grown wools, because the staple is generally weak, brashy, or not of sufficient elasticity." Sacking and Transpohtation.— If the clip is too small to justify the trouble, or has to be transported only a short dis- FOE WOOL AND MUTTON". 125 tance to market, it may be hauled tolerably well on a hay-rack, if care is used in stowing the fleece. It is better, however, to sack it. Custom requires the buyer to do this on the farmer's premises, unless it is otherwise stipulated in the bargain ; in- deed, few farmers have the appUances necessary in sacking. For convenience in sacking, it is well to have the wool-room on the second floor ; and in the floor a circular trap-door, two feet in diameter. The sack is hung down through this, swinging clear of the floor beneath, and supported by its edges lapped under an iron hoop with an inside diameter the same as that of the trap door. After five or six fleeces have been thrown down into the sack, a man descends into it, arranges and treads on them, and so continues until the sack is filled. It istlien raised a little with a lever underneath, the mouth secured with clamps, the hoop removed, and the sack is then lowered to the floor and the mouth sewed up with twine. Cobs placed in the corners of the sack at the bottom furnish convenient hand- holds. The implements required are, a canvas-needle, two wool-boards, with a half -circle cut out of each (for use in case the sacks have to be suspended between joists or timbers, or a temporary frame-work), iron clamps with leather straps, and a hoop of half-inch, round bar-iron. CHAPTEE Xril. SUMMER MANAGEMENT. Sheep as Scavengers.— When old fields have become over- grown with briers and bushes, and the farmer desires to extir- pate them, sheep will do the work for him better than any other stock, but they will sometimes require assistance. If brier-clumps are very thick or very high, the flock cannot do the work unaided. The bushes must be mown and burned, or, if well filled at the bottom with dead leaves and grass, they can be fired in a dry time, and, if some pains are taken to beat down the green ones as the fire is burning, the whole clump can be consumed. The young shoots which sprout up in the ash- heap will be eaten off by the sheep much more thoroughly than those growing where there are no ashes. I have found it one of the best ways of renewing old moss-bound pastures, to fire them 126 THE AMERICAl!^ MERi:N"a in a dry spell in the spring, when there is dry herbage enough on the ground to carry the flame ; then let the sheep have the range of them through the summer. They take a great deal of satisfaction in grazing, sleeping and stamping in the burnt dis- trict ; and, as above stated, they will take much more pains to crop off the sprouts here than they wiK in unburned territory. The ashes must give them a relish ; probably it is the greater percentage of potash they contaia, since sheep are noted for their fondness for and need of certain mineral ingredients in their feed. I have often observed their relish for tnese ash- fertilized plants ; they return to them again and again, crop- ping them down close to the ground, where they would scarcely taste them if growing in the open field. Every observing shepherd has noticed that sheep have their decided preferences in a rolling or hilly pasture, generally choosing a southern or eastern slope. Old farmers will tell you it is because the grass on these poorer, thinner exposures is shorter and sweeter. Probably this is one reason, but I cannot help thinking there is another. These southern slopes are nearly always wind-swept and sun-burned, and receive no stay- ing deposits of forest leaves ; hence the bed-rock is close to the surface, and frequently crops out in shelly ledges. This char- acter of the soil gives the grass a more mineral and earthy quality than is possessed by that growing on the north slopes ; for on these the soil is generally red clay, and strong with the humus or vegetable mold resulting from the rotted forest leaves of centuries. And the fondness of sheep for mineral ingredients in their feed was above alluded to. Hence they Knger on these naked, wind swept, southern slopes, nibbling the already scanty grass into the very ground, and neglecting the rich, rank feed on the northern slopes until they are fairly "starved to it," often to the wonder and annoyance of the shepherd. In general, sheep are so nice in their tastes and preferences that a pasture of any considerable extent, especially if it has a diversity of soils and exposures, is apt to become patchy if left entirely to the sheep. They are fond of knolls for stamping- grounds and sleeping-grounds, and will manure them to excess if they have their own way. There are various ways of regulating these matters. A port- able fence might do good service here ; I never tried it. A few young cattle with the sheep will give their attention to the north slopes and the rank pasture spots, while the sheep are grazing on the shorter feed. The sheep themselves will depas- TOR WOOL AND mutto:n'. 127 ture these northern slopes in the fall when feed grows scarce ; but meantime much grass has grown up and died, so going to waste ; and the briers make their whole summer growth un- checked. I have found it an advantage to run a permanent fence be- tween the north and the south slopes, so compelling the sheep to divide their time between them. Still, they will hang along the fence for hours, sleeping by it, waiting and watching for a chance to get through. So, as a still better measure, I generally keep one of my flocks in ignorance of the existence of certain south slopes, by never turning them on them ; thus, when it comes their turn to occupy the contiguous north slopes, in the rapid rotation which it is my policy to keep up during the sum- mer, they graze there quiet and contented. I am always more careful to keep the large briers and shoots cut on the north slopes ; I salt the flocks there whenever prac- ticable ; and burn all brush and trash which may accumulate there. All burs of whatever description ought to be cut, dried and burned before they get ri^^e enough to part from the plant. Burdock and Thistle burs are worse than Cockle burs, if pos- sible ; they burst asmider and fill the wool with the most odious prickles and filaments, while the hard burs can be removed whole. No words of condemnation can be too severe for the farmer who allows burs to grow and ripen and get into the fleeces. Number of Sheep per Acre.— T. W. W. Sunman, of Spades, Ind., gives in the American Sheep-Breeder the following ex- perience: ''We took six head and put them on an acre of ground well, set in grass containing some white clover, well watered and good shade. They were turned in somewhere about the 12th or 15th of April, and remained there until along in October without any additional feeding, when they were turned to early sown rye and pastures saved for fall pasture. The acre furnished all the pasture the sheep required and to spare. In the spring of 1880 we turned eleven head of one and two-year-old ewes upon this same acre of ground, and they re- mained there from May to October, receiving no additional feed, and had plenty of grass all the time. "In 1881 we took in one-half acre more land, making in all one and one-half acre ; upon this we pastured seventeen head of one, two and four-year-old sheep, consisting of fifteen ewes and two rams. There was all the pasture the sheep wanted and 128 THE AMEKICAN MERII^O to spare, and we believe would have furnished pasturage for four or six more, but this was a good year for pasture." But this is an exceptional case. When the shepherd, in going over his pastures, finds an occasional grass-tuft pulled up by the roots, he may know that he is over-pasturing. I have kept twenty-three sheep in good condition on three acres nearly all summer. Necessity of Water. — If the nights are cool and there is a heavy deposit of dew every night, sheep will do well for a long time without water, if they have constant access to salt, so that they do not eat too much at any one time. Otherwise they ought to have water within reach all the time. A flock of ewes with lambs at heel, ought always to have free access to water, summer and winter, without regard to weather. Working off the Culls.— With a flock of considerable size this is one of the most difficult operations connected with its management. There is no pro (it in grain-feeding old ewes or the long-legged, short-wooled, ungainly culls, into which a large flock, despite the most careful management, is continually "tailing out." Occasionally a batch of them can be sold to a neighbor who, having a fresh run, and wishing to keep only a small flock, can make something out of them when segregated into smaller bands ; but usually the only method practicable is to fatten them as quickly and cheaply as possible, and sell them for what they w^iU bring. An old, toothless or splintery-toothed crone of a ewe, is an extremely poor piece of property. Scarcely better is a younger one yielding a short, dry fleece, or a short, yolky (5ne which collects into hard, yellowish blocks, that almost require a ham- mer to soften them ; or with a bare belly and long, bare legs ; or with a tail set on low, and a weak, drooping neck. Of course, ew^es that are in service will produce lighter and thinner fleeces from year to year, and some deficiency in this regard may be tolerated in one of exceptional excellence otherwise ; but if these faults appear in a younger sheep, it ought not to be re- tained after the first shearing. It is a capital mistake to allow an inferior sheep to drift into the breeding flock, for then there will be two culls instead of one. Shippers commonly say they do not care how old a sheep is if it is only fat. But that condition which the ordinary farmer calls fat may be only "grass bloat," or it may be fat enough to make fairly good mutton for his own table ; but it wiU not en- FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 129 dure the long, rough ride to New York, Chicago, or Baltimore. How to make an old ewe fat enough for the shipper, is a diifi- cult matter. I generally succeed best with culls by putting them by them- selves, young and old ; feeding them all the wheat brau and corn meal they will eat (their teeth will be too sore to crack corn), and giving them the benefit of the first fresh cropping from each pasture. As soon as they have been on it a week or ten days, I pass them on to another fresh one, and let the main flock follow them up, taking each field in turn after them as soon as they leave it. By having three or four fields and swing- ing the flocks rapidly through them in succession, I can keep the main flock very large— much larger than it ought to be in winter quarters — without detriment to it, and even keep them improving in flesh all the while for three or four months, until the culls are ready to turn ofl;, when the main flock can be broken up small again before frost sets in. Old ewes and other refuse sheep ought to be pushed rapidly while the grass is tender ; like an old " shelly " cow, they are a drug in the market at best, and in the fall they will be crowded to one side by wethers. The butcher or shipper ought never to be required to take culls for the sake of getting good, straight wethers. Some shippers will not handle the former at any price ; they will have to be disposed of to some " cheap John " dealer for a bagatelle • but for thoroughly good wethers the farmer can demand and obtain a good price. By all means keep the two classes separate. Teeth as an Indication of Age.— It is often the case that a man will develop into an excellent practical shepherd, but without a taste for keeping a record of his sheep by books marks, labels, etc. He will have frequent occasion to refer to the teeth as decisive of age. The milk or lamb teeth are easily distinguished from the grass teeth by their smallness and dark color. The old rule among farmers was that a "full mouth" (eight grass teeth), denoted a four-year-old, each year bringing forth two new teeth ; but in the modern improved breeds, un- less ill-fed, the grass teeth make their appearance about as fol- lows : The first pair at one year ; the second pair at eighteen months ; ths third pair at twenty-seven months ; the fourth and last pair at thirty-six months, or three years. A Leq of Mutton.— a fat young ewe affords the best rip© mutton ; next, a young wether. The sheep selected for mutton. 130 THE AMERICAN MERIXO should be kept quiet and cool in a dark place, twenty-four hours, without anytliing to eat, but with all the water it will drink ; above all things it should not be worried and heated. The neck being laid across a block, may be severed at a blow with an axe, and the flow of blood should be made as complete as possible by the butcher seizing a hind-leg and gently pulling and pushing with a foot on the carcass. The disemboweling and skinning should be quickly dispatched. Let the sheep be hung up, rippedj and the bowels removed ; then the skinning can be performed afterward. Immediately after the sheep is hung up, if a hole is made between the hind-legs and the abdomen filled up with very cold water, it will assist in pre- venting the ' ' sheepy " taste. When Daniel Webster said he learned in England the secret of good mutton, namely, that it improves with age, he must have meant that it grows better each day after it is butchered. The longer it can be kept the better, within decent limits. If the farmer wishes to avoid surfeiting his family on mutton, let him convert a part of it — the legs preferably — into smoked ' ' mutton hams " or corned mutton ; then hang two or three good roasts down a deep well, and proceed with moderation in all things. The advice of the old English " quarter-of -mutton chant " to the cook is : " Let her boil the leg and roast the loin, and make a pudding of the suet," and the advice is sound. The roasted loin is always a juicy piece ; but the shoulder-blade, gently browned, with onion sauce or baked tomatoes, runs it close in the favor of gourmets, who wiU also generally be found to prefer a neck chop to one from the ribs, since in a coarse- grained sheep oil has a tendency to gather there. Charcoal or vinegar will remove what the Scotch call the *' braxy flavor," if it exists, though it should not be noticeable after the above precautions in butchering have been taken. The old English fashion of cooking before an open wood fire, as directed by Dean Swift, was very good ; but an intelligent cook can prepare just as choice a roast in a modern American stove- oven. If the sheep was young the piece may be put into the oven at once ; otherwise it ought to be macerated by boihng awhile, with the amount of water so gauged that when tender, it will be " done dry." Then let it be put into the oven, with this remnant of juice, and nicely browned; and the gravy should be thickened with flour and water previously stirred together without lumps, and poured into the pan about ten minutes before it is taken out of the oven. roil AVOOL AXD MUTTOIs^. 131 Maggots.— Mr. E. J. Hiatt, the editor of TJie Shepherds' Na- tional Jounial, and himself a shepherd of long experience and excellent judgment, gives the following : ' ' Sassafras oil and alcohol, one-fifth of the former and f om*- fif ths of the latter, mixed, will destroy maggots on short notice ; this is a safe and sure remedy and is particularly valuable to destroy maggots when they are located where it is diincult to get at them. They may be destroyed without shearing off the wool. "Turpentine has been used, but this is injurious to some sheep and cannot be used with safety when the sheep are allowed to run in the rain, and it is also unsafe in cases where the sheep is fevered and reduced in strength from being un- noticed or neglected, until its life was in great danger. Water should not be used as it only increases the danger of a second attack. There is much less danger of trouble with maggots when sheep are kept from the rain.. "A liquid is sometimes used, which is made by boiling or stewing tlie bark or stalks of the Elder. This is more trouble- some, but could be used in the absence of something better." I had come to the same conclusion as Mr. Hiatt respecting the use of turpentine, also benzine — both being too severe on the sheep in most cases. I salt twice a week until shearing-time, and carry to a field with me, besides the salt, the crook, some tar, and a pair of shears. If a sl^eep is seen to stamp and twitch its tail, catch it on the spot. When your suspicions are found to be correct, shear off close all the wool infested by the vermin, clean them off and apply tar thoroughly. If they have estab- lished any considerable footing, scrutinize with the utmost thoroughness the wool adjacent, for colonies of them will migrate around about and begin operations afresh. Ticks. — It is an impeachment of the shepherd's care and vigilance to have these abominable pests on his sheep, at least for any length of time, since -they are liable to get into any flock through purchase. In the early summer is the time above all others in the year to give them the slip. After shearing they will disappear in two or three weeks from the shorn sheep, and part of those on the ewes will take refuge on the lambs. The grown sheep will need no more attention if they are kept in good growing condition through the summer, but unless the lambs are treated in some way, the vermin will survive through the summer, some will return to thp ewes before weaning-time, and the remainder will be ready to begin their deadly work- 132 THE AMERICAN MEEIKO through the winter, as they seldom do much injury in summer. Ticks never flourish on fat sheep. Indeed, this rule holds good in reference to nearly all ovine parasites ; but it is almost an impossibility to get lambs in good condition when infested with ticks. It is not advisable to dip them in cold weather, but in summer it may be done with safety and benefit. Some shepherds recommend Eady's Sheep Dip, others carbohc acid, etc.; I have tried kerosene, snuff, sulphur (rubbed into the wool), and tobacco water and a solution of arsenic (as a dip). I think, all things considered, the tobacco-water is best, if the material is readily obtainable, though if applied strong it has a tendency to color the wool and make it harsh. Twelve or fiiteen pounds of refuse tobacco and chopped stems, or six pounds of white arsenic, will make a solution sufficiently strong for one hundred lambs ; though with either one, a little of it should be tried on a few ticks before the dip- ping begins. A few gallons of water will suffice for the boiling, then the decoction may be diluted with about a barrel of cold water. The keeper of Merinos ought not to be troubled with ticks sufficiently (they are more troublesome on the British breeds) to justify the expense of making special dipping appa- ratus. Two wash-tubs or large iron kettles will answer the purpose. A person whose hands have no abrasions of the skin need not fear to plunge them freely into either the tobacco or arsenic de- coction. One band should grasp the lamb's mouth and nostrils (to prevent it from getting the liquid into them), the othei* the fore-legs, while an assistant holds the hind-legs. The lamb should be lowered, back down, into the liquid and held there until it thoroughly pervades the wool nearly up to the eyes and the roots of the ears. Then let it be placed on its feet in the other tub, and the wool squeezed out. Unless this dipping is very thoroughly performed, some of the eggs of the ticks will escape, and in two weeks the operation must be repeated. In cold weather, as above remarked, dipping is not advisable ; but the ticks may be so held in check by means of sulphur mixed in the salt that they will work the lambs little or no injury until shearing-time comes. Indeed, some very good practical shep- herds of my acquaintance assert that they destroy or prevent ticks altogether by the use of sulphur, putting three pounds of sulphur to five of salt, and giving about a handful of the com- pound twice a week to forty or fifty sheep in their feed. In the summer they are not molested by them, and in the fall, if any FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 133 are discoverable, they renew the sulphur. When feeding sul- phur, I am careful to keep lambs housed from storms. My experience with sulphur has been so satisfactory that I should never bother with kerosene, snuff, mercurial ointment, or any other substance to be rubbed into the wool. Salting. — I take it for granted that every flock-master who peruses these pages never denies his sheep salt, unless it may be from occasional negligence. By keeping it in a covered trough and taking account of the quantity consumed during a series of weeks in early summer, I ascertained that an average sheep requires about one-eighth pint per week. During a pro- tracted drouth, or late in autumn, when the grass has become dry, sheep consume less salt than in the spring when the grass is washy. Strong, healthy sheep, well cared for otherwise, may flourish for an indefinite period without any salt ; but every flock-master of extended experience, who has turned that ex- perience to account, is well satisfied that salt is very beneficial to sheep, and that the money it costs is well expended in ward- ing off disease. In a journey through New Mexico several years ago, I con- versed with a resident wool-grower, Mr. Anton Lippart, who stated a remarkable fact in his experience. One winter during a severe and protracted drouth, he lost about twelve hundred sheep, while a neighbor similarly situated lost less than a score. His neighbor saved his sheep with salt and water ! The liberal supply of salt so toned up and stimulated the sheep, that they consumed the coarsest feed and turned everything to account. It is wasteful to salt sheep on the ground, even in the cleanest places, but this system has its compensating advantages m that it compels the flock-master to see his sheep once a week, which he might otherwise neglect to do. By scattering the salt in a circle of handfuls, he can count and inspect every member of a large flock. I never found it worth while to provide a covered trough, except in one case, and that was as a receptacle for salt and copperas as a preventive of Paper-skin in lambs. (See Chapter on Diseases). The salt-trough in the pasture serves another useful purpose in accustoming lambs to eat from a trough as a preparation for weaning. The Dust Bath.— Some writers and practical men recom- mend tar, smeared in the salt-trough, and thence attaching it- self to the animals' noses, as a repellant of the gad-fly and a preventive of the deposition of its eggs. In a close-fenced and 134 THE AMERICAIS^ MERIXO cleared pasture, with no shade, except that beside the fence, tar, or whale oil, may be rubbed on their noses with good effect. I attach great importance to shade and dust. If on the top of some commanding hill or knoll, there is a clump of trees under which the breeze draws cool and refreshing, here the sheep will always be found congregated in the heat of the day, and here each one will wear out, by stamping, a little circular depression for himself in which, with evident satisfaction, he will lie down and get up many times a day, paw, turn round, and otherwise raise a dust into which to thrust his nose. He will lie for an hour or more with his nose close pressed against the ground, inhaling the dust. It is an instinct ; he seeks in this way to escLipe his enemy. The gad-fly is more apt to trouble lambs and tegs than older sheep, and I deem it a matter of importance to provide for these, if possible, an enclosed building as a refuge during the heat of summer. Even a shed with only one side, if it is some- what dark and cool, is a better protection against the fly than the open field or a thin coppice. Weaning Lambs. — If they are thriving as well as they ought, lambs need not run with the ewes above four months. They will be more quiet if left in the field they are accustomed to, with the ewes removed out of sight and hearing. If there are shade and water in the field which they know where to find, they will help themselves. If not, they ought to be driven to water every day ; and it is a good plan to fetch them to the stable before the sun gets very hot, to prevent them frotn rambling aimlessly about the field, panting in the sun- shine, or crowding into the fence-corners. The lambs should have a fresh rowen or an upland pasture, if one is available, well stocked with June grass, Red-top, or some other short, tender, nutritious grass. There should be strips of forest in it, with shady knolls for stamping-grounds, where they may find an abundance of the dust which is so essential to their health during the dog days. An old ewe should be left with them for a flock-leader. If they are accustomed during the summer to a stationary salt-trough, the task of teaching them to eat feed will be reduced to a trifle, as they will approach the troughs freely. A mere dusting of salt should be sprinkled on their feed for a few days (being withheld from them other- wise) ; after that it may be left in quantity in the trough appro- priated to it, or sprinkled on a clean sod. It is of the highest importance that lambs and yeai'lings should have daily access FOR WOOL AN"D JIUTTON". 135 to salt, summer and winter, at least in a humid climate. I will give a brief description of my mode of making a salt-trough. For the supports take two equal pieces of one-and-a-half-inch plank, fifteen inches wide, and saw notches in the top deep enough to receive the trough. Make the trough V-shaped, six- teen feet long, of boards six inches wide, using for end-boards the pieces sawed out of the plank. Let the supports be about eighteen inches long, and nail to them, one on each side of the trough, upright standards. Across these standards at the top nail two V-shaped pieces to support the roof, which is made like the trough and turned bottom up. The standards must be high enough to allow the sheep to insert their heads freely be- tween the roof and trough, which requires a space of about nine inches. For a safe, nutritious, healthy, universally available and everywhere procurable feed for weaned lambs, there is nothing which is comparable to wheat bran, I find it profitable to en- rich it by the addition of a little shorts or oil-cake meal. In default of this, let a small proportion of oats be introduced into the ration when the frost falls, and some corn when the snow flies. Buckwheat bran is too coarse and rough for lambs. Tagging Lambs. — Merino lambs four months old should have wool of considerable length, and in the heat of midsum- mer this renders them liable to the invasion of those detestable vermin, the maggots. Out of a flock of one hundred and thirty lambs, I have lost over twenty in less than two weeks from this source alone. Of late years I have invariably tagged at wean- ing all the ewe-lambs, and as many wethers as showed signs of fouling about the pizzle. In very hot, muggy weather sheep will sometimes become fly-blown anywhere about the fleece if there is the least fetor attaching to the animal, around the hoofs, the head, the wrinkles, or the natural orifices of the body. The most rigid cleanliness must be maintained to carry lambs through the dog-days in bad years. Four hours' work in tagging may save ten times that amount of the most odious drudgery the shepherd has— ^fighting the maggots. Summer Housing and Feeding. — Some very good shepherds, indeed a great majority of the keepers of stud-flocks, give their sheep a little hay all summer. It is only a very little, and that of very sweet hay. A still smaller number give lambs and choice rams a daily ration of grain, generally consisting of wheat bran and oats mixed in about equal portions. It is 136 THE AMEEICAK MERIKO claimed that this dry feeding in summer steadies the animal's appetite, acts as a corrective of acidity and flatulency, a pre- ventive of colic and scours, and a general tonic to the system ; this more especialh^ when the weather is exceptionally wet and the grass slushy. To the breeders of high-priced standard sheep there is undoubtedly much force in this argument ; they find profit in the course above indicated ; and, conducted within the careful, reasonable limits implied in the forei^oing statement, it affords no just ground for the odious charge of pampering. Neither have I any quarrel with the veteran shepherd who chooses to house his flock every day in the year, and who would suffer a load of hay to take a shower rather than a dozen favor- ite sheep. It would argue the height of folly to assume that he does not know his business, and that this policy is necessarily incompatible with common honesty. Our countrymen who breed fine stock may be trusted to discover ultimately those methods which will develop that stock to the acme of symmetry and beauty. And it cannot be denied that a Merino systematic- ally housed and blanketed is much more pleasing to the view than one which exposure has rendered rough and shaggy. The soft, moist feel of the exterior, devoid of clots or indurations ; the rich, dull luster of orange or gold revealed in the deep clefts between the blocks when opened ; the fibers glistening, when held up separate, with a pellucid, semiliquid unguent — these are eminently satisfactory to the admirer of fine sheep. A fleece which has baen housed for some time and is then exposed to the rains, bleaches out dirty-white, yellowish, yellow-gray, brown, or remains black, according to the consistence of the yolk ; the latter has its stratifications destroyed and is washed down into the wool and into disfiguring masses like the drift along a stream, etc. A frost on a fleece is considered even more injurious to its appearance than a rain. I appreciate the artistic perception wliich delights in the full and fat exterior ; the soft, flannel-like fleece, which yet offers a firm and thick handful where grasped ; the eyes closely walled about with wool ; the silken white nose and ears ; the comfortable, buttoned-up chin and cheeks — the perfect presentment of hearty and well-fed opulence. All these things may be fair and honest, they may be matters of legitimate pride and art. Everything depends on the master's motive in this summer feeding and housing. These practices will be found only in stud or standard flocks. And when it becomes necessary for th® farmer to bring sheep FOR WOOL AND MUTTO^nT. 137 down from the high level of the stud-flock to the niveau of the plain, out-door, wool-bearing flock, he will find — such has been my experience — that hardly any amount of summer-housing will unfit the sheep for a gradual, progressive and judicious initiation into the ways of a working flock, but that irreparable mischief may be wrought by high feeding. My father once bought a ram for four hundred dollars, which soon developed goitre and partial impotency, and died when he should have been in his prime. It was a mystery to him at the time, but subsequent investigation revealed that lie had been grossly pampered. I paid a high rent for a ram one year, and out of seventy-five ewes served by him, a great part came in heat a second time, and less than forty bore lambs of his getting. He was a large and powerful two-year-old, but in less than a year he died sud- denly and mysteriously. He had undoubtedly been over-fed, but not intentionally, as his owner made honorable restitution. Over-feeding and excessive fatness are the cause of some barrenness among Merino ewes, and, as indicated in a previous chapter, of weakness, under-size and lack of constitution in lambs. But the unscrupulous men who practice pampering on their show-sheep and their sale-sheep are well aware of this fact, and do not allow themselves to be losers from their dis- reputable doings. A friend informs me that, during a visit to the farm of a noted breeder in Vermont, after looking long and with undisguised admiration at the various flocks paraded for his inspection, he inquired in some surprise where his breeding flock was. He was told that they were " not in good condition to be seen," but, on insisting somewhat, he was conducted to a stony, rugged hill-pasture, where they found the ewes literally "roughing it "—a shaggy-looking lot, but rosy-skinned and hardy, the very picture of health and thrift ! The Merino is tolerant of much abuse, and when well-fed it will submit to the most rigid imprisonment for a long time with impunity and with apparent thrift. Indeed, for animals fat- tening for the shambles, destined to be butchered in a few months, this confinement is probably conducive to the highest profit ; but stock sheep subjected to it will go to pieces in the end. Exercise, labor, work, is the law of all being ; and a violation of it will inexorably entail the penalty at last. 138 THE AMERICAN MERIXO CHAPTER XIV. FROM GRASS TO HAY. Sheep in Corn. — In seasons when there is not much wind and the corn stands up well, it is frequently advisable to turn flocks of young sheep into the standing corn a week or two be- fore cutting it begins. There are many leaves on the lower por- tion of the stalks which are never harvested, besides weeds which impede the labor of cutting, all of which sheep will con- sume for a change. It is best to alternate the flocks, shifting them every few days. To one not accustomed to the experience, it is surprising to see how clean and tidy a flock will clear up a corn-field — what an immense amount of trash they will con- sume. But it is necessary to be on the lookout for the equi- noctial storms. I once had a flock caught in a two-days' rain, and they bogged down to the middle in the plowed ground, so that we had to carry some out a-shoulder. In Orchards. — Sheep are better scavengers in a bearing orchard than hogs, notwithstanding they will bark small trees. Even if ringed, hogs will exterminate most grasses in a small lot, but orchard grass will flourish under the trees and under the hardest gnawing of the sheep. Besides that, sheep will eat up all the windfalls, no matter how small, bitter, astringent or rotten, with a more unquestioning appetite than swine ; hence they protect the trees more effectually against insect enemies. It is mainly old suckling ewes that damage the trees, and these only in the spring when herbage is scanty. They may be pre- vented from gnawing the bark by an application of coal tar, kerosene, tar, or a wash prepared by mixing on3 quart of soft soap, one quart of lime, one quart of pine tar with three gal- lons of sheep, cow or hen manure, stirring in a sufficient quan- tity of water to make it about the same consistency as ordinary whitewash. Apply to the body of the trees with a whitewash -brush, splint broom, or with the hand well protected with a heavy cloth mitten. This wash will protect the trees against injury from sheep, except the rams' horns, and is also conducive to the growth and health of the trees. It is valuable in pre- venting the damages so frequently done by insects, worms, etc.; for this purpose apply as near the roots as possible, and as often as it is washed off by the rain from the body of the tree. FOR WOOL AliTD MUTTON:. 139 But most farmers in the busy season will forget to renew the application, and at best it will not prevent damage by the rams' horns. Hence I have found the best practical protection to be stakes ; locust stakes will last from six to ten years or more. A few sheep may be kept in an orchard which does not afford enough herbage for their support ; and, if fed on pumpkins, turnip-tops, apple pomace, salt-hay, brewers' grains, sweet-corn fodder, or fodder-corn, they will rid the orchard of every weed, down to yellow dock, burdock, elder, poke, and even stunt the thistles if salt is thrown around them. But they incur some risks ; I once had a valuable ewe choked by a clingstone peach. Soiling Sheep. — Green feed soon becomes stale in a rack ; it is necessary to feed sheep ** little and often." With the mutton- breeds what may be called out-door soiling, or hurdle-feeding on roots, rape, mustard, etc., is often found profitable ; but it will seldom repay the labor to soil Merino sheep in the ordinary meaning of the term, except as above suggested, in an orchard or some small lot which it is desired to free from weeds and briers. Maintaining an even Condition.— I wish to impress strongly upon the mind of the inexperienced flock-master the necessity of keeping up an even, uniform condition, a progressive growth in his flocks, throughout the year. Not only do the horse and steer give quicker note of a falling-off (by their hair beginning to stand out straight and other indications), than the sheep whose carcass is deeply hidden from the master's eyes in a voluminous fleece ; but the horse and the steer, by reason of their stronger muscular and vascular systems, will also more easily recover from a temporary decline. After the fairs are all over and the show-sheep turned out, the ribbons laid away as trophies, the busy farmer— busiest now of all times of the year— is apt to neglect his flocks, and they enter upon the down-grade. But all the while he is driving his fall work, or perhaps chatting at the corner-store, there is a secret recorder that is every day, like the priest behind the wall in the Inquisition, laying up secret evidence against him, jot- ting down its own note and comment, which the expert may open and read. What is this mysterious 'spy ? It is the fiber of the wool. Let the sheep be neglected a few weeks in the late autumn and lose condition, let it fall sick, let it even be violently chased by dogs for twenty minutes, and the fiber will be " jointed," there will 140 THE AMERIGAK MERIITO be a weak place in it which will cause it to break in the cards or the loom. The reader raay puff out his cheeks at this as a mere bit of sentiment ; but there is a case on record where a Boston expert told the much-wondering farmer that he had moved his flock from a wooded to a prairie region, and informed him in what month he did it — all from the simple evidence furnished by the fleeces. Eternal vigilance is the price of good wool. The perfect Merino fiber of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia -true and sound, of a uniform diameter throughout its whole extent — admirably typifies the ceaseless care and the untiring industry of the true shepherd ; while the staple of Australia, thin at one end, thick at the other, with perhaps one or more attenuations between, fitly represents a slipshod, " feast-and-f amine " system of husbandry. Fall Care. — All the flocks, especially the lambs and the breeding ewes, should be vigilantly watched at this time of the year. As soon as heavy frosts begin to fall the sheep ought to be housed at night, and not turned out in the morning until the frost disapjjears, as they will frequently wander around an hour or more, doing themselves no good and the pasture much damage. Wherever they touch a frosty clover-leaf or other tender herbage, it is ruined, whereas if it had been allowed to thaw out untouched, it would have been uninjured. I never lost any sheep from frozen clover, but it will physic young sheep and put them in ill condition to enter winter quarters. If the autumn has not been too rainy, second-growth clover, cut and cured, will be excellent feed to shade off on from grass to hay — for the ewes ought to have a little dry feed in their mangers while waiting in the morning for the frost to melt. But in a wet season, clover rowen is not fit for hay ; it will *' slobber" anything except hogs. I have had sheep killed by it. The farmer can easily tell whether it will be safe to harvest it by testing a horse with it while green. Very rank clover, grown on river bottoms and cut while green, will sometimes cause ewes to * ' slink " their lambs ; even the first cutting has done this, to say nothing of the second ; at least, such has been my experience. Yet I should not hesitate to give upland clover to pregnant ewes without stint. Fall Feed for Laimbs. — One year my pastures were much curtailed by a severe drought, and I was somewhat puzzled how to provide for my lambs a supply of that succulent herbage FOR WOOL AND MUTTOJ^^. 141 which is so necessary to their thrift. The cossets running about the house had access to a turnip-patch of two or three acres, and, observing them cropping the tops, I conceived the idea of turning the entire flock into the patch for a hmited time each day. The x^lan worked admirably ; in course of time the lambs had completely stripped off the tops, thus saving me the most onerous part of the labor of harvesting turnips, and they had only here and there taken a mouthful from a turnip, not impairing them in the least for use the following spring. It supplemented the fall feed admirably, and carried the lambs into winter quarters in excellent condition. A slight tendency to scours developed itself after the tops were severely frosted, but it was easily corrected by lessening their daily run on the turnips and increasing the ration of hay and bran. Pumpkins are good feed for lambs in autumn (see Chapter on Paperskin). They will eat them tolerably well if broken up on a very clean and close sward ; but it is better to provide flat- bottomed troughs with compartments, each being large enough to receive the half of a pumpkin split in such fashion as to lie flat, with the inside uppermost. Acorns are a valuable resource for grown sheep, but I have not had favorable results when I allowed lambs to run freely in an oak forest. The acorns have almost invariably been pro- ductive of scours. One thing is certain — lambs must be grained liberally, or else they must have a very choice reserve of green feed to wind up the grazing season on, or they will lose gTound and go into ■winter quarters on the down grade. I feed my lambs more grain in November than in January. In January they are well established in their winter habits and have an abundance of the best and sweetest hay ; whereas in November they are in a transition condition, gathering up under protest the leavings of the summer grass which the frost has weakened. I mix one part oats to two of bran, and of this I give about a bushel and a half a day to one hundred head. At the End of the Season. — Sometimes an inch or two of snow will fall on the grass before it is time to bring the flocks into winter quarters, and lie a few days ; or it may be desirable for other reasons to keep the sheep out a little beyond such time as the pasturage, unaided, would keep them in good flesh. 1 have found it advantageous under these circumstances to carry out, say a half bushel of shelled corn to the hundred grown sheep, and sow it broadcast on a short, clean sod. This 142 THE AMEEICAN MEEIITO enables all to share equally. On the north hillsides grass nearly always grows ranker than elsewhere, and the sheep will pass by these strong-growing patches all summer. Late in the fall they can be made, with the help of a small ration of corn, to depasture them down and so leave the pasture uniform. These tussocks would otherwise afford a winter harbor for ground mice. Sometimes I have found it advantageous to keep a few young cattle with a flock ; they will graze these north hillsides, while the sheep will keep on the south slopes. CHAPTER XV. SELECTION AND CARE OF RAMS. Constitution. — " A steep rump and a crooked leg,", is one of the shepherd's catch-words. A crooked leg generally means also a " cat-ham," and a cat-ham is usually a sign of weakness. Still, however objectionable these points may be, they are not to be compared with flat nostrils (almost invariably accom- panied by catarrh aud a disgusting accumulation of mucus in the nares) ; weak pasterns, causing the animal to walk some- what flat-footed, plantigrade, or bear-fashion ; a straight, thin, ewe-nose ; and a fine ewe-fleece — all of which denote a poor constitution. The test of supreme importance is the bright, rosy skin. A ram may have excrescences ; yet if he has this, he possesses vigor. Mr. G. B. Quinn's "Red Legs " had a shambling anatomy, thin shoulders, and steep rump ; yet he had great power. Mr. C. C. Smith's "Silver Horn" was excessively wrinkly, as the annexed measurements show ; still he had sufficient vigor. " Silver Horn," Hve weight 138^ /s pounds. Length 8 feet 7 inches. Total length (including wrinkles) 9 "5 " Through shoulders 7"-/i2 ' ' Through hips „_ 9Vi2 " Height i.-_ 2 " 2 Length of neck IIV4 " Girth (about the heart) 3 " 1/2 " Width of loin 6 Width of escutcheon 7 " Length of nose 8V2 " Length of nose not wooled IVs " Depth of flank wrinkle GVe " Escutcheon wrinkle overlaps 2Vi2 " FOR WOOIi A^D MUTTOJSr. 144 THE AMERICAN MERIiTO Points of a Good Ram. — Let him have clean, short, shining hoofs, which never require the toe-clippers ; a round barrel ; a good diameter through the hams and shoulders ; a neck well set on, thick, powerful, devoid of the feeble Saxon droop just in front of the shoulders ; a nose held nearly i)erpendicular, arched, reddish, covered with fine corrugations, and in mature age, having two deep channels running from the inner corners of the eyes slanting down athwart the face ; nostrils round and well-opened ; eyes large and brilliant ; horns, when grown, making one turn and a half, close to the head, spanning clear across the forehead, deep, with a sharp, cutting edge under- neath, and with clean, clear-grained wrinkles, thickly set to- gether. Let his ears be hot, so that blood will flow freely from a cut. A cold-eared, cold-blooded animal is of no value. Such a sheep does not possess sufficient animal heat to kee^D his yolk liquescent and diffused to the extremities of the fibers. The scrotum should be well covered, the wool joining on to the belly ; the spermatic cords thick and large, and the investing skin of a bright, ruddy color. A long, pendulous scrotum with small cords betokens a weak constitution. I like to see the neck swelling into voluminous folds, especially a liberal apron ; the body plain ; the stifle and ham slashed with two or three ob- liquely transverse wrinkles free from gare. Bat best of all is a broad, horseshoe-shaped escutcheon, a tail nearly as wide as a man's two hands, with the skin at the sides folded and tucked under, which indicates, in my opinion, generous breeding and generous blood. The Hiatt Bro.'sram, " Ohio," had the finest escutcheon I ever saw on any sheep. As to fleece, so far as my observation goes, the more vigorous the ram, generally, the whiter the wool he produces. I know full well the beauty of those fleeces which, as the animal's body bends a little to one side, reveal deep rifts of a rich reddish- yellow, like the color of California gold ; but they are not so hardy generally- A ram should be sought that has a short and broad head, and powerful jaws, the lower one spread well apart. Between the lower jaws and under the tongue are the salivary glands, and if the jaws are well spread these glands will be large and afford a good supply of saliva, a very important ingredient in digestion. When the head is long and the jaws lacking in width, these glands will be small and not yield sufficient to carry on diges- tion with a force always assuring the animal's good condition, Opposites to be Mated. — Another important point is to se- FOR WOOL AJs"!) MUTTON". 145 lect none but those that appear full of life, wide awake, with eyes not partly closed, but wide open. An active temperament is always indicated by bright, sparkling eyes and the two set well apart. A ram with the right form and temperament when crossed with ewes unlike himself, will give an increase, carry- ing heavier fleeces than sire or dam. In chemistry it requires two distinct properties to produce the third ; it takes two dis- tinct gases to make a drop of water, and two opposite winds to blow the misty vapor together to form rain drops ; and in gen- eration two opposites are required to produce strong and healthy issue. It looks as though the power that governs the universe 14(5 THE AMEEICAN MEKIXO had a great aversion to perfect sameness, for there are no two things in nature exactly alike ; and few animals of the same family and line of breeding ai-e so near alike as not to be easily distinguished one from the other. And because this is so, it is hard to tell if ever a point could be reached beyond which no improvement could be made. The question of in-and-in breeding often comes up for discus- sion among the best breeders of all kinds of stock. It is fully settled to be safe, to a certain degree, but in all such experi- ments as these, a full knowledge of the traits and qualities pe- culiar to both lines of ancestry must be possessed by the breeder, or serious mistakes will be made. In sheep breeding it rarely occurs that any chance need be taken in this particular. Near relatives may be coupled with better results when there is a sufficient distance existing between, than can those that are too much alike, when there is no relationship existing. Correlation of Wool and Yolk. — It is a common remark of the keepers of stud-flocks, that the rams which scour the most wool shear the heaviest fleeces. This may be set down as the major premise in a favorite line of argument, while the minor premise would be, that the heaviest fleece is what the wool-grower wants. Another common argument is (to use a homely comparison), that yolk is the peculiar sustaining or nourishing element which creates wool, very much as " mother" is the sustainer and nourisher of vinegar. (I shall, in another place, refer more at length to this theory). The essential fallacy of this theory consists in ignoring, or overlooking, the fact that the keeper of the stud-flock seeks one object and the wool-grower another. In the wool-flock a ram is desired in which the oil-follicles are so developed, correla- tively, as to insure the highest possible development of the wool- follicles — but no higher. In the stud-flock a ram is required in \^ hich there is the highest possible activity of the oil-foUicles. because it it is his function to mate with the native, say, of New Mexico, in which there is no development of the oil- follicles at all. The farmer should carefully observe this dis- tinction. Let me illustrate : The famous " Patrick Henry." owned by L. P. Clark, of Vermont, sheared thirty-seven pounds and scoured nine pounds and ten ounces ; that is, his fleece lost in the scouring-tub seventy-four per cent. A ram shorn at Sedalia, Mo., clipped twenty-eight pounds and four ounces, and his fleece, scoured by Walter Brown & Co., of Boston, cleansed FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 147 seven pounds and fourteen ounces, a loss of seveni y-one and sixty-nine hundredths per cent. Another one sheared twenty- eight pounds and fourteen ounces ; scoured seven pounds and fifteen and one-half ounces, a shrinkage of seventy-two and forty hundredths per cent. Now take other rams, shearing a medium-weight fleece, and we find the shrinkage is not so great in percentage. For instance, one shearing twelve pounds and six ounces, in the same lot, showed a percentage of loss of only sixty-one and thirty-six hundredths. Others ran along in the same vicinity. The point I wish to make and to emphasize is, that the heaviest shearers are the heaviest losers. It is a com- mon saying and a truthful one, that it is the extra five bushels of wheat per acre which makes the profit. This principle will not apply to the excessively yolky fleeces, but rather that other one : " The last straw breaks the camel's back." Tiie great Ver- mont ram had to produce eight pounds and twelve ounces of yolk to beat his Missouri competitor one pound and twelve ounces in wool. Such an animal might be, and doubtless was, highly valuable for stud-flock purposes ; but he would not have to the ordinary wool-grower (unless his ewes were exceptionally dry-topped), an increased value at all commensurate with the increased percentage of yolk in his fleece. Of course, this cele- brated ram possessed a peculiar aptitude for the secretion of yolk (though this can be greatly augmented in any Merino by very rich, copious feeding) ; but it is only a truism to assert that yolk is valueless, except in so far as it involves the production of wool. And surely no one could be found to believe that the bushels of rich feed required to produce eight pounds and twelve ounces of yolk, were not worth more than one pound and twelve ounces gain in wool. I do not deny that such a ram is a prize in a stud-flock, but it is only because the monstrous extreme of yolkiness in Vermont is matched against the monstrous extreme of dryness in New Mexico. Management in Summer.— It is best to have a thoroughly experienced workman to shear the rams, and pay him his price, even if it is a dollar a head. There are very few shearers who will give proper attention to shearing closely around the horns. Oftentimes quack shearers will only half shear, in their hurry, because of the inconvenience and labor of getting behind and around the horns. It is only with some effort on the part of the shearer at this point, that the job is completed in a workman- like manner. There are rams that need their horns " slabbed." That is, their horns grow so near their heads, as they circle, as 14:8 THE AMERICAis^ MERIXG to come in contact with the jaw bone, and if not removed often cause death. At shearing-time this should be attended to ; let one man hold, and with a sharp, saw you can soon remove a wedged-shaped piece tbat will answer the requirement. I have always used for this purpose a small tenon-saw, and the same will answer for removing the rudimentary, re-entering horns which sometimes give trouble to wethers. Before the ram is dismissed to the pasture, it is well to give him a very light smearing of tar close around the base of the horns ; the fetor which prevails there is apt to attract flies, and maggots will result. It is surprising how quickly these abom- inable vermin will destroy a powerful ram if he is not promptly taken in hand. They soon invade the ears, and spread and multiply with amazing rapidity, until they invest the whole neck and breast ; a disgusting stench arises ; fever is created, and the wretched creature perishes in agony. Some shepherds fastidiously object to the tar being smeared around the horns. There is no necessity for it if the ram is housed, or kept close to the house where the owner will see him every day through the summer ; but if he is at a distance, it is best to employ the tar. If very lightly put on it will not dam- age any wool which is of value, nor injure the animal's appear- ance ; it is lasting in its effects, so that it will not have to be renewed more than once during the summer, while fish-oil or whale-oil will evaporate in a fortnight. To Prevent Fighting.— The ram must have some company during the summer, and a little bunch of calves or hogs will answer all purposes, if he is kept out of sight and hearing of other sheep. Or he may be placed with a few refuse wethers which it is desired to fatten and sell. In whatever company he is kept, it is best to have him not very distant from the house. There is no other domestic animal so restless and liable to escape, especially as autumn approaches, as the ram, and generally the more valuable he is as a lamb-getter, the more restless and pugnacious he is. • If two or more rams are kept together, they are liable to fight ; first, in the spring when freshly shorn ; second, toward autumn when the coupling season is coming on. "When freshly shorn they sometimes fail to recognize each other, and toward autumn the awakening procreative instinct renders them quar- relsome. At this latter season it is iiUrportant to keep other sheep at a distance. I have had two rams, which had lived peaceably FOR WOOL AXD MUTTOX. 149 "suiiv.^ r^~^ 150 THE AMERICAN MERIXO togeMier all Bummer, become so excited by a flock of lambs that were driven by, that they fell foul of each other and the less vigorous one was well-nigh killed. If they are housed at night, they may be put into a tolerably small apartment ; by keeping thus closely together they do not have room to harm each other, and will soon become sufficiently acquainted so that they can be driven to pasture with but little fear of fighting. Should there be one or more that feel disposed to continue their combativeness, drive them to the barn, pro- cure a piece of leather about seven inches square — an old boot top will answer— then with a sharp knife cut as in figure 13. The upper part of this cap is placed on top of the head, between the horns ; then tie the two points on each side together, around the horns. A little practice will enable one to tit a cap m this manner as nicely as a shoe- maker will fit a boot to the foot. If necessary" the cap can be drawn tight to the nose by making holes, and tying from the si Acs underneath the jaw. mi • -11 ^- 1 J X / J. T'lg. 12.— BLINDER. This cap wiU entirely destroy a front ® view, and at the same time give a side view, enabling the animal to travel about where he chooses. This will stop the fighting ; at least it will so confound the rams that they can not deliver effective battle. How TO Tie a Ram. — During service it Is necessary to keep the ram shut up a greater part of the time, if not constantly. He will get little enough exercise at best, and will generally vent his impatience by butting. I make no particular attempt to curb him, but rather set up some springy boards that he can not damage and let him practice on them. To restrain a ram at all from his natural liberty during his service is a necessary evil, and it should be mitigated every way that is possible. Rams are so restless under confinement, tli;it where a number of them are in one apartment it is necessary to use the greatest care in fastening them, lest one should get loose and hammer another one to death. In the first place, pierce the left horn in front with a gimlet, then insert a three-sixteenth-inch staple and ring. In this ring have a leather loop six inches long, and in this loop insert the snap of a etout dog chain, for if the snap is put directly in the iron ring, the animal will work it out in spite of all precautions. The chain should be provided with a swivel, and the T at the end should be passed through an auger FOR WOOL AXD MUTTON. 151 hole in a board. Thus secured he is generally safe ; but if he is exceptionally restless, it will be found advisable to attach a stout, leather hitching-strap to the ring, and tie him up short. Feeding. — I take it for granted that every progressive shep- herd no longer follows the plan of turning the ram in with the flock, but rather stables him and thereby husbands his powers. Some seek to compromise by turning him into the flock during the daytime, and removing him at night, but this way is very little better than the other. The ram ought to be taken up long enough before his service begins to get the grass bloat out of him, say a week or ten days. He should be accustomed gradu- ally to dry feed, and there is nothing better to assist him in the transit from grass to hay than sweet-corn stalks or pumi> kins. Give liim half a small pumpkin in hie box, flesh side up, and let him scoo;i it out at his leisure ; it will give him exer- cise. Furnish him all he will eat, three times a day, of the best hay on the farm, adding thereto only so much grain as may be necessary to keep him in good stock condition — a trifle lean, if anything, so that he will consume his grain aud pumpkin with relish, and never leave any in his feed-box to get stale. I have given rams wheat, rye, oats, corn and bran, separately and combined, in various ways. Theoretically, the more glutinous grains are better for him, but practically I see no difference ; ac least not when the animal receives a liberal ration of pumpkin. I should hesitate to give so heating a grain as corn to a ram, in large feeds, unless he bad with it plenty of green sweet-corn or grass, or pumpkin. With a generous supply of the latter he will eat two or three ears of corn per day, and yet refuse water for days together. I have settled down practically to corn for a grain ration ; I give one average ear a day before service be- gins, and two during service, varying somewhat according to the size and appetite of the ram. Of corn, oats and bran mixed in equal parts, I should give three times a day what I could con- veniently grasp in one hand. By all means contrive somehow to give the ram some exercise and sunlight in a dry paddock or barnyard. A ram in service requires above all things, muscle — clear muscle, not clogged or dulled with fat. Pumpkin should not be given to a ram after it has once be6n frozen ; it is liable to give him the scours. Neither should it be unripe or rotten, or be given with all the seeds. Small apples or potatoes are also good as a laxative. Management of the Service. — After experimenting con- 152 THE AMERICAN MERINO siderably with different methods, I have adopted the following plan with the breeding flock : I drive them up in the morning as soon as the sun has warmed up the atmosphere and yard them. Then I turn loose amon;; them the most energetic one of the rams, and follow him up leisurely with the crook in hand. As fast as he discovers the ewes which are in season, I catch them and put them into a separate enclosure, until they are all drafted out, or until enough are secured for the day's operations. Then I dismiss the flock for the remainder of the day. It only remains now to sort them and select those which are best adapted by their individual qualities to the several rams, and turn one at a time into a smaller pen with the appropriate ram. It is best not to allow but a single effective service. I have lately adopted the plan of permitting each ram to cover no more than three ewes per day, with an interval of at least two hours between the services. This eliminates the possibility of any impairment of vigor, and secures strong, healthy lambs. Oftentimes the most valuable ram is slow and clumsy, and in this case the shepherd can save time and avoid trouble by hold- ing the ewe by the neck until she has been effectively served. If the ram's sheath hangs too low it will be necessary to belt him up somewhat tight with a leather surcingle. Sometimes he can be materially assisted by being allowed the benefit of a lit- tle slope in the ground or of a table a few inches high. Cross Rams. — When a very good ram is incurably vicious, his services may still be retained by keeping him constantly chained up and bringing the ewes to him. In this way he can never get the advantage of the shepherd. At other times he can be rendered harmless by the leather cap described on page 150. Constitution is of such transcendent importance in the sheep, that a fighting ram is likely to be exceptionally valuable, and he ought never to be killed for that fault alone. Most cross rams, if not too old, can be subdued by tvv'o or three vigorous kickings in the shoulder ; let the master seize him by the horn and put in the kicks until he has enough. A small hoop-pole, with two feet of the little end slightly twisted to make it pliable, can be applied with good effect about his nose and legs. Mr. E. J. Hiatt quaintly says : "A small mallet or light hammer carefully applied to the head or butt of the horns will satisfy any ram, and we al\s ays allow the ram the privilege of deciding how frequent and how severe the application must be. We are careful not to encourage a quarrel with a ram, but when noth- ing else will satisfy him, the remedy should be promptly ap- FOR WOOL AND MUTTO?^. 153 plied." The keeper of a stud-flock generally has the leisure and the opportunity to make pets of his rams, to train them up gentle from the beginning ; but the ordinary shepherd can sel- dom lind time for this. "Winter Treatment. — Rams usually come from service into winter quarters more or less reduced in vitality, and require careful treatment during the winter. The grain ration given during service should not be discontinued for some time ; the ram should be placed in a clean, warm apartment, freshly lit- tered every few days ; and be allowed to have his liberty for a few houi's every other day or so, though he may be tied up very short all the rest of the time without injury. It is well to keep him blanketed until spring. A suitable blanket may be made of gunny-cloth or stout muslin, by cutting it to cover the body only, with loops of strings at the corners through which to pass the legs. One Ram, or More. — It is undeniable that greater uniformity can be secured by the use of a single ram ; and when he is of known and tested power, he can be depended on to do an as- tonishing amount of work without injury, if his vigor is pro- perly husbanded. The noted ram, "Fortune," owned by Mr. Solomon W. Jewett, of Vermont, used to get about two hun- dred lambs every year. Mr. Paris Gibson states that he had a ram which served three hundred and twenty ewes in one sea- son, getting three hundred and fifty lambs, then slieared twenty- six pounds of wool, and the following season made an equally good record. Dr. Randall states that the " Old Robinson Ram " was believed to have gotten over three thousand lambs in his life of thirteen or fourteen years. I said above that greater uniformity could be secured by the use of one ram than by the use of several. This would probably be the case in respect of the form of the lambs, but it might be fairly questioned whether this result could be expected in re- gard to their fleeces. The question as to the relative influence of the male and female in determining the external and internal characteristics of their progeny, is largely a speculative one and does not profoundly concern the practical shepherd. But uniformity presupposes perfection and precludes progress. If the breeder is satisfied that he has a perfect flock, he will not wish to depart from the standard in any respect. But I never saw a flock, even of registered full-breeds, which did not ex- hibit much variability. And indeed improvement is impossible 154 THE AMERICAN MERINO in any flock which does not. It is only by selecting those in- dividuals which vary in a useful or promising direction, and repeating the process as often as we discern a departure toward betterment, that we can elevate the standard of the breed. And the larger the flock, the greater will be the number of promising variations, the wider will be our range of seleciion, and the more rapid will be our progress. Marshall, as quoted by Darwin, used to say of the sheep of Yorkshire : *' As they generaUy be- long to poor people, and are mostly in small lots, they never can be improved." If, then, the size of the flock wfll at all justify the expense, it is well to have two, three or more rams ; and the most obvious difference between them would be that one should be somewhat yolky, to serve the too dry-topped ewes, and the other the reverse. I have never seen but one flock approaching so nearly to absolute uniformity in body and fleece that two rams could not be employed upon it to advantage, and that was owned by Mr, Columbus Cheadle, of Morgan County, Ohio, — the work of a life-time. "Stubbling," Blacking, Etc. — As a general principle, the owner of a sheep may legitimately do anything to improve its appearance, which will not injure its health or procreative powers ; but, if questioned by the novice for honest informa- tion, he should honestly give it. To shear a sheep with a " stubble '' all over the body is wrong, even if it is so stated to the buyer or to the committee of a fair, because it is then impossible to tell accurately what the length of fiber would have been if shorn with ordinary closeness. This is a gross and clumsy fraud. But to " stubble" the cap— which is an almost universal practice with breeders now— to improve the appearance of the head, is legitimate, if so stated upon interrogation. The practice of dressing the fleece with lampblack has been abandoned by most breeders, even by the dishonest. It made .the fleece too black! But burnt umber is very often rubbed sparingly on the hips, the breast, legs and chin, where the wool has become frayed and whitened by rubbing, by dew or rain on the grass, or by lying down. The umber uniting with the natural yolk of the fleece, gives it a color true to nature. There is no objection to this practice that I am aware of ; but if the inexperienced wool-grower asks in regard to it, a frank explan- ation ought to be given. The application of linseed oil, merely to add weight to tlie fleece, is a contemptible fraud. FOR WOOL AND MUTTOX. 155 It is legitimate for the breeder to put a light blanket of sheet- in.<4- or gunny-cloth on a sheep during the summer, simply to render the exterior of the fleece mellow, moist and smooth to the touch. But he must take care not to over-do the matter. If it is left on more than a day or two in hot weather, the sheep may perspire freely, and the fleece will then become a muck of macerated yolk, odious to the touch, and requiring long treatment to restore it to a lively, elastic condition. The sheep's health will also be injured. CHAPTER XVI. THE BREEDING FLOCK. Selection of Breeding Ewes.— A great many of the char- acteristics of a good ram should also be sought in the ewe. The most obvious point of difference, of course, is determined and accentuated by the sexual functions. We seek in a ram a mas- sive and powerful front, thick fore-quarters, a cluster of volu- minous folds about the neck ; but the ewe should be, if anything, heavier in the hind quarters, because these are compelled to carry the burdens and resist the strain of the great processes of reproduction and lactation. Many excellent practical breeders seek what they denominate a '* pony sheep," but I have seldom attained the best results with short-legged ewes. It is seldom that the highest beauty of form is found united to superior breeding qualities — unless, indeed, long practical training has taught us to regard as the most comely, that figure which is found to be the best adapted to successfully sustain the arduous labors of maternity. I have succeeded best with moderately large, strong, rangy ewes ; of a figure typified — to use a homely comparison — by a wedge ; with an even taper from the shoulders back to the hind-quarters. A ram in full fleece should have an almost per- pendicular drop from the rump to the ground ; be thick through the heart ; with a girth just back of the shoulders about equal to that just in front of the hind-legs. But in the ewe, there may be tolerated a slight departure from the perpendicular, caused by a little less fullness in the ham ; while the rear girth 156 THE AMERICA!!^ MERIKO should be from an eight to a sixth greater than the forward. In the best sucklers, especially when somewhat advanced in years, there ir a deep, pendulous fold along the median line of the belly, terminating in the udder — an indication of a generous anatomy and a generous milker. Mr. E. J. Hiatt's ''Old Sue," which at the age of fifteen had shorn two hundred and seventeen and three-quarter pounds of wool, and reared sixteen lambs, had a notable development of the posterior half of the body, conjoined with plainness (both technical and actual), as she was totally destitute of ' ' style. " It is true of sheep, as of all other anmials, that those of me- dium size are almost invariably the surest and safest perpetu- ators of their race. Hence a small ewe should be avoided no less than an over-sized one. Points in Which the Ewe Prevails. — As a general rule, the ewe gives the size and the ram the form ; and it is this fact which to so great an extent diminishes the danger which would otherwise be incurred by the couphng of a Merino ewe with a large English ram. This law of self-preservation, prevailing in every species, which gives the ewe the molding of the size, rele- gates to the ram more or less the shaping of other character- istics. So prepotent is the ram in this respect that, if a Merino ewe is impregnated for the first time by an English ram, the the chances are that some of her subsequent lambs will bear traces of his blood. We are often asked why, in the increase of some years, one sex predominates. It is held by some to be a universal law that exists in all the different races of animals, that the natural tendency of the male is to produce the female, while the ten- dency of the female is to produce the male. The party in which the life principle is the strongest at the time of conception pre- dominates. If it be the male, the issue will be a female, and if it be the female, the issue will be a male. Young rams kept in a thriving condition and bred to old ewes in low condition, will be sure to leave more ewe than ram lambs. A knowledge of this fact may sometimes be turned to advantage. Best Time for Drafting.— Two-year-old ewes, which have never yet borne lambs, at shearing-time, of course, can be marked only with reference to their fleeces and their size. But ewes which have been tested ought never to be allowed to go until the coupling season is at hand before the mark of con- demnation is afiSxed— if it is required. At lambing-time the FOR WOOL AXD MUTTOJs^. 157 shepherd ought to have his stamping apparatus constantly- ready, and if a ewe is found to have an incurably deformed teat, or disowns the second lamb in succession (one season of disowning should not condemn her), or yeans a little trifling lamb, or in any other way gives proof of her unfitness as a breeder, the mark of dismissal should be promptly set upon her. In all other respects her record ought to be made up at shear- ing-time, because in the fall the wool will be grown long, and, if the farmer is not guided in his selection by indelible marks, or by a book record, he is apt to choose amiss. If the farmer is tempted, in order to make out a certain num- ber of breeders, to admit into the flock a small or unsightly ewe, he ought to bear in mind that ten good lambs are better than fifteen, of which five are inferior ; and that an ungainly lamb or ewe is almost certain to come conspicuously to the front when the flock is on exhibition. The rearing of a Iamb destroys for a long time the ewe's beauty of foi'm and compact- ness, and makes her of second-rate mutton quality ; and if fat- tened in the latter part of the season, she comes into a poor market and one which only good wethers will fill, principally for feeding. But if drafted now and thrown in witb the flock of wethers she will by next season, after running farrow, regain somewhat her beauty of form, and also take on flesh in the early part of the season, thus enabling her to be turned ofi" immedi- ately after shearing. Again, the owner Avill not be so much the loser, as she will somewhat make up in wool for her Ip.ck in not having been bred. Condition at Coupling.— Ewes will produce larger and bet- ter lambs if they are in good plump condition at the time of coupling ; if not in fair condition they should be gaining and be kept improving until coupling, or until they reach the desired condition. They will not breed well when loaded with fat. Those which lost their lambs or failed to conceive are liable to become too fat to be sure breeders ; when this is the case they should be placed on short pasture so as to reduce their weight. The use of valuable ewes is sometimes lost for a year or two by allowing them to become filled with fat ; such ewes are valu- able, their inclination to take on flesh readily is a good point, but requires guarding, that it may not impair their prolificacy, Period of Gestation. —Mr. E. M. Morgan, of Champaign County, *Ohio, in a communication to the Ohio Farmer makes the following statements : ''The first column shows date of 158 THE AMERICAN MERIKO putting ram with ewes, and the second, the date of dropping of first lamb : Nov. 10, 1874 April 16, 1875 Oct. 25, 1875 March 2-i, 1876 Oct. 17, 1876 March 12, 1877 Oct. 12,1877 March 8,1878 Oct. 21, 1878 March 16, 1879 Nov. 3,1879 April 2,1880 Oct.. 15, 1880 March 16, 1881 On October 31, 1878, the ram was put with the ewes in the barn and served three within half an hour, which were caught and marked. On the 16th of March following, the first lamb was dropped by one of these ewes, the second on the 22d, and the third on the 27th of March, making a variation of eleven days in the time between first and last. These three lambs were all ewes. This seems to disprove the theory that an animal will go longer with male than with female progeny. Taking the average time of all our ewes, we find it to be one hundred and forty-nine days, for the seven years we have kept record." Time of Lambing. — It is important for the farmer to be well assured in his own mind whether his circumstances favor early or late lambing. Latitude has much to do in deciding this ques- tion ; likewise the size of the breeding flock, and the convenience and comfort of the sheep house, or the contraiy. I have stead- fastly advocated lambing on grass, because here in Southern Ohio, and with one hundred and fifty or one hundred and seventy-five evi^es in the flock, it is undoubtedly the wisest policy. In a higher latitude and with a smaller flock, the case would probably be different. We know that sheep, as well as others of the mammals, are not as good milkers in hot climates as they are in cooler ones. The excess of heat interferes with the lactific functions and curtails the secretion of milk. My belief is that when a ewe does not yean until the strong heat of summer sets in, say along toward the middle or last of May, her usefulness as a suckler is seriously impaired. It is different with . her from what it is with a cow. The ewe still bears the thick, warm fleece which was intended as a protection against the rigor of winter ; consequently the heat operates on her with a m.uch greater and more prostrating power than it does upon the cow. As a corollary to this proposition, it follows neces- sarily that suckling ewes should be shorn before the weather becomes hot. If they are left with their fleeces on, the accum- ulation of heat dries up their milk. FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTOT^. 159 Feeding for Milk. — Ewas that are to bear lambs very early must be fed for milk as much as a dairy cow. The feed must be of a character that will produce the greatest quantity of milk. This can be secured by providing plenty of clover, millet or fodder. Some very good shepherds recommend wetting these and mixing with ground feed. The finer feed can be made, the better for any stock ; but wetting is unnecessary, if only an abundance of water is provided. The more feed can be masticated and insalivated, the better, and wetting hinders this. But the water should be kept at a temperature not much below sixty degrees, to induce pregnant animals to drink freely. May Lambs. — I have found among old shepherds a prejudice against "May lambs ; " and this prejudice is founded principally on the belief that the burning sun of our inland American summer " stunts or wilts " the lambs. There is no denying that a May or June lamb, though it generally shoots up for a few weeks with a rapid growth, does become stunted later on and gets into a decidedly poor condition before weaning time, un- less the ewe is an exceptionally good milker, or the lamb has a ration of grain through the summer. It should always be borne in mind that the ewe is not, like the cow, an all-tlie-year-round milker ; the ewe's lactific activity is exceptional, and though very often, especially on grass, of considerable force for a time, it quickly ceases. Hence it is of great importance to bring the lamb along early enough and so rapidly that it may be well confirmed in its grass-eating habits, and may have acquired the additional capacity of stomach, required for this less con- centrated food, while the grass is yet lush, tender and inviting in spring. A lamb does not take to grass so readily if it first begins to eat it in summer after it has become dry and tough. Of course there is no foundation for the belief that the sun " wilts" a late lamb. I never give myself any concern about a May or June lamb, if I am only able to provide nourishment enough for it ; for I have often abundantly proved, by rearing them as cossets about the house, that this suflSciency of aliment was all that was needed. Necessity of Exercise.— The Merino ewe is something like the Texas cow — not the best of mothers. A native of the desert, she still retains in her blood a remnant of nomadic, oriental wildness. An industrious, insatiable feeder, accustomed to rove widely in search of her living, not tranquil and sedentary like the large-uddered English ewe; like the ostrich, she is apt to 160 THE AMERICAN MERINO abandon her young, to take care of itseK. She needs watching, and needs a certain pressure to be brought to bear upon her too feeble maternal instincts. Extended experience has taught me that a Merino ewe which has a copious flow of milk is seldom failing in duty toward her offspring. The first and paramount duty of the shepherd, there- fore, is to pursue such a preliminary course as will best secure this desideratum. A regimen of roots, oil-cake meal, bran, fodder, clover hay, etc., will readily suggest itseK ; but, valu- able as these are, they are not for the Merino ewe of the very highest importance. The article which, in my opinion, holds this rank is grass, and (perhaps scarcely secondary in value) the exercise which is necessary to obtain it. There is no other domestic animal which so eagerly craves and industriously searches for a morsel of green feed cropped directly from the surface of the earth. And it is this restless, vagabondizing, gormandizing propensity of the Merino which the shepherd can take advantage of and promote, to the end that he may develop the rather feeble maternal instinct. It is as profoundly and universally true of the lower animals, and especially of the pregnant ewe, as of man, that they ought to work for their hv- ing. Pasturing (that is, a daily run on a sod, whether it furnishes much or next to nothing) means work, and work means health ; while roots mean cold-blooded and watery idleness. There is nothing else which so strengthens the frame and enriches the system with warm, red blood (and, by necessity of the insepar- able relation between them, that of the unborn lamb also), as a frequent ramble over the pasture lot. Even when quite sedentary, the ewe may be made to give milk with tolerable success by judicious feeding on oil-cake meal. Perhaps as good a way as any is to make it into a slop with wheat bran, a tablespoonful of oil-cake to a pint of bian per head ; but unless she has frequent and abundant exercise, the lamb will be weak, and will need close watching if dropped on a frosty night. In the course of my experience, I have had large, rangy grade ewes — and a grade is popularly supposed to be hardier than a full-blood — which had been full fed and warmly housed, drop large, finely formed lambs, which yet were so flaccid and so nerveless that it would be hours before they could stand alone, and that only after the most assiduous attentions of the shepherd, warming them before the fire, rub- bing them with wisps of straw, etc. On the other hand, I have had full-blooded ewes, which had roved nearly all day during FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 161 the winter through a corn stubble, getting next to nothing in it but the exercise, drop lambs on so cold a night that their feet were frozen and deformed ; yet they got up, sucked, and were lively as crickets in the morning, without having received a particle of assistance from the flock-master. The English sheep books abound in directions for the making and administering of cordials, syrups, etc., and for rendering assistance to ewes in labor ; but a few teaspoonfuls of grass- made milk are worth more than all the nostrums ever com- pounded. Neither is it necessary to defer the season of lambing until grass has grown green in April. Rye for Pasture.— In the latitude of Southern Ohio a very considerable growth of rye may often be had for pasture as early as March 15th. An hour's grazing on it per day will have a surprising effect in stimulating the secretion of milk ; indeed, it is best not to allow the ewes to remain on it above a half hour the first day. Rye may be sown for fall pasture as early as August 1st. If the weather should be very favorable there will be danger of its jointing before winter sets in ; this can be pre- vented by keeping it pastured off. The value of the crop is much injured if it is allowed to joint or head out in autamn. The white rye yields the greater amount of grain, but the old-fashioned black rye is hardy, makes a rank growth, and is probably preferable for pasture. It should not be cropped too close in the fall, as its greatest value is in the green herbage which it furnishes for ewes and lambs before grass grows in the spring. On rich limestone soils and in low latitudes, wheat often makes such a strong growth that it will furnish a large amount of grazing for ewes and lambs in March and April ; and there ia a mass of testimony to the effect that such depasturing is beneficial to the wheat itself when it is very forward. Second in value — and on the rich river bottoms of the West, I would assign it the first rank, on account of the tendency of rye to develop ergot on such soils — is an orchard-grass rowen, re- served for this purpose, with its mixture of weather-beaten herbage above with green growth beneath. Acorns. — In my experience I have found that, while acorns are not only innocuous, but fattening to dry flocks, they exert an injurious effect upon ewes and goats in a forward state of pregnancy. If they feed on them for any considerable length of time while in this condition, their young when dropped will be feeble in the legs, unable to stand or walk for several days, 162 THE AMERICAN MERINO and walking in a sort of plantigrade fashion for some time after they do succeed in getting on their feet. Recurrence of Ewes. — When there is for any reason, a failure to conceive, the ewe will be in heat again, if at all, in about two weeks. To make a iDrovision for these I manage the coupling in the following manner : As fast as the ewes are served, I affix a special mark and turn them into another apart- ment, which opens into a small paddock or ram-pasture kept for this purpose. If allowed to go with the flock again, they would in all probability present themselves again the next day, and so tax the ram a second time uselessly. On the following day, when the main flock is brought up, the little band of served ewes will also come to the stable, and, after the business of the day is over and the main flock dismissed, the ewes served the previous day can be allowed to go wit/h them. If the coupling is well managed there ought not to be many ewes that "miss." When the pasture is weak and watery, or short from dry weather, they ought to be grain-fed at the rate of a half bushel of shelled corn daily per hundred, for a week before, and all the while during the service. It is well, when they are brought up in the forenoon to keep them on the sunny side of the building ; the warm rays of the sun have a stimu- lating effect. The ram ought to be allowed ample time to search out all that are in season, for there are always some that are backward and will never approach the ram or give any evidence of being in season. If the ram is indifferent or logy, he ought to be kept tied in the shade between-times. On muggy, sultry days, frequently twice the usual number of ewes will come in heat ; this will demand increased activity, it will tax the ram to the utmost, and sometimes the shepherd will lose ground by not having an extra animal to fall back upon. A sudden change to cold weather is also to be guarded against. A long, cold rain, followed by high winds, hinders the dispatch of business ; the sexual heat is checked ; some ewes may pass their season altogether, and thus two weeks will be lost. They ought by all means to be housed during such weather. The shepherd ought to use all dispatch to push the coupling through in thirty days or less. After winter comes on, if there is a rertmant of ewes not served, they will be in heat no more and they are lost. Besides, it is tedious to have the lambing drag at great length in the spring. " Teasers." — No well-informed shepherd ever resorts to the FOK WOOL AND MUTTON^. 163 " teaser " in these days. It was the clumsy device of an un- practiced age ; an outrage against nature, an imposition on both ewe and ram. Age of Ewes.— Bringing her first lamb at three, the average Merino ewe is entitled to be released from service at seven. It is useless to cite cases — as I might do by the dozen — where ser- vice began younger and continued longer. All rules have their exceptions. As long as the ewe's teeth continue firm and sound, and she stands up stoutly under her burden through the winter, she may be retained in the breeding flock ; but let the shepherd beware lest he should keep her one year too long, and before spring lose both her and the lamb, for then she dies in his debt. A ewe in a flock of ten may bear lambs two or three years longer than one in a flock of one hundred. In flocks of considerable size the crones must be weeded out rigorously, or the flock- master will suffer loss. Fall and Winter Lambs. — " Spring lamb," like *' spring chicken," has its own proper season of the year, and out of this season there will never be any considerable demand for either. In the winter the appetite calls for fat mutton, thick on the rib. But now and then some ambitious farmer dreams anew the dream (which is as old as the appetite for mutton), of growing " spring lamb " the fall before. It is a reversal of the course of nature which never can prosper except in rare instances, under peculiarly favorable circumstances and good management. In a communication to the Ohio Farmer, Mr. E. M. Morgan,- of Champaign Co., O., gives some experience which is so interest- ing, that I quote the greater part of it : *' In the spring of 1882, after washing our sheep, supposing that no evil would result from it, we let the ram run with our breeding ewes (then suckling lambs dropped from March 15 to April 15), until shearing. In the fall, about November 1st, fif- teen or eighteen of these same ewes dropped lambs, the result of letting the ram run with them from washing to shearing time. " When we began feeding for the winter, we fixed a place in one end of the stable so the lambs could enter and the ewes could not, and sprinkled some bran and salt in the trough. Very soon the lambs learned to go there, and in a short time they would run for their pen to get their rations, as greedy as a litter of pigs for a mess of milk. We fed them liberally through the winter and they came out in the spring in fine condition. 164 THE AMEEICAK MERI:N^0 Encouraged by their fine appearance, we turned the ram with our ewes again, on the 9th of May, and will try our luck again with fall lambs. At washing time this spring we washed the lambs, thinking we would shear one or two ; and if thought profitable, would shear the whole lot. The first one sheared clipped a fleece that weighed exactly five pounds. Encouraged by this, we sheared the other twelve, and from the lot got fifty- four pounds of wool, which we sold along with our other wool, at the same price. ******" The ewes came through the winter in fine condition, and when I weaned the lambs they were in much better condition than I ever had ewes when the lambs were weaned in the fall, and sheared an average of seven and eleven-twenty-sixths pounds per fleece. A lot of thirty-two yearhngs, wintered with the ewes, clipped an average of nine and three-sixteenths pounds per head, all nicely washed wool, and all sold at market prices. I would say to those who are prepared to properly care for fall lambs to give it a trial. My sheep are high grade Merinos." There is no gainsaying that a winter lamb, when it is well nourished, will surpass the later comers out of proportion to its gain of time at the start ; and it will keep ahead for two or even three years. One year I had fourteen lambs dropped in Jan- uary by reason of a ram getting into the flock prematurely ; with much labor I saved ten of them. At the age of a year they weighed sixteen and one-half pounds per head more than the April lambs, and clipped about one and one-quarter pound more wool. Judged by the eye alone, they were still nearly as much in advance at the age of two years. Ewes Getting Cast. — Ewes are liable in the spring, when far advanced in pregnancy, to get on a little slope with their backs down-hill, in which condition they are unable to rise. The wool spreads out on the ground and prevents the sheep from rising, when without the fleece it would be able to get on its feet. Cattle will struggle a while, then rest and renew their efforts, and they generally get up ; but sheep get discouraged and abandon all efibrts. In a short time they wiU bloat and die, unless assisted. The shepherd should be on the lookout for castaways when they are in the field ; and he should level all inequalities in the surface of the yard and stable where breeding ewes are confined. FOE WOOL AXD MUTTOi^. 165 CHAPTER XVII. SHEEP-HOUSES AND THEIR APPURTENANCES. It would be easy to fill this volume with plans and sketches of possible sheep-houses, all of which would be theoretically- good. I shall limit myself to such as have been put to the test of actual use and found serviceable. For Breeding Ewes.— The figure herewith presented is that of a building owned by Mr. G. C. Smith, of Washington Co., O. Fig. 13. — SHEEp-nousE of c. c. smith.— ground plan. It is fifty by twenty feet, eighteen feet high to the eaves, cov- ered with a sheet-iron roof, two-sided, with the usual pitch. It is designed to shelter at the most about eighty sheep, and is used mostly for breeding ewes and as a shearing-room and wool-room. Hence the comparatively small allowance of space for hay should not be accepted as a guide for a general purpose sheep-house. The lower story is eight feet high, the second ten. The upper story is divided crosswise into two equal compartments — one for wool and one for hay — with a tight partition between. Hence the hay-mow, as I intimated above, is too small to contain a win- ter's supply for the flock below, a point which it is always desirable to compass in the average sheep-house. To curtail this mow, twenty-five by twenty feet, as little as possible, the owner, instead of throwing a girt across between the plates to prevent spreading, put in dove-tailed braces from the top of the posts down to the joist girts, as in figure 14. Across the wool-room the plates are connected by an iron rod. The floor is tight and smooth, and the sides ceiled in the same fashion. At one corner of the room, at one end of the shearing Fig. 14— BRACE. 166 THE AMEEICAJ^ MERIKO table, there is an elevator and cage large enough to hoist five or six sheep from the lower story to be shorn ; the floor of the elevator to serve as part of the floor of the room. This is worked by weights. The object sought in elevating the sheep to the second story for shearing is two-fold — to avoid all dirt about the shearing table and to have the wool where it is wanted for stor- age, in a perfectly clean place. The wool racks are so constructed that every fleece can be in- spected without one of them being moved. When fifteen or twenty buyers come along during the season and look the clip over, it is liable to become seriously frayed and shredded if heaped in the usual pyramid in the center of the room. (By referring to the chapter on shearing, the reader will learn the construction of these racks). The building is sided and battened perfectly tight. There are no sills ; the posts stand on stones. The floor is of gravel, sev- eral inches higher than the surrounding level, and the siding reaches down within two or three inches of the floor. The bed- ding will be so thick as to reach up against the siding, prevent- ing a cold wind from blowing underneath. Manure can always be removed much more easily when several inches of straw is thrown down in the fall. Five feet above the ground are windows, sliding laterally, with four panes of glass, ten by sixteen inches each. The four doors, one on each end and one on each side midway, are double ; the outer ones battened tight and opening outward ; the inner ones of slats and opening inward. The slats are close enough together to exclude chickens. Thus the building can be ventilated by the slat doors, or all the doors can be closed and a draft be allowed to pass overhead through the windows. The end doors are folding-doors, wide enough to allow the manure wagon to enter. The ground floor can be divided, as desired, into two, three or four compartments, by hay-racks running across the building, each rack with a little gate at the end of it. .A cistern stands midway of one side, the water from the oppo- site roof -slope being carried to it through the building. The cut fig. 13, on the preceding page, shows the ground plan. The second story is lighted by small slat-windows. Hay is hoisted into the second story at one end of the build- ing with a horse-fork. There is a smaller building intended for a stove-room or lying-in hospital, being situated only a few steps from the large one above described. It is about fifteen feet square, per- FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOK. 167 fectly tight, double walls with saw-dust between, divided off by light gates into eight or ten little pens, each lai'ge enough for one ewe and lamb. A stove standing in the center of the floor, well heated up at 9 o'clock at night, keeps the atmosphere suffi- ciently warm through the night to insure the safety of the weakest lamb arriving before six in the morning. A General-Purpose House.— I give below a diagram of one of my own sheep-houses, merely premising that I have em- bodied in the description some changes which subsequent ex- perience taught me would have been imjDrovements to the building. It is forty by forty-five feet, giving (without the racks) eighteen hundred feet of superficial area, which I find sufiicient for a dry flock numbering one hundred and fifty, or for one hundred and twenty-five ewes. I use it principally for the latter. It is composed of a main central frame, twenty by Fig. 15.— GENERAL-PURPOSE HOUSE. forty-five, and two wings or sheds, each ten by forty-five. The main building is seventeen feet high to the eaves ; this gives ten feet storage for hay, and I find by experience that a body of hay twenty by forty -five by ten, will comfortably feed one hundred and fifty sheep once a day for two months. (Hay for the rest of the winter is pitched in from an adjoining barn through a partition.) Hay is thrown down from the loft of the central building into the wings, through chutes constructed something like dormer windows, falling into racks placed as indicated in the engraving (the rows of dots denote the posts of the main structure). At one side is a series of portable pens for ewes and lambs in lambing-time. The wings have not quite so steep a pitch as the 168 THE AMEEICA]N" MEKIXO main building, which is one-third. The elevation of the wings at the outside is only seven feet, which is simply enough to allow a span of horses to pass under comfortably in hauling out manure. There is not a sill in the building ; all the posts stand on stones, which are planted on solid foundations of broken stone, let dow^n into the ground about twenty inches. A sill is useless in a sheep-house ; it is worse than useless, for it is apt to rot and let the building sag down one way or the other. By keeping all sills out, there is afforded a free drive-way all about the building, and out through the side of it wherever it is con- venient to cut a door. I filled up the inside of the building with yellow loam— which packs harder than almost anything else except clay — six inches higher than the surrounding level, to prevent the interior from being flooded in winter. In place of a sUl I set up thin, wide stones on edge inside the siding and leaning against the same, jointed and fitted so as to prevent the earth from toucliing the siding. A corresponding ridge of earth or gravel outside, tamped against the stones and sloping down as a spatter-board for the eaves (though it would be still better to have an eaves-trough) will prevent the earth from pressing the stones out too much against the siding. There are nine windows in the building, arranged to slide laterally, so that the inside can be ventilated in muggy weather, as the siding is very tight. There are five doors, one opening into the grain yard, one into the fodder yard, and three for the Ingress and egress of the manure wagon. They are sliding-* doors, as I consider a swing-door on an out-building a nuisance. A one-and-a-quarter-inch strip of wood is faced with a one-and- a-half-inch bar of iron, three-eighths of an inch thick, which projects one-fourth of an inch above the wooden strip and fur- nishes a guide for the door rollers to travel on. This strip put on with two-inch screws, one every foot, will hold up ten times the weight of a door. The bottom of a door has to be confined with stakes, to prevent the sheep from carrying it away when they rush out in great numbers, hungry for their feed. This building is sided with dressed pine and painted ; the old- fashioned linseed-oil and white-lead paints give me better results in the long run than any of the modern ready-mixed proprietary articles. I had it covered with home-made oak shingles, twenty inches long and laid six inches to the weather. Where the ma- terial is at hand these are better and cheaper than sawn pine shingles. An iron roof is preferable to pine shingles. In one end of the budding, overhead, is the wool-room ; in the other FOR WOOL a:n'd muttoi^. 169 end the corn-room, to which the corn is elevated by horse-power, with rope and pulleys, in two boxes which together fill the wagon-bed. A House for a Small Flock.— Any sheep-house is defective which is not provided with faciUties for securing perfect ventil- ation on the one hand, and on the other, for closing it up tight in severe weather. The Merino is intolerant, above all things, of a foul, reeking atmosphere and dampness underfoot. Inside slat-doors, as in Mr. Smith's sheep-house, are excellent ; another very good arrangement consists of doors hinged on the upper side, so that they can be dropped down during storms accom- panied by wind. So, also, is any sheep-house defective which has no hay-loft, although a mere shed or wind-break may be constructed with- out one. But all hay-lofts should hare a perfectly tight floor. I have seen sheep going around with hay-seed sprouted and the grass growing out of the wool on their backs. A building twenty feet wide will comfortably house two sheep for every foot in length (if not breeding ewes). Thus fifty feet in length would accomodate one hundred sheep. It should have its length running east and west, then it will make a more effective wind-break for the yard attached to it. A rack running centrally the whole length of the building, except four feet at each end, will give feeding-room for all the sheep. This rack may be connected at the top with a tight board hopper that reaches to an opening in the otherwise tight flooring of the hay-loft above. This sheep-house can be divided into as many rooms as the occasion may demand. When the hay is put into the mow some short strips or boards are laid across the opening in the floor to the rack below, and the hay is put in one con- tinuous mow the whole length of the building. After the mow has become settled, just before winter sets in, a hay knife is used to cut a hole three feet wide down to the opening in the floor. The hay thus cut out is flung up on the mow that by this time has settled enough to receive it. The hay is put into this mow through convenient doors in the side of the building made for that purpose, and is given to the sheep by simply pitching it down into the rack. There is no wasting of hay by this means of feeding, and the flock can be fed without having to be turned out of doors into a storm. Grouping op Sheep-Houses. — When farm buildings are closely grouped, if one of them takes fire, all will bum. But it 170 THE AMERICAN MERIKO is better to incur this risk than to compel one's self, by distribu- ting the buildings about over the farm, to travel on a vp^inter's morning a half-mile or a mile in the snow or the storm. Four hundred Merinos can be wintered in perfect health and good condition on three-fourths of an acre, if proper diligence is used in cleaning out the stables and keeping down the ammonia. I make this assertion understandingly, because my experience has demonstrated the entire practicability of so doing. Besides, it is very desirable to secure for every flock on the farm, as great a variety of feed as possible ; hence it is more convenient to mass together the straw, hay, fodder, millet and the various kinds of grain at or near the farm headquarters, than it is to parcel them out in smaller lots in three or four dif- ferent places. It is inexpedient to give one flock all the straw, another all the fodder, etc. ; neither is it convenient to drive i r" * J U U ^d Fi^. 16.— GEOUP OP THREE BUILniNGS. h, House ; p, Pump : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Grain Troughs. . the flocks about in a rotation through sheep-houses, separated by considerable distances, in order to secure this very desirable alternation or variety in feed. I find it best every way to group the stables about headquarters, and then during the summer collect near them all the various feed-stuffs required for their support through the winter. Figure 16 shows a group of buildings in which the grain-yard, open only on the east, is protected from three-fourths of the winds ; it is accessible from all the stables. The troughs should be about eight feet apart, to allow a row of sheep to stand on one side of each, with room enough for others to run along between. To prevent the sheep from jumping into the troughs or over them, which they are extremely likely to do, a row of ^takes must be driven along one side of each trough and two FOR WOOL AKD MUTT0:N". 171 slats nailed to them ; the lower slat is about nine inches above the trough, the upper one about four feet above the ground. This grain-yard will have to be lower than the floor of the three houses, else the water falling into it may run into them. The plan contemplates two fenced yards on the east side of the group — one for the right-hand the other for the left-hand stable. If any considerable amount of orts, stalks aud manure accumulates in these two yards, it will obstruct the drainage of the grain-yard before spring ; and to relieve the latter it will be necessary to run a drain-tile under some one of the three houses, according to the slope of the ground. The flock on the west side of the group can be accomodated by a yard on that side, which will have to be screened from the west and north winds by a high, tight board fence. The doors are so aligned that a manure-wagon can be driven lengthwise through either of the three houses. Doors and Gates. — I have found, in the course of long per- sonal experience in feeding sheep, that a door or gate through which a hundred grown sheep are to rush, eager for their feed of grain, must be so constructed that it can be opened in the quickest possible way. A door swinging out laterally is apt to be obstructed by snow-drifts, ice, orts, manure, etc.; besides which, it is always swinging open in the wind when it is needed to be shut, and vice versa. Then, too, no matter which way it opens, when the time arrives for it to be opened the sheep are very often huddled against it so that it cannot be moved. If swing-doors are used at all, they ought to be folding-doors, care- fully hung in such fashion as to avoid all obstacles. After experimenting with several kinds of doors and gates I have adopted the following : Where the side of the stable is low, I have a sliding-door, eight feet long, hung on rollers and a slide as described earher in the chapter. Where the side of the stable is high enough to admit it, I have a hoist-gate, of the same length, suspended from a pulley overhead with weights enough to balance it. It should be made of very light slats, set close enough together to prevent the sheep from getting their heads between them, as the gate is hoisted. The frame- work or guide on each side, in which the gate plays up and down, must be nicely adjusted and true, and it is well to have small pulleys let into the outer sides of the heel and toe posts, to ob- viate friction. An iron rod fastened to each of the posts, bent upward and provided with a loop in the middle to receive the rope, is the best attachment for hoisting the door. 172 THE AMEEICAN MERINO Where a gate is required in a yard, through which a large flock niust pass quickly several times a day, ic is extremely im- portant to have it so firranged that they can pass through with- out friction. The best gate is a panel of portable fence, twelve feet long and five feet high, made of slats close enough together to exclude the sheeps' heads, light but strong, and put together with clinch-nails. This can be kept closed by some simple fast- enings at each end. When these are loosened the gate is thrown to the ground, and the flock rush pell-mell over it. Feed-Racks. — The purpose of a feed-rack is two-fold : — 1. To keep the feed in. 2. To keep the sheep out. The first and greatest requisite toward the making of a good hay-rack I would formulate thus : Gut hay green. That is to say, if the hay is thoroughly good the sheep will stand quietly and eat it ; but if it is inferior they will continually ran to and fro, pulling out a little here and a little there, chewing the heads off as they run, and dropping the remainder underfoot. With regard to the first point above mentioned, I may say that, so far as my own experience goes, when the hay is bright and sweet, I have found the old-fashioned, slatted box-rack good enough for all practical purposes. And when the hay is not good, no rack, however ingenious, will prevent sheep from wasting more or less feed. I will enumerate some general principles which ought to be observed in the construction of all racks : 1. Portahleness. A rack fastened down anywhere, though it will undoubtedly wear longer, is objectionable. It is inconve- nient to remove manure from beneath it, and it cannot be used to partition off a house into compartments of different sizes and shapes to suit an emergency. There is nothing better for this purpose than a portable rack. 2. A tight floor. Every sheep-house should have the earth for its floor, and if the rack has no floor of its own a great deal of tine feed wfll mold on the ground and be lost. 3. Sufficient elevation. In every flock of considerable size, no matter how well bred, there will be some leggy animals that wiU never be satisfied until they are inside the rack. The rack should be forty inches high. 4 . Separation of hay-rack and grain-trough. Many of the best practical shepherds, with small flocks to care for, by various contrivances unite rack and trough together ; but in my own experience, especially with large flocks, I always found these roil WOOL Ais'D MUTTOK. 173 objectionable. It is almost impossible to prevent troughs so situated from becoming receptacles for dung. In any event, they have to be cleaned out at every feed, else the grain will be mingled with orts, chaff, seed, etc. Out-door troughs collect snow and ice, it is true, but that is all, and they do not require to be cleaned half as often as troughs attached to racks. Never- theless I have figured further on some of these combinations. Racks are single or double ; that is, the sheep reaches through between one set of slats or between two sets. There is no great gain in a rack made double, except that a place is furnished for a feed-trough, which is placed at the bottom of the hay-rack, between the outer and inner sets of slats. In a double rack the sheep is prevented from thrusting its neck full length into the hay and cannot get chaff into its wool. This is unimportant, however, unless sheep are to be shorn immediately at the close of the feeding season ; if they run on pasture a few weeks the chaff will work out of the neck-wool of its own accord. A single rack should be, for lambs, about two feet wide ; for grown sheep, about thirty inches. This width should enable • * • • « * • » « b u Fig. 17.— END VIEW, SINGLE EACK. Fig. 18.— END VIEW, DOUBLE RACK. two sheep, standing on opposite sides, to reach the middle. It may be of any length desired ; fourteen feet is convenient. For lambs it need not be over thirty inches high. There should be about nine inches space between the top-board and the bottom- board ; the slats four inches wide ; the spaces between them eight inches wide for grown sheep, six inches for lambs. This gives each lamb ten inches space to stand in, each grown sheep a foot. All edges should be rounded off to prevent tear- ing of wool. The comer posts, four in number, may be about four inches square. An end view is shown in figure 17. Figure 18 represents the end of a double-rack, or an inside 174 THE AMERTCAIir MERIKO V-shaped rack and an outside perpendicular-sided one. The in< side rack is made of slats nailed on a V-shaped trough which is inverted and nailed down on the floor of the rack. Figure 19 shows a V-shaped rack with a feed-trough at the bottom on each side. The rack-sticks are round ; they are let into the bottom-plank by auger-holes, and into the top-boards the same way. Figure 20 is an end view of another double-rack ; two V-shaped Fig. 19.— SINGLE RACK AND FEED-TUOUGH, Fig. 20. — END VIEW, TWO DOUBLE-KACKS. racks inside of one square one, with a feed-trough at the bottom of each. Cisterns for Sheep-Houses.— The importance of having a supply of water in the winter not below the temperature of fifty degrees is so great, especially for breeding ewes, that nothing will justify the flock-master in neglecting it. To put in and equip a one hundred and fifty-barrel cistern, with all its appurtenances of tin eaves-troughs, spouting, etc., costing twenty-five dollars, or such a matter besides the labor, is one thing. To sink a fifty-barrel cistern, wall it and plaster it one's self, and furnish everything required about it of wood, made by one's own hands, and costing altogether not above six or seven dollars, is another and very different thing. I do not say that every flock-master should attempt to do all this work himself, whatever his circumstances, but if he feels particularly poor, he can do it and keep the money it would cost in his pocket. A cistern seven feet across and six feet deep will contain fifty barrels. But a deep, bottle-shaped cistern is better — say ten feet deep and five feet across. Seventy-five cents will pay for the digging. If the soil is a stiff tenacious clay, or soapstone, the brick wall need not go below the frost line. In most cases, FOR WOOL AN^D MUTTON". 175 however, I should wall it to the bottom ; it is safer, and cheaper in the end. Brickbats, costing half price, will do just as well as whole bricks. One thousand of these, costing two dollars, (equal to five hundred bricks at half price) will lay the wall, A barrel of Louisville cement, two dollars, and two barrels of sand complete the bill. The bricks can be laid in clay mortar ; the cement is only needed for the inside plastering. In the lower portions of the cistern every brick (laid the long way, and the broken end chipped off somewhat square) must be jammed back firmly against the solid earth to resist the pressure of the water. The inner surface of the wall must be kept as even as possible to receive the plastering. Observing the bottle-shape (not the square-shouldered bottle, but the sloping), the builder will begin three or four feet below the surface to draw in his wall slowly, in such fashion as to form a mouth about eighteen inches across at the surface. A wall curving in so gently as this can be laid by any farmer ; a broad, bold arch would require a skilled mason. Bear in mind, the cistern under consideration is only five feet across at bot- tom. To build this kind of a neck, of course, the operator can no longer thrust the bricks back against the solid earth, as he did at the bottom. They must be chipped at the ends to bear firmly against each other, and laid flat, not with a pitch inward as they are when a mason is rounding an arch. Hence the last course at the surface is flat and does not need an iron collar to keep it from falling in. An earthenware elbow must be intro- duced near the top for the reception of the conductor ; also a waste pipe. The space between the solid earth and the brick wall, down to the line where the latter begins to curve in, will have to be puddled with clay or loam. After the brick-work has stood a few days the plastering can be done. One part of cement to two of sand is the rule. The helper will have to be trained to mix it of the right consistency. The idea that it has to be mixed in very small quantities at a time to keep it from setting is erroneous. All that is requisite is to keep the mass wetted and stirred. The top will be finished off with a square box of oak plank, a foot deep. Against this box the earth can be banked up to pro- tect the brick-work from injury by frost, and also afford a foun- dation upon which the pump can be placed. Watering Troughs. — I have tried various ways of watering sheep in the sheep-house, including plain, three-cornered wood- 176 THE AMERICAN MEEIS"© en troughs, old iron sugar kettles, tubs, etc. ; but they all proved unsatisfactory. Sheep are so anxious to get the cleanest, fresh- est water, to drink at the fountain head or next to the spout, that they crowd each other hard ; any appliance has to be made solid to resist pressure, and of such shape and elevation that they cannot get into the water and foul it. All permanent troughs in the stable are open to objec- tion, in that they have to be low enough ^^ _ board cov- to accommodate sheep, and this makes ^^^^^ water-trough. them a constant receptacle for dung. One way of remedying this is a board nailed on slanting, in the fashion shown in figure 21. The board allows the sheep to reach over and drink, and at the same time keeps out the manure tolerably well. The board cover should be eight inches wide for mature sheep, reaching two inches over the edge of the trough. Wool-Room. — No permanent shearing-room is needed, unless, which is not desirable, it is also used as a wool-room. A shear- ing-table can be set up or hinged anywhere against the side of the stable, on trestles about two feet high, though some shearers prefer a table higher than this, while others want a lower one. A table four feet wide will accommodate a shearer for eveiy four feet of its length. After shearing is over this table can be turned back on its hinges and the trestles can be stored away for future use. In the wool-room will be found the press and sheep-hook, already described ; a small grocer's scales with a set of weights, and a light slat frame to be attached to one arm of the balances, for receiving the fleeces ; also a set of wooden letters and paint for marking the sheep ; shears ; toe-shears ; ear-tags ; medical and surgical appliances, etc. A very good table on which to spread and fold fleeces can be made by placing some old doors, or a table-top made for the purpose, on top of a hay-rack standing near the wool-press. Shhaeing-Cards. — To prevent false counting by the shearers, it is well for the farmer to provide himself with a set of shear- ing-cards. Let there be, for instance, fifty marked A, a like number marked B, etc. In the morning each shearer takes all the cards marked with a certain letter. Whenever he deposits a fleece on the table he throws down one of the cards upon it. The cards are taken up by the wool tier, or overseer, and at night they indicate the number of sheep shorn by each man. FOK WOOL AND MUTTOK. 177 A Shearer's Table. — While it is not the purpose or province of this work to bring into notice proprietary articles of any kind, yet I deem it not amiss to briefly call attention to such labor-savin;^ inventions as are of undoubted utility to the flock- master. Such, for instance, is a "Self-adjusting Shearer's Table," of which it is said : " It holds a sheep in any desired position, so that the shearer stands on boLh feet and has the use of both hands, and the wool when shorn is never ' kicked ' or torn and is in the best possible condition for the wool box. The invention was made by a Mr. Addison, of Ohio. It is adjusted in a moment to any sized sheep, and the position of the sheep is changed by touching a spring. It will be specially ' the thing' for shearing the wrinkly, heavy-fleeced Merino, as the sheep is held in an easy position and the shearing quickly performed." I never saw this particular device, but have witnessed the oper- ations of one very similar. It consisted of a wooden bowl, in which the sheep was placed on its buttock and strapped to a light frame-work standing up at the proper angle for the sheep to rest in while bein-? shorn. CHAPTER XVIII. WINTER MANAGEMENT. Yarding. — Perhaps the most vigorous and piquant defense of the loose-ranging system of wintering sheep, that has come to my notice, was one contributed to the Ohio Farmer by Mr. Simon Smith, of Harrison Co., Ohio, the owner of a flock of one hundred and fifty pure At wood Merinos. He says : '* The reason I don't house my sheep is because they must have exercise at will to keep them healthy, and must be exposed, not abused, to make the wool grow long. I do not grain them, because grain, if properly- fed, makes tlie fat too solid (except to butcher) for stock sheep. It also produces grease or gum in the fleece, which (especially if housed) excludes the air from the roots of the fibers, which tends to shorten the staple. Some think grain-fed sheep pro- duce more wool, when, in fact, four-fifths of the gain is grease. Sheep that are grained and housed will not hve out half their days. What I consider abuse is to confine them to filthy pas- 178 THE AMERICAN MERIKO tures or force them to stand in a bleak wind, or impatiently to bleat at au empty rack, or gnaw the bottom of the salt box. I forgot to say that a sheep with a wrinkly, greasy or gummy coat cannot stand inclement weather." In another place he says : *' Experience has taught me that sheep will spread their own manure, trim their own tails, pro- vide their own blankets and make their own prognostications of the weather, if managed in accordance with nature." It is undoubtedly true that small flocks, even of full- blood Merinos, if kept on a tough sod, with bushes and bitter browse, and clumps of trees for a wind-break, with a moderate daily feed of corn, either shelled or broken one ear across another, will take the storms of winter with impunity and come through thriving, with red noses, long, clean wool, and healthy systems which will not scour a particle when the grass grows green in the spring. But with larger flocks, where the feeding of hay or fodder is necessary, the objection to the ranging system is that the sheep do not of their own accord regulate the matter of ex- ercise judiciously. On a warm day they will rove all day, and on a cold day not at all. If the fodder is thrown out to them in an open field they will wander about the field, coming to it three or four times a day and browsing a little while, then they are off again. On a veiy cold day they will stand in the lee of the shed or of the fence— if nothing better offers— and lose a great deal of time when they would be eating if the feed were close at hand, and in a place not exposed to the wind. The sheep is very irresolute about breaking away from a warm shel- tered place and setting out in search of feed. On an excessively cold day the sheep cannot be forced to take exercise, unless they are driven to water or something of that sort ; and it is not worth while to attempt it, especially if there has been a sudden change from mild weather, for they will seldem drink the first day after such a change, even if water is offered them in the shed. The summing up of the whole matter, therefore, is this : It is best to keep sheep in a yard sheltered by their shed, with a warm southern exposure. Let them have their regular time for exercise as much as for their grain ration or their hay. If snow continues on the ground a long time, so that they have no inducement to take exercise in search of grass, turn them into a corn-stubble from which the fodder has been hauled out and ricked. They will rove up and down in this and pick a large amount of " thimbles " from the stubs, no matter how weather- FOR WOOL Ais^D MUTTOis". 179 beaten they may be, which they would not eat if given to them in the yard. A sheep is grateful for the privilege of picking up a portion of his living in his own way, nibbling about in all kinds of hidden nooks with his nimble prehensile lips ; and even after they have picked the stubs over twenty times, it will pay to turn them in again simply for the sake of the exercise. The great use of the system of yarding is that it allows the master to regulate the time and amount of exercise, and also secures more effectual alimentation. Winter Care of Lambs. — From autumn to winter, from grass to hay (which probably the young animal has never seen be- fore), the transition must be somewhat shaded off. I think it advisable to remove lambs from the pasture early enough (de- pending on the season) to leave some green feed in the field for them to be returned to a few hours a day for a week or a fort- night. It is far better to take them up in this way than to wait until a snow-storm has covered the grass beyond reach, for then the commencement of housing will be so abrupt as to be likely to produce colic or stretches. Turn them out in the morning, for a few minutes' airing, and sprinkle in their racks a little of the greenest, most aromatic hay at command. I like it as green as English breakfast tea for lambs. When turned back, they will eat the greater portion of it before noon, and then they may be driven afield for a few liours. Many writers argue that Indian coxn is too heating for sheep, and especially for lambs, asserting that it causes loss of wool, "pot disease," etc. It is undoubtedly too oily and heating a grain to be given in unlimited quantities to young sheep for months together. In regard to corn as a feed for mature fatten- ing flocks, I shall have more to say elsewhere ; in this place I shall only give my experience w4th lambs. Until about Janu- ary first I feed bran, oats and corn— two parts bran, one of oats, one of corn— all they will eat. Oats are a very unsatisfactory crop on our river bottoms, and about the time above mentioned we generally use up our small harvest of them. I soon take out the bran, also, and for the remainder of the season carry the flock through on corn alone — about three or four gallons a day to one hundred lambs. I do this, first, because corn is our one great staple, and, second, because, after many experiments, I have satisfied myself that it is a thoroughly good feed for lambs. I do not wish to be understood as asserting that com is better than other grains, or so good as oats. What I would say is that, where the farmer can grow corn to better advantage 180 THE AMEEICAN MEEIXO than oats, and cannot exchange it conveniently, he can safely give it to lambs in about the quantities above indicated, without fearing any evil results at all, if he will observe the following precautions : Use the white corn (the yellow is better for hogs, being more oily), give the lambs constant access to salt and all they will drink of temperate water, and let them have two or three hours' exercise daily. Grain-Feed at Night. — It is not a good practice to give sheep grain early in the morning, unless they sleep out of doors and have an opportunity to get up and stir around briskly awhile before feeding. In a flock of sheep there will always be some that resemble certain persons — destitute of appetite in the morn- ing. If the grain ration is given out then they v\^ill not come at all, or so listlessly that they will not get a fair ]3roportion, and they will lose condition. I have found that in a flock of one hundred and fifty lambs, ten or twelve would scarcely touch grain in the morning, out at night not one would stand back. Watering Sheep in Winter. — I can hardly lay too much stress on the importance of looking well to the matter of w^ater- ing sheep in winter. " You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink." This adage would hardly be true of the sheep. It will drink after awhile. When a sheep comes out of the stable a trifle chilly, with its blood stagnant after twenty-four hours, quiet, it feels touchy, and it will sniff and sample here and there in a way which is aggravating to the shex)herd who is waiting on its motions. It may be fifteen minutes before it can suit itself. It may utterly refuse to drink, whereas, if it could go off and take a run of an hour or so, it would return and drink a surprising quantity. If that sheep had been hastily shut up by an impatient shepherd, it would have suffered before twenty-four hours elapsed, and would not have eaten as freely as it ought, and consequently would have begun to lose condition. Hence, the belief of so many flock- masters, that sheep " do not want water only about every other day." Chilly and slow-blooded as they are, from inaction, they cannot force themselves to swallow the ice-cold water oftener than that ; but if it were temperate they would gladly drink every day. Sheep fed freely on roots do not require so much water. Feed-Troughs. — The old-fashioned Y-shaped grain-troughs are objectionable because they allow the stronger sheep to thrust the grain along with their noses into heaps, so that they get FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 181 more than the weaker ones, which need it most. All troughs ought to be flat-bottomed. I find the following dimensions very good : Sixteen feet lung, six inches wide, four inches deep. They must stand on blocks or supports about a foot high. I generally set them radiating from the door, like the spokes of a wheel, so that when the lambs run out they do not have to leap over troughs— an operation to which they are very prone at any rate, and one which fouls the troughs in muddy weather. I frequently htter the yard to prevent the same thing from occur- ring. The troughs may be set around the sides of the yard, but this reduces their capacity nearly one half. Sorting for Winter. — Sheep ought always to be divided into flocks, according to age, strength, sex, etc. Ewes should be by themselves, also the lambs, then the dry flocks may be parcelled out as y earlings, two-year-olds, etc. , though the weaker ones in each lot should drop back one year, A weakish yearling is as difficult to winter, requires as much care as a lamb, and should be thrown into the lamb flock. Last of all is what may be de- nominated the poor-house — a flock consisting of toothless old crones, inferior lambs, yearlings and others, which the flock- master had neglected to dispose of in the fall, and he must punish himself for this omission by nursing and coddling tUe flock of inferiors more carefully than the others. An inferior sheep in a large flock has a poor chance, indeed. It ought to receive more than the average ration, whereac it receives less. A sheep is a timid and defenseless animal at best, and when cowed by a few hard knocks from the masters of the flock, it presently stands back and goes off into a corner to die. Temporary Shelters. — A straw-shed, well built, is a good protection ; but poorly built, it is an utter nuisance. In a long rain the water percolates down through it and falls in drops on the backs of the sheep, staining the fleeces a patchy, clouded straw-color. It will continue to drip twenty-four hours, or longer, after the rain has ceased, and here and there a sheep will get wetter than it would have done in the storm itself. The bedding or bottom also becomes saturated, ferments and gives off ammonia, poisoning the air, and the wretched sheep, with stained icicles hanging from its wool, reeks with steam when it rises in the morning or perhaps tears out a lock of waol which was frozen to the ground, while the baneful ammoniacal exha- lation is laying the foundation for disease and a cotted fleece in the spring. If a straw roof is built not over eight or ten feet 18'^ THE AMERICAK MERIXO wide and so high that the straw will be ten or twelve feet deep above it when fully settled, it will afford passable protection. A back or wind-break may be made by stacking the straw partly on the ground (though this is apt to settle unevenly and lean), or by constructing a barricade of rails and stakes with straw stuffed between. A temporary shed-roof may be built of boards, with a straw barricade or bundles of fodder standing on end for siding ; al- most any shelter which will exclude the snow will answer in the dry cold of winter ; but when a long rain comes on, or the frost is coming out of the ground in the spring (the time of year when the system of the sheep is most likely to break down un- der the debilitating approach of warm weather, and when it most needs a dry bottom to sleep on and a wholesome atmos- phere), these cheap roofs are apt to prove a failure, and leave the sheep in a miserable mud-hole. I speak from experience. The sheep had better sleep on a dry sodded mound without a straw overhead than to find themselves, at the break-up in March, left in a slum of manure and water. During the spring thaws there are days when not even the sight of growing grass would tempt the well-fed sheep, chewing its cad in a well-lit- tered house, high and dry on an artificial mound, with an atmosphere clean and sweet, to step out into the bottomless mud. It is in the saving of sheep in March that the shepherd reaps his reward for the building of the more expensive perma- nent structure. The Gain of Housing.— It is one of the most prevalent and persistent errors of the farmer, that sheep need housing less than any other domestic animal because they have a better natural covering. We are told by these disbelievers that sheep will stand quietly for hours in a rain when by moving ten feet they could get under cover. There are generally two reasons for this fact. First : The house is so foul with ammonia (though the flock-master, whose nostrils are several feet above the floor, may not perceive it) that they will suffer before they will enter it. Second : Unless the rain is violent, it takes it some time to penetrate to the skin of the animals and cause them inconveni- ence. An animal bearing a pelage of short thin hairs, though it experiences discomfort from the falling drops sooner than one which has a dense coat, is really better prepared to resist the hardships of outdoor, life than the other, for the reason that the water dries off sooner. In large cities the best horsemen FOR WOOL X^D MUTTON". 1S3 have little machies for clipping horses ; and in the fall when their coat has grown thick and furry, they shear it off close to the hide. If a horse is driven hard and has a thick mass of hair on him to become saturated with perspiration, he is much more likely to take cold when put in tie stall than if he had a shorter coat, which would dry out sooner. While the sheep is not so hardy as it was in its primeval state, it is compelled, if allowed to remain out during the storms, to carry a burden of wet wool, five times as heavy as it would have had to carry when wild, and which is five times as long in dry- ing out. The cow or the horse, though degenerated from its ancestors in point of hardiness, has no greater coat of hair to carry about wet than they had. Therefore, I argue, the sheep needs shelter more than any other of the domesticated animals, and that for the very reason which some urge in excuse of their negligence in providing shelter — because it has a heavier coat to carry. A fleece weighing five pounds will, when on the sheep's back, probably hold ten pounds of water without dripping per- ceptibly. A man with a heavy ulster overcoat on might for the first half hour be almost oblivious to the fact that rain \^ as fall- ing on him ; but after he was wet through to the skin, if he was obliged to stand still, it is quite possible that he would, for the next twelve hours, rather have the overcoat off than on. The more a sheep becomes loaded down with water, the less it is in- clined to stir about and take the exercise which is needed to dry its coat and warm its blood. In our capricious American cli- mate a soaking rain is generally followed soon after by brisk winds and colder temperature. Every tyro in chemistry knows that the act of evaporation withdraws latent heat ; thrust the wet hand out of the window and it will grow cold faster and freeze much quicker than it would if dry. Cold is an enemy of life, and chills are always a loss. As Colonel F. D. Curtis forcibly says (in a communication to the Country Gentleman) : " It costs blood to fight chilli, and it takes food to make the blood, which is the current of life and bears with it heat, action and growth." External chills drive the blood in upon the viscera and produce congestion in greater or less degree, pneumonia, fever, colds in the head, etc. The farmer who suffers his sheep to get a wetting every few days through the winter, wonders why they are snufQing so much, with their nostrils constantly plugged up with disgusting accu- mulations of dried nmcus. He smears tar over their noses ; he holds them between his knees, pulls their tongues well out and 184 THE AMERICAN MERIKO thrusts tar far back into their mouths to make sure of their swallowing it ! What they need is not tar on the roots of their tongues, but tar on the roof, dry footing and dry, wholesome atmosphere. They want plenty of warm red blood instead of tar. CoEN-FoDDER FOR Sheep. — If I were feeding cattle and sheep, and were limited to clear fodder and clear timothy bay, I should give the fodder to the sheep and the timothy to the cattle. That is, if the fodder had to be given out without cutting ; and I do not believe it pays to cut the coarse cornstalks of our Western river bottoms, after the first of January, at any rate. There is no operation about the farm in winter which I per- form with more satisfaction than that of giving fodder to my sheep. I have it in ricks about seventy-five feet long, disposed conveniently on two or three sides of the yard, so that it can be thrown over from the rick. After a week or two of practice, a flock of sheep, even yearlings, will pick the coarsest fodder very clean, if it is bright — cleaner than any other stock will. They consume, not only the husks, but the "thimbles" or sheaths, the tassels and a foot or two of the top of the stalk, especially if the weather is a little damp. That is to say, they leave noth- ing which would really pay for the labor of cutting. I have known a snug, tidy farmer winter a small flock of sheep entirely on the leavings which they could gather from the fodder after his cattle were done with it, supplemented by a small ration of grain. I confine my flocks in yards the greater portion of the day, and in a few days the stalks accumulate so as to form a good feeding-bed for cold, dry weather ; though I find it pays well to throw fodder, as well as hay, into slatted racks, in the best of weather. It. is necessary to look sharply after the manner in which the feeding is conducted. The feeder should be required either to move the racks every few days, or, better, to clean out the canes which liave been picked over, every morning before a fresh ration is given. To enable the sheep to pick fodder clean, only a thin layer should be thrown in at one time, just about enough to fill the rack up level with the bottom board ; then they will not pull it out and waste it. After a few hours another thin layer may be given. When wheat straw is given in conjunction with fodder (and I consider a ration of bright fodder with straw, cut before it is too ripe, decidedly preferable to timothy for sheep), the straw FOR WOOL AND MUTTON. 185 orts form a good packing material for the canes. The sheep should not be compelled to eat more than half the bulk of straw- given to them ; the remainder, when thrown out of the racks, is speedily "fulled up" with the canes by the constant tram- pling of the flock, and assists greatly in retaining the liquid manure, which would escape if only the corn-stalks were be- neath. When the sheep are turned out in the spring, a heavy coating of straw is thrown over the yard ; this retains moisture, prevents leaching, and insures the rotting of all the canes, so that they can be hauled out in the fall. In the Atlantic States, where the stalks are smaller than on the rich bottom-lands of the West, the best farmers now gener- ally cut them into lengths of an inch or less, and often steam them and mix with mill-feed. I shall have more to say of this in the chapter on " Feeding for Mutton." Cleaning out the Stables. — During the dry, cold weather of winter, a considerable body of manure may accumulate with- out detriment ; but the risk in this is, that when the thaw and break-up come, which wiU compel the doing of the work speed- ily, the mud is so deep that it is a great abuse, both to team and land, to haul out manure. The flocks will either have to swelter and sicken in the ammonia, or the team will have to be strained to do the work in half a foot or more of mud. Hence, it is best to make a general clearing out just before the winter breaks up, while the ground is frozen or there is snow. The reader will bear with my repeated recurrence to the necessity of the shepherd's knowing with absolute certainty whether there is a hurtful generation of ammonia going on or not. He should not allow a week to pass at any time through the winter without making actual test by the nostrils, at the elevation where the sheep are obliged to carry theirs, as to the condition of the atmosphere which they are compelled to inhale the greater part of their time. After the manure has been removed it is well to sprinkle the ground with lime, also with several inches of bedding as an absorbent of liquid manure and to prevent the manure from adhering to the ground. Making and Saving Manure.— I have my straw stack placed every season as close as possible to my main cluster of sheep yards, generally so close that the straw can be pitched directly from the stack into one of the yards. It is not desirable to let sheep run to the stack. The amount of chaff which lodges in their wool is no serious objection, for it is mostly expelled from 186 THE AMEEICAN^ MERIKO the fleece before shearing time ; but sheep will bore up into the stack at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and they will soon get wholly atop of it, wasting the greater portion. A cluster of fodder ricks is placed on another side or other sides of the yards and given in conjunction with the straw to the dry flocks, for I wish every flock, except the lambs, to re- ceive at least one ration of fodder daily. We make a practice of shutting up our breeding ewes in the house every night, un- less the weather is unusually warm, so they have a ration of hay to lie to. But I never wish to feed fodder or straw inside of a house. In the first place, the straw orts thrown out of the racks serve admirably to pack closer the loose-lying cornstalks and make of them a better bed for the retention of the liquid manure ; and no farmer would think of attempting to manu- facture cornstalks into manure under a roof. In the second place, iDure sheep manure, deposited in winter under cover and daily trodden firm and solid, does not ferment ; or, if the lower strata do, the upper are so dense that no ammonia can rise through them ; and the sheep can and will sleep on such a bed, which is dry and almost dusty on the surface, all winter, with- out injury. But in the house where the hay orts are thrown out and mingle daily with the manure, the latter has to be re- moved two or three times during the winter on account of the fermentation and the escaping ammonia. For these reasons the dry flocks receive all their feed out-of-doors, and at night are left at liberty to sleep in or out of the house, as they choose. In the yard where fodder alone is given, straw is occasionally thrown to compact the bed against the wastage of liquid manure. I would not tolerate hogs in a sheep yard, nor is it necessary. It is remarkable how the constant trampling of even the light- footed sheep will full together and press down a bed of corn- stalks. They crack the flinty outer covering suflS.ciently to allow the urine to penetrate and be absorbed by the spongy pith. The addition of corn (about a bushel to the hundred head), or of oil-cake meal, or shorts to the ration, imparts richness to a manure already richer than anything else on the farm except the droppings in the hen house. From the time the flocks are turned away to grass until October or November these beds are left covered with straw to rot in the rain, during which process they will sink down six inches or more. True, there is a small amount leached out of the beds by the rain, particularly toward fall when they begin to lose their sponginess ; and a water-tight manure-pit placed to receive this drainage would doubtless be a FOR WOOL xiJq^D MUTTON-. 187 good investment. But, as it is, from the yards and houses to- gether we secure about three hundred two-horse wagon loads of valuable manure per year, or somewhere near half a load to the sheep. The manure coming from the houses is hard and tough as old cavendish tobacco, and has to be grubbed uj) with a mattock. Plowed under eight or ten inches deej), this is a powerful stimu- lant to corn, which will show its effects for years afterward. It makes an excellent top-dressing for weak places in the meadows, but it has to be scattered on in winter and exposed to the frosts and rains two or three months, after which a man with a stout dung-fork can fine it without much difficulty. Sheep Losing Wool. — There will often be noticed a sheep whose wool is ragged along the sides, with little locks pulled out and hanging : sometimes long seams showing in the fleece where the wool has wholly parted from the skin on the surface of wrinkles and fallen olf. In searching for the causes of this loss of wool, the shepherd must first assure himself that there are no sharp edges, points, pins or nails about the racks or sides of the stable. Then let him watch the ragged-looking sheep and see if it is not addicted to the vice of "wool-biting." It is thought by many shepherds that this is caused by an eruption and itching of the skin, produced by ammouiacal vapors and the heat of fermentation in the manure. The following facts may be set down as established, respecting the habit of wool-biting : — 1. Young sheep are seldom addicted to it. 2. Sheep on grass never pull out their wool. 3. Sheep fed in winter on laxative feeds, as fodder, roots, bran, etc., are less inclined to the habit than those kept exclu- sively on hay and corn. Sulphur in the salt mitigates, to some extent, its manifestations. Nevertheless, there are some sheep which, whether it is an idiosyncrasy with them, the result of a thin and sensitive skin, or a vice, are so addicted to wool-biting every winter that they ought to be dismissed from the farm. Where wool is seen to peel off from the outer surface of wrinkles, it may be accepted as evidence of chilling having taken place in those wrinkles, almost to the point of freezing. Wrinkles are little else than simple folds or reduplications of the skin ; they are ill supplied with the blood and warmth of the body, and if upon these conditions there supervenes a loss of condition in the autumn preceding, caused by excessive 188 THE AMEEICAK MERIXO rains, slushy herbage, or short, frost-bitten grass, it is not sur- prising that the temperature falls so low in these remote ex- tremities as to destroy the life of the fibers. These, then, are cast off and leave the surface exposed. This is one of the evils attending wrinkly sheep. It can be prevented only by housing^ and blanketing, which, of course, would not be practicable with a large flock. Clouded Fleeces. — It is hardly necessary to say that if an attempt is made to house sheep it ought to be carried out con- sistently, for an animal housed awhile and then turned into the weather will presently look worse than the out-door flock. Most shepherds have probably noticed sheep, the fleeces of which -w-ere white on the neck, perhaps, while on the back they were yellowish, nankeen or saffron, and pasty-looking. Sheep which are more or less deprived of exercise, even though their quarters may be kept clean and the sheep themselves in good health, are liable to have this spotted appearance. It is caused by a lack of vigor in the circulation of the blood, which latter is necessary to cause the proper liquefaction and equal diffusion of the yolky secretion throughout the fleece and to the extremities of the fibers. If the flock is exposed to the rain at aJl, and the fleeces are somewhat open and loose they are apt to part along the back, allowing the water to reach the spinal region sooner than it does any other portion of the frame. The wool fibers on the back are perpendicular and tend to conduct the moisture inward to the skin, while on the rest of the body they are more or less sloping and convey it away. Necessity for Grain. — Some excellent flock-masters keep their sheep, even their breeding ewes, all winter without grain. Others, equally as good, do not begin to give grain until Febru- ary or March. Unless the hay is exceptionally bright and fine, it is better to give a little grain all winter, though less is required in midwinter than at the breaking-up, when the sheep's appe- tite is rendered capricious by the increasing warmth. A little grain throughout the winter gives the sheep heart and thrift ; it win consume its rough feed with less waste. A sheep that has fallen off through the winter, and is suddenly put on a ration of corn in March, is liable to lose its fleece, or a part of it. With the sheep, above all other domestic animals, it is necessary that the farmer should bear a steady hand all the year round. Snow-Eaters. — There will nearly always be some few sheep, especially in a flock of lambs, that have a depraved appetite for FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTON. 389 snow, and will not drink water if snow is obtainable. It is a habit as harmful to the victim of it as that of " wind-sucking " in a horse. I have thought, sometimes, that lambs acquired it from their dread of touching water which was ice-cold, when they were doubled up and shivering with cold themselves. With some sheep it becomes a confirmed habit, continued from year to year, and the observing flock-master will notice that the snow-eaters are the poorest of the flock. The remedy is obvi- ous : Provide an abundance of temperate water and allow am- ple time for every sheep to drink, warming them up beforehand with exercise, if necessary ; and either keep them out of the snow or drive them over it until it is all trodden down and dirty. C H A PTEE XIX. FEEDING FOR MUTTON. Merino Mutton. — We are indebted to our mother-country, England, for a great many moss-grown ideas and prepossessions. and not the least among these is the belief that the coarser and lighter the fleece on the sheep the better the mutton — this, of course, within reasonable limits. This belief has made a lodg- ment in our great Eastern cities, and from them it is passed on, at second or third hand, to our wool-growers in the West. The Merino has never been fairly tested by the mutton-eaters of the world, because it is, in its paramount function, a wool-bearing animal, and is not usually slaughtered for mutton until it has passed its prime. The only fair test would be one instituted between a Merino lamb and a Southdown lamb. For all-winter feeding. Merinos are best ; and wethers better than ewes, as there is a large discount on the latter. For an early winter market, probably heavy coarse-wooled sheep are preferable. The superiority of the fine-wools as feeding sheep in general, consists in this, that if the market for mutton is not brisk during the winter and spring they can be carried over, shorn early and sold as clipped sheep, bringing almost as much, shorn, as they would have commanded in the winter, wool and aU. Merinos as Feeding Sheep.— In the letter referred to below. 190 THE AMEKICAN MERIE^O Mr. Isaac H. Frank, of Lake, Stark County, Ohio, who feed's several hundred sheep every winter, says : "In the first place, what kind of sheep are most profitable for fattening ? Certainly those which bring the highest price in the New York market. Lambs sell always for more than sheep, and prime wethers sell better then ewes. Blood don't make 'much difference if the ani- mal is good size, fat, smooth, desirable wool and trim, but the Southdown stands at the head." I have italicized the words bearing particularly on the subject of breed. Next, I will present an extract from the " Eeport of the Onta- rio (Canada) ^Agricultural College," on a series of feeding experi- ments conducted during the years 1882-3 : " There is a remark- able uniformity in the annual value of wool and mutton from the grades of Cots wold, Leicester, Merino, Oxforddown and Southdown, resulting from differences in weight and value of both products." In a conversation I had, in August, 1884, with Mr. W. M. Conner, yard-master for seven years of the sheep department of the Union Stock Yards of Cincinnati, I asked him : " What is the best mutton-sheep brought to Cincinnati ? " To this he re- plied : " The Southdown." In reply to the question as to what held the second rank, he said : "The Merino." He continued : "I mean mature mutton. For early lambs, of course, the Merino ranks below the Down and the Cotswold. This is not because the mutton is inferior in itself ; Merino mutton, when equally fat, is as good as any in the world — indeed, I am not certain but it is finer-grained than any other — but the point is to get your mutton fat." "You never have Merino lambs brought to market, I pre- sume ? " " Oh, yes, we have, sometimes ; not often. They sell a little under the coarse-wool lambs — not, as I said before, because the mutton is inferior, but because the pelt is smaller and the butcher does not realize as much from the wool." "Then I am to understand you as meaning that the main point of the English breeds is their precocity ; that is, they put so much more flesh and fat on the carcass, and wool on the pelt, at an extreme early age ? Is that it ? " " That is the point. They do their best work the first year of their lives." *' But for mature mutton you admit that the Merino is equal to them ? " FOR WOOL AND MUTTO"N^. 191 "Not equal to the Southdown, but better than anything else, as I said before." " What do you find to be the best feeding sheep ? " " There is nothing better than a bunch of nice Merino wethers for winter feeding. They herd better, in larger flocks ; they hold fat better in the spring. If it were not for the Ohio Meri- nos we would have no mutton at all in the spring in Cincinnati. They come on in the nick of time all along in late winter and early spring, before the Kentucky early lambs begin to come to market." Mr. W. D. Crout, of Wauseon, Fulton County, Ohio, who feeds for market from fifty to one hundred sheep every year, in a letter to the Ohio Farmer, says of Merinos : "I feed dif- ferent classes of sheep almost every winter, and find that no other kind take to feed so kindly and fatten so rapidly, and have habits of quietude equal to them. Neither can I ob- tain so ready a market the last half of the winter, or any time much past the holidays. If I have long-wooled sheep to feed, I invariably turn them off early in the winter, but I believe I have never been fortunate enough to escape having some culls from coarse sheep. Do not understand me that Merinos are entirely free from this, but I do claim that they are less liable." In conversations with me on this subject, Messrs. Miles Stacy, Jacob Dearth and Elvin MiUer, all of Washington County, Ohio, and all of them experienced feeders, have repeatedly stated that for the Baltimore market, for winter corn-fed mutton, they pre- fer good straight Merino grade wethers to those of any other breed. The views of some of the above quoted witnesses may be con- sidered slightly open to criticism as being influenced by local fashions and predilections ; but the testimony of the Canada Agricultural College and the Cincinnati yard-master is entitled to be accepted as entirely impartial. When to Feed. — An all-winter cramming on grain is unprof- itable with any kind of stock, especially with sheep. Equally true is it that to allow any fattening animal (or store animal either, for that matter), to get on the down grade for a single day is a double loss. I have had some experience in feeding Merino wethers for the shambles, and I find that the most prof- itable method to pursue is, when practicable, to keep the flock running on a stiff old sod or meadow rowen (when on rich river bottoms), until well along in February, making, of course, 192 THE ameeica:n" mekiko proper provision of housing in inclement weather, with enough, grain — say, a bushel of shelled corn per hundred a day — to make up for any deficiency in the frozen grass, and keep the flock gaining a little. This plan of preparation operates very much on the same principle that a clover field does on a bunch of hogs through the summer, keeping them loose in the bowels, growing m flesh and fitting them for the six weeks or two months cramming with grain in autumn. Most farmers who carry, through the winter, a bunch of feed- ing sheep, do so with the expectation of selling the wool before grass comes. Hence, I have found that there is an inter- val between the strictly grain fed and the purely gTass fattened flocks, coming in the month of April or May, when sheep will generally sell to best advantage. The wool market has been opened by that time, and yet has not been subjected to the "bear" influences of the regular spring clip coming later. Local manufacturers are about that time beginning to look about briskly for small stocks to start on, not having the capital to hold over a supi^ly of wool through the winter, and not wish- ing to wait for the regular cHp. There is also about this time a sort of interregnum in the beef market. Manner and Material. — As to the manner of feeding and the material given, there are three points of great importance. 1. Sheep should be fed with the utmost regularity. 2. Though fond of variety, and requiring it for an attainment of the best results, feeding sheep resent a sudden change to an unaccustomed feed stuff. 3. Hence, combination of feeds is better than change. Supposing the flock to have been on the range until the 1st or 15th of February, on a ration of a bushel of shelled corn per day, we would now yard them, and set about conducting them up to the regimen on which they are to finish off the fattening process. If accustomed to it, they may be put on corn fodder once a day for a n^onth with great advantage, but after the middle of March, fodder begins to be distasteful, and is not so well relished by any stock. I give one liundred mature sheep twelve to eighteen bundles of fodder dui-ing the forenoon, gen- erally in two feeds in slatted racks. A sprinkle of bright wheat straw or chaff may be given at noon ; at night, all they will eat clean dui'ing the night of clover hay, Hungarian, June grass or Timothy (I name them here in the order of my preference). If it has not been found convenient to let them run on the FOR WOOL AND MUTTOI^. 193 range, the best substitute for it will be fodder and sti-aw, or clover hay and straw ; though it is well to reserve enough clover to give, toward the end of the yarding season, in conjunction with the heavy grain feed, as the best coarse, cooling distender for the heated stomach. A good grain feed for fattening sheep is shelled corn, one- half ; barley or rye, one-quarter ; oats, one-quarter ; but to the majority of farmers perhaps com is the most available feed. I do not think, after many trials, that it is profitable to cmsh grain of any kind for sheep, much less the cob with the corn; the cob being, in my opinion, nOt only useless as a feed, but a positive damage. It is wasteful to throw out corn unhusked, as some Western feeders are accustomed to do. There is too much of the grain to the amount of leaves, and, besides that, I never succeeded in feeding unhusked corn to sheep in any way in wliich they would not, before they managed to get the corn stripped and shelled, waste a good deal of the foliage. Some sheep are a great deal more expert and vigorous than others in husking and shelling the ears and get more than their share. In short, there is every reason for husking corn before it is given to sheep, and none (of any considerable value), in favor of giving it out unhusked. As to oil-cake meal, or cotton-seed, most sheep are not accus- tomed to either before they are penned up to fatten, and they must be broken to them with caution. Sheep are fond of va- riety, but they want that variety to consist of articles to which they are accustomed. If the flock-master's sheep are used to oil meal, by all means let him give them some, perhaps a daily ration of it, during the fattening process. But if not, he must proceed with caution in breaking them to it. Let it be given in very small quantities at first, not over a tablespoonful per head, mixed with four or five times its bulk of wheat bran or some other coarse ground feed to which they are accustomed ; and then let the proportion of oil meal be increased until it forms one-half, three-fourths, or even the entire feed, if they are found to relish the article, which they undoubtedly will. But the limit with this rich feed stuff is easily reached ; it will not do to go beyond a few ounces per head, according to the size of the sheep. If shelled corn alone is given, it can be so dispensed as not to injure the sheep at all, though it requires great watchfulness and good judgment to give fattening sheep all the corn they 194 THE AMERICAN MERIlJfO will eat without doing them serious mischief. If, by a trifling negligence on the part of the feeder, they get a little " off their feed," one or more of them will vomit up com about the shed. From the time the flock is put into the yard to begin the fattening process, it should be nearly or quite a month before the ration of shelled corn is increased up to then- full capacity to consume. An increase of two quarts a day will carry the feed in that time from one bushel up to three per day ; and that is about as much as one hundred Merino wethers can be induced to eat, with an abundance of clover hay. It is best to divide this amount into three feeds, and every feed should be given under the eye of the master himself. If, on account of warm, muggy weather or other reason, the most of the sheep run away from the grain-troughs before the corn is all eaten up, the remainder ought to be at once chased out of the yard and the residue of corn removed, else a few wiU linger and eat too much. The yard ought to be kept well httered ; the heated condition of the sheep and the strong manure getting into the clefts of their feet induce "scald-foot." Once a week all limping ones should be caught, their feet examined, pared clean, and a little finely powdered blue vitriol sprinkled in the cleft. Of course, the judicious flock-master will supply plenty of water ; and constant access to salt, in which one-tenth or one-twelfth of copperas has been mixed, is beneficial. As soon as the grass is sufliciently grown to carry stock — from April 5th to 12th, according to latitude — the flock may be turned on it, after being tagged, and the grain ration reduced to a bushel per day. But they ought still to be yarded every night, and a little very tempting hay sprinkled in the racks and brined (all other salt being withheld). If they are not, by this means, or some other, induced to eat a little hay, the grass makes their teeth sore, aud they wiU not eat the grain as they should. Methods of a Noted Feeder.— Mr. J. H. Frank, already mentioned, feeds for market from five hundred to one thou- sand sheep yearly. His bam (fig. 22) is one hundred and forty by forty-five feet without the wing — has no fioor except the tamped clay ; the sides consist mostly of doors, so that it can be en- tered with teams at any place, for the storing of grain or hay, or the removal of manure. It is used in summer as a barrack for grain ; this being threshed out early in the fall, leaves the FOR WOOL AN"D MUTTOK- 195 space ready for the sheep when winter approaches. I copy (and partly condense) Mr, Frank's account in the Ohio Farmer : " The pens are formed by the racks and a double line of fence (the latter making the feeding aisle) ; all these are removed in the spring when the manure is hauled out. They are stored in shelter during the summer until after threshing, when they are replaced ready for sheep. At the south end of the barn on either side of the aisle we place half -racks, D, D, figure 23, and ten feet farther up, a rack, B, fifteen feet long, with one end against the fence at the aisle, which leaves a passage for the sheep to pass over to the other side. Then ten feet farther up we place another rack, B, which extends from the side of the bam to the tank, making a pen twenty feet square. Then on each side of the aisle the same arrangement of racks is con- tinued until we have the barn partitioned off into eight pens — four on each side. At the north end of the barn we put our Fig. 22.— MR. FRANK'S SHEEP BASS, hay, and as fast as it is fed we fill up the space with pens, so that by spring we have more pens. An empty space is left, however, between the hay and pens for throwing down hay, driving in sheep, etc. The racks are so made, that they are used both for feeding hay and grain, as shown in figure 24. H, shows trough for feeding grain, and K the hay-rack. It can be closed, as shown in figure 25, for sweeping and putting in grain, as the wings keep the sheep away until the grain is evenly scattered in the trough, when the wings are turned and all the sheej) come up at once'. These are by far the most con- venient) sheep racks that have come under our notice, and I doubt whether there is another rack near its equal for cleanli- ness, convenience and saving of both hay and grain. " Now we do not wish to be understood as indicating that it requires a bam and racks just like ours to make a success of feeding, but we think ours are excellent, and if the genius o^ 196 THE AMEKICAIS' MERIXO the feeder can find a better way or method, we would be pleased enough to foUow his plan. " We take it is an undisputable fact that whatever adds to the comfort of the sheep, will add to the profit of the feeder. The sheep must be kept quiet. No dogs, cattle or boys should be allowed to chase or worry them, so that they can eat and lie 1 al TTIl "re DING Arsi ^ Fig. 23. — GROUND PLAIT OF MK. FKANK'S BAEN. down unmolested until they again wish to eat or drink. Pure air is one of the essentials. A stable full of foul odors, damp and dirty, cannot be a place suitable for keeping an animal as cleanly as is the sheep. We secure fresh air by opening any or aU of the double doors, A, A, in figure 23. ' ' FigTire 24 represents the hay-rack and feed-trough combined, with the wings, W, W, turned in and buttoned fast, giving the sheep access to the feed-trough, which runs along at the bottom of each wing. There is a raised board walk along the middle, between the troughs, on which the feeder walks while pouring OPEN. grain into the troughs. While the wings are turned in this way, they also constitute the sloping sides of the hay-rack, from which the sheep pull out the hay through a four-inch crack at the bot- tom. Figui'e 25 shows the wings turned perpendicularly and fastened, excluding the sheep from the troughs while the grain is being poured in. Under no circumstances must the sheep get FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOi^. 197 wet, for the wool requires a long time for drying, and makes the animal cold and uncomfortable. Too much can not be said about cleanliness. Good bedding must be secured, and re- moved whenever the sheep have no clean, nice and dry place in which to lie down. The racks and troughs should always be swept perfectly clean before either hay or grain is put in them. Do this always. Another requisite is pure water. The water tank is liable to be fouled by droppings or particles of feed fall- ing into the water. The tanks should be emptied often and rinsed oat, so that the water is clear, vsweet and clean, " The water must be convenient so that the sheep need not go any distan?.e to secure it. They will eat a few mouthfuls, then drink a little, go and eat, and so on until they are satisfied, when they lie down and chew their cuds. If the sheep must go into the storm or into mud or wet, or a little distance, they often do without water rather than go and get it. The water should be kept so warm that it does not freeze, as they will not Fig. 35. — FEED BACK, CLOSED. drink enough to make them thrive well if too cold, and besides, it requires feed to warm the ice water. I have often seen lots of sheep which were well taken care of in all respects, but failed to do well because they were not well supplied with pure water. '' For the best results, sheep should not be kept in large lots, and those of a size should be kept together, as the smaller ones are crowded back by the larger ones, and knocked about so that they do not thrive as well. Hence, the small pens, twenty by twenty feet, as shown in figure 23. If I wished to do the very best with a sheep, I think I would put it into a stall by itself, as we feed cattle and horses. The nearer we approach this the better, and it would be more profitable to put sheep into smaller pens than ours, if convenient. Ours hold from forty-five to fifty-five, according to size, with comfort. Care must be taken not to crowd them too much. Our sheep never leave the pens save when carried to market, and we find they do much better than if they have the range of a bam-yard, or even a special yard 198 THE AMEBIC AN MERINO made for them. We feed a variety of grains, and mix them. Corn ground in the ear, oats, sometimes wheat screenings, and always middlings and bran. We have fed some linseed meal ; thmk it very good, but have not tested it so as to speak authori- tatively on the matter. We grind our corn because it is easier digested, and it requires longer time for the sheep to eat it, and each has a better chance to get its share of the meal. Bran is of prime importance, we find." Mr. Frank gives the following as his rule for regulating the quantity of feed : " Begin in the fall with a small amount ; increase gradually until the amount is reached which they eat up clean, and no more. They will eat a little more in cold than in warm weather. " We feed clover hay exclusively, and find it far superior to any other. If timothy hay must be fed, let it be to the old sheep, for lambs will not do well on it. We feed all the hay that they will eat without wasting. Flocks are often fed so much that they waste enough to bed them, which is no advan- tage to the sheep, but wasteful and extravagant. Cut the clover before it is very ripe, as it is better relished and has more nutri- ment in it. We often cut clover on our wheat stubbles, and find that sheep Hke it better than any other. " Eegularity in feeding is very necessary. Sheep should be fed grain and hay twice each day, and at the same hour as nearly as possible. Salt is kept in a box in each pen, so that the sheep can get it whenever they want it. Now to recapitulate : " 1st. Select lambs or good wethers. '* 2d. Confine in close quarters and small lots. *'3d. Cleanliness. " 4th. Keep sheep quiet. " 5lh. Pure air. *' 6th. Good shelter. " 7th. Pure water near at hand. " 8th. Variety of ground grains, with bran and salt. "9th. Clover hay. " 10th. Eegularity of feeding." It will be seen from the above, that Mr. Frank's system con- templates an all-winter cramming on grain, and a rigid confine- ment of the flock to the pens throughout. My experience has been had on river bottoms ; and on these the rich rowen of low meadows will, in an open winter, carry a flock of fat wethers far into the winter, with no more corn than above mentioned. But where the feeder has an abundance of clover hay, roots or corn-fodder, as a coohng laxative diet and a corrective to the FOR WOOL AN"D MUTTOK. 199 grain, the feeding term may extend through the whole winter with profit, and the sheep may be closely housed. Importance of Quiet. — Mr. Frank's remarks on this subject are just and deserving of special attention. All dogs should be kept out of sight and hearing. Not even shepherd dogs should be allowed about the pens where sheep are fattening. No sheep, unless mingling familiarly with a dog every day of their lives, will become so accustomed to him as not to be distui'bed by his approach. The greater the quiet, the more rapid will be the gain in flesh. To this end there should not even be a change in pens or troughs or the feeders during the winter. The same person should take care of them in the same place throughout. Variety of Feed. — Many good feeders, including the cele- brated John Johnston, give sheep no other rough feed than straw for considerable periods of time. I have myself done so through the whole period of feeding, except the last six weeks or such a matter. For a feeder who buys all his material this would not be advisable (though it would be good policy to invest a small amount of money in green, bright straw, oat or wheat, rather than to purchase hay exclusively) ; but it might be profitable for a farmer who has a large amount of straw on hand, and who also wishes to manufacture manure on a large scale, to give it to fattening sheep, early in the winter, very hberally. Sheep fed very highly on grain will consume with relish the coarse stuff, which a flock subsisting almost entirely on hay would re- ject. Hay mixed with bitter weeds or other trash may be given in occasional feeds to fattening sheep with evident advantage. In warm, muggy weather, if the flock are rather mincing over their corn or corn-meal, it is well to mix a portion of oats with it, or give oats exclusively for a few days. Timothy is too binding for an animal whose system tends so easily to fever and constipation as does that of the sheep. Al- most any kind of straw, except buckwheat (which is apt to poison the lips), is better as a coarse feed for fattening sheep than clear timothy. In fact, there is no kind of hay, except clover, which is as good, unmixed, as the same would be with a judicious alternation with straw. Cleanliness. — No other domestic animal is so easily disgusted with its feed by mustiness, dirt, foul odors, etc., as is the sheep. The breath of the animal itself soon renders its feed distasteful to it, and for this reason it might not Inaptly be set down as a maxim that no feed should be placed before it which it will not 200 THE AMEEICAl^ MEEIIirO consume within an hour. The least taint in the water-trough is offensive to this most cleanly and fastidious animal ; it will go hours without water, to the point of actual suffering, rather than drink that which is polluted. Hence, the troughs and ves- sels must be kept clean, and the sheep which are observed to be dainty must have a fair allowance of time to find such place in the water-trough as shall suit their capricious appetites. A Device to Keep Troughs Clean. — It is often urged as a sufficient argument against feed-troughs inside the stable, that it is impossible to have them in order without cleaning them out at every feeding-time. To obviate this troublesome task, the feeder may set the troughs around the sides of the building, from four to six inches too high for sheep to reach them ; then put under them a piece of timber, or a bench, upon which they can step with their forefeet, but too narrow for them to stand on with all fours. This will keep all dung out of the troughs. CHAPTER XX. FROM HAY TO GEASS. I have before made some remarks on the importance of turn- ing the sheep afield frequently during the winter, at least when the ground is bare. But as soon as the grass begins togrow, even a little, upon the approach of spring, it will be necessary to exercise caution. The old grass which they get during the winter, the long tufts of rowen mixed about equally with dead grass and lurking under bushes or briers on some north hillside, which the sheep neglected during the summer, has a different effect on them from that of the young growth. The latter is washy, and scours them, and ' ' takes away their appetites," as the old farmers say. During the winter I frequently let my sheep out twice a week, if the weather is favorable ; and I find no in- jurious result from it, even though they remain on the grass aH day and fill themselves. In fact, I generally give them only their grain rations on these days and no coarse feed at all. Nor do I find their appetites, the following morning, anywise dulled for their hay or fodder. But after the grass starts a little this will not answer. If they are left on it even half an hour, the FOR WOOL AIsTD MUTTOK. 201 .next day they will mince over their dry feed and not consume a quarter of it. They are purged and they stand with hollow bellies and look through the gate all day long. They must now be restrained in their run on the grass ; it must be greatly cur- tailed. The last two or three weeks, or month, before turning them out to pasture, I do not suffer them to run on grass more than a quarter as much as they do through the winter. Fifteen or twenty minutes a day, or say while you are putting a fresh feed into the racks, is long enough ; and with this restriction, the privilege may be granted them every day. I do not lengthen the time at all up to the very last day of feeding them on dry feerd. Then catch and tag the flock, shorten the long hoofs (it is well to attend to both these matters several days beforehand, on rainy days, or at any other convenient time), and let all go. Hoove. — I find that suckling ewes are more liable to this trouble than any other class of sheep. The insatiable appetite created by the constant drain on the system during lactation, is apt to make them overeat. It is dangerous to turn ewes and lambs on a field of clover (white or red) until they have been long enough on grass to get their bowels toned up, their ali- mentary systems recovered from the winter torpor. Hoove is caused, primarily, by a lack of mucus, superinduced by tlie dry feed of winter. Mucus is needed to assist the peristaltic action of the stomach aud bowels. This it is which makes necessary the gradual wonting of the sheep to the more succulent feed of spring. Sheep ought never to be turned upon clover when it is wet, and very carefully at all times, until it is in blossom, unless they have been thoroughly prepared for the great change by plenty of soft feed, roots, bran mashes, green rye, etc. A suckling ewe wdll succumb under hoove more easily than a cow ; her muscular and vascular system is frailer. When fer- mentation has already set in, and the paunch is distressfully distended with gas, a teaspoonful of turpentine may be admin- istered in a little cold water. A two-ounce dose of Epsom salts, with ginger and gentian, should be given as a preventive of its recurrence. Depasturing Wheat with Sheep.— It is when spring has fully set in that the uses of depasturing appear. The ground is then seamed with frost cracks, puffy ; the wheat tufts are more or less thrown up ; the earth needs to be compressed and packed about the roots. Cattle make deep foot tracks, with the wheat thrust down to the bottom of tkem ; but sheep pack the surface 202 THE AMERICAI^ MERII^O gently an inch and a haK or two inches deep with their innu- merable tracks, covering it all over (I have found that, even when they run on naked ground during a winter thaw, they do not pack it over two inches). Sheep are very peculiar and capricious in their way of graz- ing growing grain. They do not fancy it much at best, and they avoid all long stalks, seeking to bite close to the ground. I have seen them depasture a field of rye in a singular, patchy way — here a spot a rod or so square eaten to the very ground, while close at hand is another with the rye heading out three feet in air, never having been touched. This happens when they have too much, or are allowed to stay on it too long at a time. If permitted to graze wheat in this fashion, it would work mischief. When it is seen that they are inclined to do so, they must be broken up, herded, pushed about, not allowed to settle down on their favorite spots and gnaw them down to the earth. The rank patches, which need depasturing most, they will graze least, if they are not somewhat controlled. They ought not to be turned into a wheat field in the spring until it is dry and settled enough to be fit for harrowing — dry enough to be a little crumbly. If there comes a sudden March freeze, followed by a thaw, I do not allow them to return to it for a few days. It is not a good practice to allow a large flock of sheep to run into and out of a wheat field a number of days at the same place. If a flock of young sheep can be turned on at the proper time and kept in the field day and night until their work is done, or turned in at a different place every day, better results will be accomphshed. I turn them off before the wheat begins to joint. The effects of depasturing wheat are: That the amount of foli- age IS reduced, the tufts are rendered lower and more stocky, the whole field has a cleaner, more open and more even appear- ance. There is a freer circulation of air through the growing grain, and a reduced tendency to rust. A judicious depasturing hardens and toughens it up. This is my experience in the lati- tude of Southern Ohio. Further north it would probably seldom be the case that sheep would be beneficial to green wheat. FOR WOOL AI^D MUTTOIfT. 203 CHAPTER XXI. FODDERS FOR SHEEP. Red Clover. — This is the best of all foKage plants for sheep- feed, if well cured ; and the curing and saving of it are so apt to be ill-done (making it one of the poorest of fodders), that a few directions, founded on experience, will not come amiss to the young shepherd. If the soil is very rich, clover is apt to grow coarse and lodge. To render it fine enough for sheep it is best to sow it thick, say one and a half gallons to the acre (one gallon on thinner land). A gallon of timothy seed per acre, sown the preceding fall, is a good addition ; the timothy will assist the clover to stand up and make it finer. When the earliest clover blossoms have turned brown it is time to set about the cutting, though it may be well to delay a few days if the barometer does not indicate settled weather. If there is a fair promise of three or four days of clear weather, and help is abundant, five or six acres may safely be cut down at once ; this should be done in the afternoon. A half day's steady sunshine will wilt it sufficiently, if the thick bunches at the corners of the lands are shaken out a little in the morning. The farmer should twist a handful of it to see how much moist- ure the stalks contain. If no sap can be wrung out of them, he may proceed to rake it into windrows, and leave these over night, unless rain is threatening. If so, it should be made up into cocks, about as high as a man's head, and rather slender. On the third day, as soon as the sun has thoroughly dried the hay, the cocks (or windrows) should be turned, bottom-side up, and, perhaps, the lower half of each cock (now the upper half) pulled aside, thus dividing it into two equal portions. At night cock up again, in larger cocks if desired. On the fourth day, as soon as the dew is off, haul the hay in without opening the cocks. In catching weather, the farmer will have to vary this pro- gramme to suit circumstances ; but on no account should clover hay be hauled in when very damp, especially if damp from ex- traneous moisture. Better let it stand several days, thrusting the arm into the cocks occasionally to see if they are heating. If they are getting a trifle warm at the bottom and there is not time between showers to dry them out and haul in, build 204 THE AMESICAK MEEIKO the cocks over, putting the bottom on top, handling carefully, running them up high and sharp to shed rain. Salt should never be sprinkled over hay of any kind when it is mowed away ; it attracts moisture and discolors the hay. Air-slaked lime is good ; it may be put on in almost any quan- tity without rendering the hay distasteful to sheep. If the clover is pretty heavy, and the farmer has straw convenient, it is well to put a layer of straw about six inches thick, alternately with a layer of clover, about a foot thick, and not allow it to be tramped much. Where clover is sown on wheat, and comes on very rank after harvest, it is best to mow and cure it. This leaves the ground cleaner for next year's mowing, and the sheep will readily sort the clover from the wheat stubble. If the soil is very rich, and the season rainy, however, clover rowen is not safe fodder for sheep. I have had a few animals killed by it, and a large num- ber in the flock were miserably " slobbered " and sickened. It has also come within my experience that clover hay (first growth), cut very green and succulent on rich river bottoms, has caused pregnant ewes to " slink " their lambs. This is a very rare occurrence, however. Corn Fodder. — To the casual observer it might seem quite a hopeless undertaking to winter an animal, which is so dainty, and which searches the ground over so carefully for the finest herbage as the sheep, on such coarse provender. But after sheep have once been trained to eat it, corn fodder is one of the very best feeds for them ; superior to every other except clover hay. For cattle, corn may be kept until it is yellow almost to the tassel, but for sheep, the best fodder will be secured by cutting as soon as the husk shows the color. When husked, it should be bound into bundles with tarred twine ; this will prevent the rats and mice from gnawing the bands. With a knot in one end, slipping into a noose at the other, such a band can be easily unfastened in winter, slipped into the pocket and saved for another season. All corn-fodder ought to be ricked near the feeding-yards This may be done the last of November or iirst of December — if the fodder is not wet — without danger of molding. My way of ricking fodder is as follows : I lay down a double row of bundles, top to top, lapping to the bands. To keep the middle full, I make every other course or layer a single one. FOE WOOL Al^B MUTTOl^. 205 consisting of bundles laid butt to tip alternately. I do not draw in any. At a suitable height I lay a stringer of bundles endwise on the rick, three or four to each length, which sharp- ens up a basis for the roof. The roof consists of a single course on each side, the bundles sloping up to a peak. Colonel F. D. Curtis says "cornstalks are wasteful food for sheep," and he recommends that the leaves be stripped off when green, cured, and bound in bundles for suckling ewes and early lambs. The farmers of the Atlantic slope can probably best dispose of their small cornstalks by cutting them for cattle ; but I doubt if it will pay to cut the large stalks of the West ; and when given out uncut, sheep will pick them far cleaner than will cattle or horses. I never wintered lambs on corn-fodder, but a neighbor of mine, Mr. W. S. Gray, a careful, practical shepherd, has done so several times with excellent results. Fodder Corn.— In Vol. I., No., I. of The Shepherd's National Journal, Mr. Arvine C. Wales, of Stark County, Ohio, gives a very valuable account of his mode of growing this kind of for- age for sheep. He states that he sows about two or two and a half bushels of common corn per acre, with a Buckeye wheat drill, in the first week of June. His only cultivation is to run the Thomas Smoothing Harrow once or twice over it when about three inches high. He harvests with a Champion, side-delivery, self -raking reaper, beginning about the first week in September, when the lower joint is turned to a bright yellow. I copy his own words: "Besides the driver of the machine, there are eight men, divided into four gangs, of two to a gang. The ' stations ' are measured off and assigned as in reaping wheat. Each gang of two men is provided with a 'corn horse,' which is simply a light rail, with two legs at one end, and a loose four foot pin in the middle. Each gang is also provided with a quantity of wool twine, cut to a suitable length, and hung on a hook in the end of the 'horse.' When the men are in their places, and the machine starts, one of the men passes two of the gavels or sheaves, and sets up his 'horse.' He then goes back and picks up the two gavels, one at a time, and iDuts them into two of the angles formed by the ' horse ' and and its loose pin ; his comrade does the same with the two gavels in front of the ' horse.' Then one draws out the pin and moves the ' horse ' on by two more while the other, with a piece of wool twine a yard long, binds the top of the shock. Here it stands for ten 206 THE AMEKICAI^ MEEINO days or two weeks, till it is partly cured. Then the men break the shocks open, each shock generally separating into the four original gavels, and bind it into sheaves with the fodder itself, which by this time has become tough and withy. Twelve or more sheaves are then put into a great shock and the top of it bound by the wool twine used in the first place. "I had almost forgotten to say that one is far less dependent on the weather in curing fodder corn than in making hay. Sev- eral years it has rained nearly every day while cutting, but I never lost a hundred pounds through wet weather, unless it had blown down and been allowed to lie on the ground. Here it should stand until wanted for feed. It is so full of sugar, and starch, and gum, that it cannot be safely stored in barns or stacks. It will heat and ferment. A near neighbor lost his entire crop last winter, although carefully stacked in long, low, narrow ricks. This is the greatest objection to fodder corn. It is hard getting it up when repeated freezings and thawings have glued it to the ground towards spring ; and it is hard hauling when the wheels sink through the soft ground to the bottom of the furrow. ***** " I cut and steam all my fodder. It is cut on a cutter with a capacity of three or four tons per hour. " The yield of dry fodder has been from five to seven tons per acre, and I carry as much stock and get as much and as good feed from seventy acres of fodder corn, as I used to get from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty-five acres of meadow. Whoever sows corn for the first time will be aston- ished at the amount of feed he will have in September." Timothy. — Every farmer is presumed to know how to cut and cure timothy, but there are few who sow it thick enough and cut it in the right stage to make fine, palatable sheep-feed. On mellow, rich land I have found it advisable to sow two gal- lons of seed per acre. Coarse, ripe timothy is about the poorest sheep-fodder that can be imagined. It ought to be cut when in blossom ; and if there is a large amount of it to be harvested, it is well to commence even earlier, reserving the finest and green- est for lambs, and the later cut for older sheep. Unmixed timothy is veiy objectionable for pregnant ewes ; it is too con- stipating. They will eat off the heads and the leaves, avoiding the stalks to the last ; and if these are over-ripe and woody they may become impacted in the stomach, causing heat and irrita- FOn WOOL Al^D MUTTON". 207 tion. If the ewes are suckling lambs, the latter are apt to die of constipation at the age of one or two weeks. For fattening wethers it is somewhat better, but to any class of sheep it ought not to be given more than once a clay, with an alternation of some more laxative fodder. Objectionable as clear timothy is, I do not think it advisable (with the exception of a light admixture of timothy with clover, as above noted) to sow meadows with mixed seed. Pastures may well be composed of various grasses, thus affording a cue- cession of feed ; but a meadow has a set time for harvest, and the different grasses do not ripen simultaneously. It is best to grow and harvest each by itself; then, for variety, feed the flock from different mows. To this end there should be a suc- cession of meadows, as, for instance, clover, orchard grass, timothy, red-top, Hungarian grass ; then each can be harvested when it is at its best stage of growth and ripeness. Orchard Grass {Dactylis glomerata). — 1'his, if allowed to become over-ripe, is even poorer for sheep than timothy, if this is possible. It ought to be mown as soon as the seed-stalks have attained their full height, before the pollen begins to fly about. Well secured in this stage, it is so thoroughly good that I have for years always had one, and sometimes two, of my meadows in orchard grass. It does not yield quite so much weight per acre as timothy, but it more tnan compensates for this by the dense and vigorous aftermath which it throws up, affording luxuriant pasturage for four or five months, while, if the autumn is dry, the timothy stubble will remain gray and parched. Most farmers make a failure with orchard grass because they do not sow it thick enough. Two or two and a, half bushels of seed per acre are required to prevent it from growing in tussocks and to make it tine enough for sheep. It should be sown in March on a very fine, well-harrowed seed-bed. Hungarian Grass {Panicum Germanicum). — This, too, should be sown very thick for sheep-feed, gay a bushel per acre, on strong soils. Otherwise it produces heads so large as to be dis- tasteful to sheep, and they will leave them lying in the rack after eating the stalks and leaves. This is especially liable to happen w^hen the hay has not been cured enough, in which case the large, succulent heads will become moldy. To prevent this hay from molding is, in fact, the chief difficulty in its manage- ment. It ought to be exposed nearly, or quite, three days to the sunshine. At best it is suited to grown sheep, rather than 208 THE AMERICAi^ MEEINO to lambs, and it ranks high as a milk-producing feed for suck- ling ewes, Eed-top {Agrostis vulgmns). — This makes excellent hay for sheep, but, like timothy, it must not be allowed to stand too long, and become dry and woody. In Southern Ohio, on red and yellow clay uplands, it succeeds better than timothy, which it will eventually supplant ; and it makes, also, better hay, be- cause it is finer and more nutritious. Sheep fed on bright, red- top hay will wmter as well as those fed on timothy with the addition of a half-bushel of shelled corn per hundred each day. Meadow Grass. — Under the various names, June grass. Blue grass, etc., rather loosely and indiscriminately applied, most Western farmers are familiar with one or both of two species, Poa pratensis and Poa compressa. They are so nearly alike in feeding value and other respects, that most farmers recognize no difference between them. They are the richest of all grasses, native or cultivated, and are incomparable for pasture, but for meadows they are unsatisfactory to thrifty farmers, as they yield so light a weight of hay. I have, however, found it very advantageous to mow small areas of them, natural hillside meadows, strips of creek-bottoms, etc., as they furnish for lambs by far the finest and richest hay obtainable. Miscellaneous.— The vines of beans and peas are better rel- ished by sheep than by other stock, and are excellent for a va- riety. Clover chaff, the refuse material left after the seed has been threshed out, if not too much bleached, will be eaten by sheep to some extent. It is often the case that there are patches in the cattle pasture too rank to be eaten green ; these ought to be mown and cured for the sheep. A certain portion of weeds and bitter stuff, rag- weeds, morning-glory vines, docks, etc., will be more accept- able to sheep occasionally, than an unbroken regimen of the best of hay. The orts in the racks ought to be thrown into a separate rack and brined ; if there is still a remnant left, the horses will con- sume most of it. Cattle dislike the leavings of sheep. FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 209 CHAPTEE XXII. SYSTEMS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY. On the Atlantic Slope. — In the famous standard or stud- flocks of Vermont, the rule is said to be, twenty tons of hay for every hundred sheep. It is probable that the celebrated breeder, Edwin Hammond, of that State, did more to increase the w^ool- bearing capacity of the sheep of this country than any other dozen men ; yet we have the testimony of Doctor Randall, that he fed his ewes nothing but hay. But, on the Atlantic slope, the Merino is no longer preeminent, except in limited areas — of which the most notable is Vermont — for the production of wool and mutton is an entirely subordi- nate industry, owing to the fact that it is a region very much superior to others, devoted more largely to wool-growing in req- uisites necessary to success, in mixed farming. And this fact makes it creditable to sheep that they retain as permanent a foothold as they do there. The breeds of sheep are perhaps not as well defined or as highly improved as in the West ; there lingers a greater proportion of the old native American stock, described by Youatt as being a sort of mongrel scrub Leicester, mixed with Southdown and Cotswold. The limited product of grain and the great cheapness with which it can be produced in the West render it too high-priced to be given to sheep in any quantity. Eastern farmers endeavor to winter their stock or breeding flocks without grain — on clover hay, chaff, pea, bean, wheat and oat straw — thus making them serve as scavengers or consumers of refuse products. This for the reason that there is a cash market for nearly everything, even rye and wheat straw. A ]3rominent object with them is the growing of early lambs for the market. They buy ewes shipped from the West, generally those which have passed their prime ; rangy, good-sized, open-wooled grade Merinos; on which they cross a Southdown or Cotswold ram two years old or up- wards. The earliest lambs are dropped from January 15th to February 15th ; the ewes are well sheltered and fed to improve their condition, so that they generally yean fine, strong lambs. When the latter are a few weeks old they are allowed access to a separate apartment, and are fed bran, meal, and ground oats in troughs. They generally bring four dollars and fifty cents to five dollars per head when they will weigh thirty or forty 210 THE AMEEICAN MERIITO pounds gross ; sometimes as high as ten dollars ! If not too aged, the ewes are retained for fmrther service ; if they are, they are fattened for the fall market. A Southdown ram generally costs from ten to twenty dollars. They are preferred to the Cotswold, Lincoln, or middle-wool rams, because their lambs, though smaller, fatten better, have better hams, and produce a marbled flesh. The Merino's share in this, oftentimes very profitable, business is a somewhat humble one, yet it seems likely to be enduring, because, while the crossing with a Merino does not impair the quality of the mutton, the Merino ewe brought from the West offers the cheapest medium through which this mutton can be produced. A ewe too old to do further service, as a breeder in the vast flocks of the plains is still, in most cases, capable of doing one or more year's excellent work in a small, well-fed flock ; and she can be transported and sold to the New York or New Jersey farmer for less money than it would cost him to raise either a Down or a Merino on his own farm. One of the cmlous by-products of the sheep that may be mentioned is the manui'e, which is sought for by the tobacco- growers of the Connecticut Eiver valley. Mr. J. F. C. Allis, of East Whately, Massachusetts, in a letter to Hon. John L. Hayes, states that Merinos, crossed with lon^-wools, are the best for this purpose ; they are better feeders and take on fat more easily than the long- wools. The feeders buy large wethers from Mich- igan, from three to five years old, and have them pastured till November. Then they are closely housed, forty or fifty in a pen, and well bedded ; about December 1st they begin to feed grain lightly, gradually increasing, until they eat a quart apiece daily. They seldom eat more than that. IMr. Allis further "The cause for feeding so many sheep for their mutton in this valley is the high value of sheep-manure for tobacco-grow- ers, it having the effect on our light soil to produce a dark-colored silky leaf, of good burning quahty, suitable for wrapping fine cigars ; the tobacco burns white, and has a good, sweet flavor, perhaps owing to the potash it derives from the manure. So valuable do we consider this sheep-manure that we have shipped, since 1870, from West Albany, from fifty to one hundred and fifty cords, costing from eight to ten dollars a cord, every spring. On our light soils, caUed pine-lands, after raising crops of to- bacco, two thousand pounds to the acre, we have sown wheat ; yielding thirty bushels of a plump berry, and a heavy weight FOR WOOL Al^B MUTTON. 211 of straw, on land which without this manure is fit only for white beans. We, of late years, feed with our sweetest and finest hay, and mix with our corn, one- third cotton- seed meal ; by so feeding our sheep fatten more easily, being more hardy and better conditioned, besides increasing the value of the ma- nure and rendering it more full of i^lant food." Wm. Ottnian & Co., wholesale butchers in Fulton Market, New York, state that at the time of writing (March, 1885), well- fattened Merino wether carcasses are selling at one and a half to two cents per pound less than corresponding Southdown car- casses. Yet, so little do the latter excel the former in size that the butchers, to prevent 'their fastidious customers from impo- sition, are obliged to leave the dark skin on the legs. Notwithstanding that the Merino has these odds to contend against, as a mutton-producer, on the Atlantic slope, still there are, undoubtedly, many localities in that section where, owiiig to the unfavorable conditions for turnip growing, the superior- ity of the Merino as a dry-feeder and also as a wool-producer, it will be advisable for the farmer to choose this breed. I have, in the preceding chapter, indicated, briefly, the best methods of growing and curing the various dry fodders for sheep ; it re- mains now to consider the subject of growing those roots and green crops which are found to be best adapted to the wants of the sheep. Of roots, the best is the sugar beet ; then follow, in their order, mangels, ruta-bagas and turnips. Mustard, rape and rye are valu- able for green-feeding or for that i5ystem, originated in England, which may be called oj)en-air soiling. Rape may be sown as early as August, on a wheat or rye stubble, for fall and early win- ter pasturage ; and again in September, or early in October for spring grazing. Mustard sown in the spring affords summer pasturage, and turnips may be sown so as to furnish feed in the field as early as September, or even earlier, while the beets, mangels and ruta-bagas will mature later, to be harvested for win- ter. Mr. Henry Stewart, in giving his experience, says : " One acre of either of these crops will feed fifty ewes from fourteen to twenty-one days, as the yield may be small or large ; a fair yield upon good soil will last the longer period ; but it is neces- sary in feeding these crops, to give the sheep only a narrow strip each day — thus, one acre being about two hundred and ten feet square, ten feet in width may be given to the sheep for their daily supply, which will give forty square feet for each sheep. Anyone who has grown mustard or rape, will see in a moment 212 THE AMERICAI^ MERINO that the supply of food would be ample, and after one has had some practice in growing and feeding these crops the provision may be made to furnish a full supply to twice as many sheep as has been mentioned. " It is an essential part of this business that the fields should be well arranged. The most convenient method is to have no larger fields than five acres for fifty sheep, and to have them long and narrow — that is, about two hundred feet wide and twelve hundred feet long ; the fields being divided from each other by portable fences, so that they may be changed at will. A long field of this kind may be put into crops, sown succes- sively one to follow the other, and at the above rate of feeding, five acres would feed fifty sheep for one hundred and twenty days before it was all gone over once ; and by replowing and sowing, behind the flock, a new supply will be coming on to be used as soon as the end of the field is reached. " This system is thus admirably adapted to mixed farming, in which a flock of sheep can be utilized with great economy and profit, as well as to a special sheep farm. It is perhar)S most available for a mixed farm, because of the fine condition of the ground thus fed off, the soil being well and richly fertilized by the sheep, and the manure being distributed far more evenly than it could be done by hand. It is, in fact, a method of sum- mer fallowing land without labor and with much greater ad- vantage and effect than could be gained by the usual way of doing it, and at the same time making a considerable profit." The Submontane District. — There is a large submontane region extending along both flanks of the Appalachian chain, from Lake Champlain to the Kanawha Eiver, which may be con- sidered the home and stronghold of the American Merino, where it will permanently resist the encroachments of the Cotswold and the Down. Here the mountaineer will for all time find these sheep the sheet-anchor of his humble system of husbandry, believing the old Virginian saying, that ' ' they are an unhappy flock." By their fertilizing droppings, scattered on the sum- mits of the knolls and hills where they delight to spend the night and the heat of the day, they will counteract the erosion by the rain and the frost and prevent that suicidal waste of soil from hillside plowing by which the farmer feeds the rivers from the heart of his pocket-book. In this region the basis of sheep husbandry is Indian corn, hay, and fodder. The size of flocks increases as we go West. FOR WOOL A^D MUTTON". 213 214 THE AMERICAN MERIXO Id Western New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, Merinos and their grades prevail, of established breeds, though in the southern half of this region there are still im- mense numbers of the old natives, or "mountain rangers," whose bald heads denote a mongrel Leicester blood coming from Virginia. The Pan-handle and adjacent regions still have some large flocks, yielding the superfine or electoral wools. Wash- ington County, Pennsylvania, is the home of the Black-tops or Delaine Merinos. Western Pennsylvania, Virginia and Southern Ohio grow a plainer sheep and a longer staple than Vermont, Western New York, and Northern Ohio. Pennsylva- nia, West Virginia, and Ohio sheep are accounted the truest representatives of tbe American Merino, and their wool has long been quoted highest in the Eastern markets. But in Ohio, of late years, the breeding of very wrinkly and yolky sheep to cross on the coarse Mexicans of the West has somewhat debased the staple— as happened in Vermont from a similar cause— which, together with frauds and carelessness in the preparation of the chps for market, has hm-t the good name of Ohio wool. Michigan and Wisconsin fleece, long holding the second rank, is now pressing for admission to the first. In this region, wool holds precedence over mutton. Hay, principally timothy, some clover, red-top, blue-grass, with corn, oats, and bran constitate the staple feed. Some careful flock- masters grow turnips and fodder-corn for breeding ewes, but a vast majority depend on bran and clover-hay for a laxative. Shelled corn is the principal grain-feed for fattening wethers, while the favorite ration for lambs and tegs is corn, oats and bran, mixed in about equal proportions. Mutton wethers are shorn unwashed in March, April or May, sold at four dollars and twenty-five cents to three dollars and fifty cents a hundred, and shipped East. Many young ewes are sent West to found new flocks ; oldish ones to the East, for the use above men- tioned. The flocks are washed the latter part of May, shorn about two weeks later, and the wool sold to agents, who gener- ally receive one cent a pound commission. The Prairie Region. — This cannot be termed a good section- for the Merino ; there are some fine flocks in Northern Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, and especially Kansas ; but the English long-wools are less subject to that plague of the country — the foot-rot. Nor is the sheep generally well treated in this region. Almost as soon as one leaves Indiana, going west, he begins to see all kinds of stock in the same field, which is large, however. FOR WOOL AN-D MUTTON". 215 owing to the scarcity of fencing. In hard winters, thousands of sheep are driven east from the plains to the cheap corn of Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa, which is given to them in the ear, on the ground, in a wasteful manner ; or they are allowed to enter the standing grain itself . In Minnesota they winter well on clover-hay, alone ; or prairie hay and corn. In Nebraska the maximum cost of keeping a sheep a year is one dollar ; from that down to sixty-five cents. Twelve tons of prairie hay, cost- ing twenty-eight dollars and twenty cents, and two hundred bushels of corn, worth thirty to fifty dollars, will winter ono hundred sheep. A shed and racks of pine for one thousand sheep will cost five hundred dollars ; a " Kansas shed " of poles, hay, sorghum stalks, etc., costs only a trifle. Prairie Wool. — The following schedule of prices will show about how the wools of the prairie region are valued (bright and dark) : Bright Wools from Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Mis- souri, Indiana and Eastern Iowa. washed. Fine 27 @ 29 Medium 29 @ 31 Quarter Blood 27 @ 28 Coarse 24 @ 25 Cotted and Rough 21 @ 22 UNWASHED. Fine Light 18 @ 19 Fine Heavy 16 @ 17 Medium 22 @ 23 Quarter Blood 20 @ 21 Coarse 16 @ 18 Cotted and Rough 12 @ 13 Dark Wools from Western Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota, Min- nesota AND Kansas. washed. Fine 25 @ 26 Medium 27 @ 28 Quarter Blood 25 @ 26 Coarse 22 (a) 24t Cotted and Rough 19 @ 20 unwashed. Fine Light 15 @ 16 Fine Heavy 13 @ 15 Medium 17 @ 20 Quarter Blood 16 @ 18 Coarse 16 @ 17 Cotted and Rough 11 @ 12 *' Stalk Pasture." — Sometimes a field of corn is planted too late, or for some other reason does not fully mature, but makes 216 THE AMEEICAIT MERIXO what is popularly called " mutton corn." The sheep are turned into it when the grass pastures fail, in the fall, and are kept on it throughout the winter, or until it is consumed. Sometimes, in a good field of corn, the ears are " snapped " or pulled oS the stalks and hauled out in wagons, the stalks being left standing. Sheep are turned into the field to harvest the imperfect ears and the foliage, and are herded on a limited area during the day (about an acre per day suflfices for three hundred head, when the stalks have been gleaned ordinarily clean) ; so going over the field, after which they are allowed to run at will, and re- ceive a stated ration of shelled or ear-corn and prairie hay until the stalks are pulled down and stripped clean, when the flock is removed to another field. Of course, it is only the stronger and hardier sheep that can " rough it" in this fashion ; the weak- lings should be removed and fed in the regular way. In South Kansas the cost of wintering a sheep this way is estimated at sixty to seventy-five cents. Other Feeds.— In the latitude of South Kansas it is estimated by an experienced shepherd that the natural grass will supply half the feed required by the sheep through the winter. It is very natritious and fattens stock rapidly when it is young and tender, but it soon becomes tough and sheep do not rehsh it unless it is closely grazed ; and at best it is pretty much done for by the frost as early as November 1st. There are very few kinds of hay that sheep will eat better than early-cut prairie hay ; but it alone is too binding. One ton is allowed to fifteen sheep. One of the best dry fodders is sorghum, of which sheep are very fond ; besides which it fields more to the acre than any other forage plant. Sometimes it is cut and cured in shocks like com, sometimes left standing in the field ; in either form it is highly relished by the flocks. The seed is similar, accord- ing to analysis, to corn. Rice corn or Egyptian corn (another variety of sorghum) is considered second best. Millet ranks third. In Kansas are seen many large fields of broom-corn, the leaves and stalks of w^hich are very fair feed in autumn. Both sorghum and rice corn endure the drought better than Indian corn, and are highly prized in the semi-arid regions for that reason. Half a bushel of rice corn, or Indian corn, or millet seed, per hundred head, with millet or sorghum, are considered a fair allowance for ordinary winters. The Beard grasses or Broom grasses (Andropogon furcatus and sconarms) are es Limited to furnish sixty per cent, of the grasses FOR WOOL AND MUTTOI^. 217 of the plains. The distinctive feature of prairie haying is the "buck-rake" or "go-devil." The teeth, like those of a large horse-rake, are about one foot apart. It is capable of hauling half a wagon-load on the ground. Some farmers drag a vast mass together, driving the horses over it as long as they can and dumping ; then tear out around the bottom with pitch- forks, top it out in some fashion, and call it a stack or rick. General Management. — In the eastern half of the prairie section the agricultural system of the Eastern States prevails, but in the western half there is a gradual shading away to the free-ranging system of the Far West. Even in the agi-icultural section, a great deal of trouble is experienced by the flock-mas- ters in providing water for their sheep, both summer and win- ter. They are, in a majority of cases, compelled to dig or bore for it, and then, perhaps, draw up the water by horse-power or erect a wind-mill ; and the violent winds (erroneously called "cyclones") often blow these down or damage them, or the severe weather of winter freezes them up. It is not an uncom- mon occurrence to see the farmer in the dead of winter driving his flocks some miles to water, or, perhaps, hauling it for them with a wagon. One, for instance, in Southern Kansas discov- ered, by several weeks' observation, that his flock of six hundred head would drink about four barrels of river-water daily. But there is one compensation, and that is the facility with which immense stock-cisterns can be dug and plastered directly on the rich, black prairie mold or on the yellow underlying "loess." The scarcity of lumber also tempts the flock-master to attempt to winter his flock witbi too little protection, or underneath a wretched straw or sorghum shed. Though the winters in the western section are comparatively dry, yet there is an occasional flood of waters, and then the flocks, sometimes compelled to share the same enclosure with cattle, are frequently seen stand- mg or wadmg about in wof ul fashion in deep mud and water, which is productive of foot- rot and a malady sometimes taken for foot-and-mouth disease. In 'Minnesota, sheep are generally very healthy, with a slight exception of scab ; in the rest of the prairie section the same general statement may be made, with the exception of foot-rot ; but this exception is so important that it constitutes a serious drawback, almost an estopper, to the growmg of the Merino. There are flne, rolling belts, as in North Missouri, Wisconsin, Southern and Central Illinois, where the better drainage, and the presence of sand in the soil, exempt the floclis, more or less, 218 THE AMEEICAN MEEIKO from this great pest ; but wherever the black, waxy " gumbo " prevails, even if the surface is rolling, the foot-rot is so bad that half the flock will sometimes be seen limping, and a large per- centage grazing around on their knees. Pellets of the ' ' gumbo " soil harden between the segments of the hoof, rendering the sheep lame ; and the shepherd has to catch them and remove the lumps. This trouble occurs in flocks as far west and north as Central Dakota. In all this region the general preference is to have lambing come on grass. Even in Southern Kansas the most experienced shepherds do not care to have lambs before April 25th, though some begin as early as April 10th. When lambs are weaned they frequently receive oats at the rate of a bushel to two hun- dred and fifty head ; when winter comes on a bushel is given to two hundred head, together with fine millet or prairie hay ; or they are turned into the stalk pasture. In Iowa, and northward, blue grass is becoming the main dependence for pasture, while timothy is grown for hay much more than in Kansas. The la^tter State has some choice flocks of Merinos. In Green- wood County, for instance, Mr. Eobert Lay has a flock of over one thousand, which in 1884 yielded an average of eleven pounds of wool per head ; and that of Mr. C. T. C. White, numbering over one thousand, of which ninety per cent, are ewes, yielded over ten pounds per head of white delaine wool. The Southern States. — In the greater part of the South, sheep husbandry is conducted strictly on the laissez faire principle — the sheep take care of themselves, except when wanted by their owners for the yearly " wool-gathering" and for marking. The fact that they continue to exist at aU, and even to increase— despite the ravages of darkies, dogs and buffalo-gnats— is infi- nitely to their credit and to the credit of the natural resources of that sunny land where the snow spirit never comes, and where spring flings hei flowers into the lap of winter. ''ColonelJ. W. Watts, of Martin's Depot, Laurens County, South Carolina, a life-long breeder of sheep, after testing, in South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, six different breeds, settled down upon the Merino for wool and the African Broad-tail for mutton. He found the actual cost of keeping a sheep to be sixty cents per year ; and, after balancing the iambs and the manure against the expense, he found the fleece to be clear profit. This, at seven pounds of unwashed wool (from full- bloods), selling at twenty-two cents (m 1877), would amount to one dollar and fifty-four cents per head. The average number FOE WOOL AND MUTTOlf. 219 of lambs raised from the Merinos he placed at eighty per cent. His pasture was broom-sedge and Japan clover {Lespedeza stri- ata) until after harvest, then he gave them the run of the grain- fields. For winter pasturage he usually sowed rye for the ewes and lambs, and gave all the flocks the run of oats sown in Au- gust and September ; also allowed them the range of the corn- fields and cotton-fields. A^ a mixed feed he found cotton-seed wholesome, economical and profitable. His sheep were very fond of it ; after feeding on green barley all day they would eat it with great relish. Some feed was needed for three months, on account of the scarcity of cultivated grasses. Sheep were very healthy in his section. '* He housed the flocks in winter and littered the stalls fre- quently ; the manure thus collected he sowed broadcast or in drills, in July or August, for ruta-bagas. In the summer he used the Rucliman portable fence, and kept at the rate of one thousand sheep to the acre a week. The value of the manure thus deposited he regarded equal to about four hundred pounds of guano the first year, and its effects were perceptible for sev- eral years afterwards. " He found the sheep great helps to the farmer in eradicating weeds — as, for instance, the cockle-bur, and, in fact, nearly all useless plants." — [Letter to Hon. John L. Hayes.] " Richard Peters,Esq.,of Atlanta, Georgia, tested nine different breeds and crosses between many of them, and settled down on thoroughbred Merinos and Cotswolds, with crosses between the two. For a general purpose sheep he recommended, most de- cidedly, a cross between the full-blooded Merino and the native. Like Colonel Watts, he found the fleece clear profit, and he estimated it at the same weight. "When the winter was mild he found the flocks needed feed about thirty days; if cold and wet, twice that time. In North Georgia the pasturage consisted of sedge, crab and other native grasses ; of the cultivated grasses, orchard grass and red and white clover succeeded on uplands, and redtop on lowlands. Lucern and German millet were cut for hay ; and for winter pasture, the red, rust-proof oats (sown in Sep- tember), also barley, rye and wheat could be grazed during the winter and early spring and then yield a crop of grain. *' In North Georgia the system of sheep husbandry prevailing in Ohio would be applicable ; in Middle Georgia, that of Ken- 230 THE A.MERICAK MERIJiTO tucky ; in South Georgia, that of Texas and California, with shepherd dogs, etc."— [Letter to Hon. John L. Hayes.] In the South Atlantic and Gulf States lambing is expected in January, and the lambs coming thus early are usually more thrifty than those coming later. The farmer helps himself to the wethers at various ages, and sells the small surplus to local butchers or for shipment to Eichmond, Washington and Balti- more, where they arrive before the Northern grain-fed mutton. The ewes are generally kept until they die of old age, disease or dogs. Wool is generally shorn unwashed in April, and the most of it is sold to Jews ; but of late years some shij)ments to Boston and Philadelphia have realized better profits and led the way for further ventures in this direction. Our Northern flock-masters are accustomed to give out cotton- seed with timidity and caution, but in the South the planters who feed their sheep at all, not unfrequently pour it into the troughs ad libitum, and the sheep help themselves without stint and without injury. In Tennessee five bushels of cotton-seed to the head have been given, during the winter, to a flock of half-bloods (Merino and Southdown). In Navarro County, Texas, one hundred pounds of hay and a bushel of cotton-seed per head are provided as a winter store. In Duplin County, North Carolina, twenty sheep received, during January and Febmary, a bushel of pea-hulls and two ears of corn per day. In Arkansas County, Arkansas, two pounds of cotton-seed per day have been given to breeding ewes. In the piney woods, sheep do not subsist to any considerable extent on the coarse grasses, but on herbs, "mainly upon one small perennial herb, growing flat on the ground, with broad and rounded leaves, resembling very much the deer-tongue (vanilla)," {Liatris odoratissima) , In Bradford County, Florida, as I have myself observed, they avoid the grasses of the " flat- woods," which are almost as coarse and jejune as the pine leaves overhead, and select the smut grass [Manisuris granulans), Bermuda grass, crow-foot and crab-grass, besides herbs. All these four last named follow cultivation. In Eastern Texas, Louisiana and Florida sheep are exceedingly fond of the seed of the beggar lice. Guinea grass {Sorghum halapense) has become acclimated ; in winter it dies down, but sheep find, deep down under the debris, a sweet and tender bite, and they may be seen buried to the shoulders searching for it. In winter they will FOR WOOL AND MUTTOi^ 221 penetrate the recesses of the canebreak, and they often have to be confined to the fields to prevent the lambs from drowning in the low, flat woods. But in \vint3r they need some provision of cultivated grasses or rye, or oats. The wonderful Bermuda — the pest of the cot- ton-planter, who is all his life " fighting General Green " — is in reality one of the greatest economic blessings ever vouchsafed to the South. Dr. St. Julian Ravenel, of Charleston, South Car- olina, regards it as superior in value to timothy ; his analysis gives it fourteen per cent, of albuminoids. Dr. D. L. Phares has demonstrated that red clover will grow in Mississippi, and I have myself seen both red and white flourishing, self-seeded, in the orange groves of Bradford County, Florida. Paspalum platy- caule, also called P. compressiim, is another great favorite of the sheep ; it will travel miles m search of it. The Japan clover or bush clover has been mentioned above. All these can be propa- gated by cultivation, and are excellent for sheep. According to Dr. Phares, Japan clover contains 15.11 per cent, of albumi- noids and 56.79 per cent, of carbohydrates, which makes it about equal to timothy. In 1879 the Department of Agriculture sent out to hundreds of correspondents in the South a series of questions directed to the following points : 1. Proportion (percentage) of surface, exclusive of area actu- ally cultivated, yielding grasses suitable for pasturage for sheep. 2. Average number of sheep such pasturage is capable of sustaining during the summer months. 3. Average number one hundred acres would sustain in winter. 4. Number of months in winter in which some extra feed is required. 5. Average weight of fleece in annual shearing. 6. Average value of fleece per pound. 7. Average number of lambs from one hundred ewes. 8. Average percentage of lambs lost by disowning, exposure or other causes. 9. Percentage of sheep (exclusive of lambs) lost annually by disease, theft, dogs, wolves, or other causes. 10. Percentage of sheep destroyed by dogs alone. These returns, carefully tabulated, after the correction of ob- vious errors and the elimination of estimates not bearing the im- press of accuracy of judgment — inevitable blemishes of general 222 THE AMEfilCAX MEEINO returns upon industries that are either new or of minor magni- tude — present the following average results in tabulation : STATES. 1. 10 25 42 50 52 50 55 2. 50 47 55 CO 53 50 55 50 55 60 70 70 60 62 90 80 3. 20 19 22 20 23 22 25 22 24 25 30 33 30 27 29 28 4. 4 4 3.5 4 3 3 3 2.5 3 3 2.5 2.5 3.2 4 4.2 4.2 5. 3.9 3.7 3.3 3.7 3 2.9 2.9 2.7 2.8 2.9 3.2 3.5 3 2.9 4 3.5 6. 28 28 27 32 26 25 27 23 26 25 22 21 27 31 31 28 7. 92 95 95 90 90 91 93 89 98 92 95 90 94 90 97 95 8. 19 20 19 16 20 21 20 22 23 22 20 15 18 20 21 23 9. 10 12 10 13 15 14 18 13 14 11 9 12 13 9 11 10. Delaware 4 Maryland 7 Viro-inia 6.5 West Viro;inia North Carolina South Carolina 4.5 6 8 8 Florida 60 57 50 45 75 65 45 40 42 8 Alabacna 7 Mississippi 8 Louisiaiia Texas 5 4 Arkansas 7 Tennessee 6 Kentucky 4 Missouri 6 Column 5 shows how the influence of the Merino constantly diminishes as we go South ; and columns 8, 9 and 10 show the hopelessness of sheep husbandry in that' section until better management and better dog laws prevail. CHAPTEE XXIII. SYSTEMS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY, Continued. Texas — Historical. — The substratum of the sheep of Texas, to-day, is the Mexican native, which is descended from the Cliourro of the Basque Provinces. The introducer of the Meri- nos was George W. Kendall, founder of the New Orleans Pica- yune, who established his celebrated farm in Comal County in 1852. Besides Mr. KendaU, may be mentioned Captain Allison Nelson, of Bosque County ; Mr. W. R. Kellum, of McLennan County; Mr. F. W. Shaeffer, of Nueces County; Mr. H. J. Chamberlin, of MUam County ; and others. The Chourros were long, lank and light, producing only one and a half or two pounds per head of a coarse, dry, white, strong wool, suitable for carpets. Being neglected, they had FOR WOOL AKD MUTTOT^. 223 not increased much up to the advent of Yr. Kendall, but their hard life had developed a toughness which it was Mr. Kendall's happy conception to take advantage of and engraft upon it the incomparable fleece of the American Merino. After that date, sheep increased with extraordinary rapidity, especially in West- ern and Southern Texas. It is useless to cite statistics, on ac- count of the imperfect returns made of those nomadic flocks. Range and Pasture. — In Eastern Texas north of the Nuieces, embracing about one half of the available j)asture area of the State, there is an agricultural system very much like that of the Gulf States generally, with the same native and cultivated grasses, supplemented more and more as we go west by the mesquite, the grama and other grasses of extreme sections. South of the Nueces are the great wool counties, Webb, Du- val, Nueces, Starr and Encinal. Everywhere on the alluvial soil is the mesquite; on the coast, the sage and salt grasses ; with some grama in the west, increasing as we go to the northwest — all excellent for sheep ; the grama easily first, because it re- sists the droughts so common in this region. Stock are often watered from wells, from fifteen to fifty feet deep. Along the Pecos and west, is a vast desert where even the an- telope is sometimes hard-pushed for water. Close along the Pecos and Rio Grande there are strips of good grass ; also ten or fifteen miles back — but no surface water. The pods of the mesquite tree come in early autumn, as fattening as corn ; then there are the grama, the mesquite and the buffalo grasses — all with different varieties — with the black grama prevailing on the Rio Grande. Water is in springs, ponds and holes, of which only a few last through hot weather. Between the 100th meridian and the Pecos, besides the above, is the juahia, eagerly sought by sheep in the spring, when it furnishes a juice of the color and taste of milk ; the sotal, like the Spanish bayonet, of which the shepherd cuts off the top of thorns with his machete (knife), allowing his flock to eat the juicy interior, which is very fattening ; the nopal cactus, on which, with the sotal, sheep will go without water for many days ; the saladio, the baradulcia, or grease wood, extremely palatable and nutritious to stock in winter ; and many other valuable herbs and bushes. In the Panhandle the pasture is mostly too coarse for sheep, besides which there is found the poisonous '• loco," w^hich pro- duces insanity, strange, fantastic capers, and lingering death. 224 THE AMEKICAJT MERIJ^TO General Management. — The most progressive owners are fencing their ranges with wire, to prevent quarrels between their shepherds and neighboring cattle-men. Where herding is followed, the flock is generally reduced to about eleven hundred ; smaller flocks would do better, but would increase the expense of herding. Ewes and lambs are kept by themselves, leaving barren ewes and wethers — locally called "muttons" — to be herded together in "dry flocks." The corral is a simple circle of brushwood or a wattled fence ; hard by stands the hut of the shepherd ; both being generally on the southern slope of some knoll or creek, or on the south side of a cedar-brake, for protection against the northers. The shepherd must rise early to give his charge the benefit of all the daylight hours. After his breakfast of mutton (goats are kept with the flocks to furnish this, where the shepherd is a a Mexican), pancakes and coffee, be opens the corral, if it is hot weather the sheep saunter out leism-ely, but if it is chilly and wet they move away more briskly, and then the shepherd frequently, instead of following after, goes before, ciichng to right and left, to restrain their movements. It depends a good deal on the disposition of the man whether or not he is allowed to have the assistance of a shepherd dog. If he is lazy and dishonest he can make the dog huddle them, while he sleeps or dawdles away his time, and the sheep go hungry. Besides that, an ambitious dog is apt to "circle " them too much, of his own accord, thus curtailing their feed ; and it is highly necessary that they should be allowed to "take a spread" in order to fill themselves. Range sheep should be kept fat by all means ; a jDOor animal will go down in a storm and get up no more. A cur dog is sometimes employed ; having been suckled by a goat it lingers with the flock and will frighten away wild animals. The flocks occupy the winter range from December until shearing time, and the summer pasture the remainder of the year. The winter range is selected with reference to its resources for protection against storms. Rams (generally full-blood or high-grade Merinos bought in the North) are kept by themselves ; they are given extra feeds of oats, cotton-seed or corn for a few weeks before service be- gins ; then about the middle of September they are turned, with the ewes — three to every hundred — in the corral during the night, and removed through the day, or vice versa. The coup- FOR WOOL AND MUTTON". 225 ling season lasts six or eight weeks ; after it is closed the rams still receive daily feeds of grain for some weeks. The sheep are now put on the winter ranges, which are gen- erally near the ranch headquarters. Sometimes a shed is pro- vided here for a small flock of crones and weaklings, and for the rams. The shortness of the days and the scarcity of herbage now compel the shepherd to rise veiy early and to keep his flock out as long as daylight lasts. About once a week they are salted — say five gallons of salt to the thousand head, perhaps with a few pounds of ashes and sulphur mixed. If the sheep have grub in the head some shepherds mix with the salt a few pints of soot. iSalt is not required on the coast or with mesquite grass. Lambing. — This comes on about February 15th. Two or three extra men to each flock of ewes are hired to assist the regular shep- herd. Some small brush-pens are built near the corral for ewes disowning their lambs. In the morning when the ewes are let out of the corral they are restrained near by until aU the newly dropped lambs and their mothers can be discovered, collected and removed to a separate flock. During the day the men are busy working homeward the lambs dropped on the range, fre- quently carrying in each hand three or four by the forelegs, stopping occasionally to let the ewes come up and smell them. Soon there are three flocks ; the mam one ; a second, with lambs a week old and upward; a third, with, the youngest lambs. As fast as the lambs are transferred from the youngest flock to the older one they are marked, docked and castrated. Shearing.— About April 15th or May 1st, in South Texas, shearing begins; the dry flocks are shorn first, the suckling ewes last, to avoid loss of increase likely to ensue if the ewes and lambs are disturbed and separated too early. The shearing is generally done by Mexicans, who receive three and a half to four cents a fleece. A covered platform is provided for the pur- pose, and on this the sheep are thrown down, tied (about ten at a time) and shorn, while the flock-master and his assistants are busy receiving, tallying, tying up and sacking the fleeces. South of San Antonio semi-annual shearings generally pre- vail; m the spring, extending from February to May 1st ; in the fall, in September and October. North of San Antonio annual shearings are the practice. The spring-cut fleeces are tied up ; the fall-cut are bagged without tying, being light. This latter practice, of course, operates against the grower, since it causes to be mingled together all parts of the fleece, which are graded by the buyer about on a level with the lowest. 226 THE AMEEICAI^ 3IERIK0 Semi-annual shearings have their disadvantages as well as ad- vantages. They cut the wool shorter and therefore make it worth from three to five cents less per pound — since the wools of Texas, if suffered to grow a year, would often be long enough for combiug purposes — and they double the expense. On the other hand, they are very beneficial to sheep, especially lambs, in that hot chmate, promoting their health and condition ; they afford the shepherd a better opportunity to hold in check and eradicate the scab. They also put money in the shepherd's pocket twice a year, which is an object in a State where the merchant is frequently asked to advance money on fleeces still on the sheeps' backs. Pasturage. — A great point of superiority in the Texas grasses over those of California is, that the former are perennial, and therefore do not suffer particularly if their seeds are consumed. Though they may seem to be dead in a drought, a rain will soon freshen them up and make them green in the heart. While cattle will not readily graze after sheep, the latter, by sharp tramping, close feeding and the tearing-up of grasses in a fight soil, destroy pasture that would support cattle a long time ; but where the land is strong and deep, and cattle would injure it greatly by poaching it when muddy, sheep are a benefit. Here they do not pull up the grass or poach the mud, while their light treading buries the grass-seeds and assists them to germi- nate, and they manure the soil. The best flock-masters inveigh strongly against the old, shift- less way of allowing stock to go the entire winter without arti- ficial feed. Not only does the short grass — dead and almost rotten — produce intestinal worms and fever, it is claimed, but even that fails, sometimes. An abundant provision of water should be made by means of weUs, wind-pumps and tanks, for if stock have to wait long for water the weakest, which can least afford it, lose most time in waiting. There ought to be some hay, kept from year to year, if neces- sary, and a field of sorghum or guinea grass, late-sown, for win- ter forage. Cotton-seed is excellent. One feeder in Kendall County reports that he gave his "muttons" six ounces of shelled corn daily for three months, and was well repaid by the superior quality of the mutton. Mutton. — The mesquite grass mutton is asserted to be the best in the State, destitute of the objectionable " sheepy " taste, and improving (?) with age up to the limit of five or six years. FOR WOOL AI^J-D MUTTON. 227 It is often a " burning question " with the Texas flock-master, wliether to ship his mutton- wethers shorn or unshorn. The loss of the fleece destroys the plump appearance, hence the sheep needs to be very fat in order to endure this exposure and the severe ordeal of the railroad journey. The Texas Live Stock Journal argues in favor of shearing generally, and makes this statement : " We have never known a market butcher to pay what we consider the amount the fleece and carcass of a well fleeced sheep would bring if separated. In these times, when the low prices on both wool and mutton make it a fine calcula- tion, any man is hable to make an error in judgment, but if the sheep are good producers of wool, it is a safe rule to get off and make sure of the fleece before trusting the carcass to the tender mercies of the * * * railroad." Conservative flock-masters wish to retain about one-eighth of the Mexican blood, to secure hardiness and fecundity ; but the more progressive ones go on crossing without fear until they have practically full-blood Merinos ; and their success in breed- ing seems to sustain their position. In Northern Texas, south of Ked River, the average fleece weighs, for the New Mexican sheep, two and one-fifth pounds ; for the Merino grade, four pounds. The New Mexican mutton sheep weighs seventy-five pounds, live weight ; the Merino grade, ninety pounds. A scab-law, with enforced State inspection of flocks, rigidly carried out, is much needed. Fencing affords partial protection against scab, but not complete. The Texas Sheep in General.— The Texas sheep is lighter than it should be— probably averages the lightest of all improved sheep in the United States. Not to compare it with Northern animals grown under careful farm management —which would be unjust — let us place it beside some others which are to be found on the great ranges of the West. The French Merino wether of California weighs one hundred and twenty pounds ; the American, one hundred and four pounds ; the Merino wether of New Mexico, one hundred and five pounds ; of Nevada, one hundred pounds, etc. We have seen above that the Merino "mutton "of Texas averages only ninety pounds. Even the French Merino, when brought from California to Western Texas, falls off ; the wether only attains a weight of ninety-five or one hundred pounds. The cause of this is undoubtedly lack of feed. The native 228 THE AMERICAN MERI]!TO grasses of Texas are, perhaps, the most nutritious in the coun- try, yet the sheep feeding on them are the smallest and their fleeces the lightest. It is because of neglect on the part of the flock-masters ; they leave them to gain a sustenance wholly by the process known in the expressive local vernacular as " rus- tling." They have to " rustle " through the summer's drought and the winter's rain. Even where the feed is abundant and good the flocks are frequently mismanaged so that they do not obtain the full benefit of it. The result of this neglect is that Texas mutton and wool suffer when brought in competition in open market with those products from other Western States and Territories. In large flocks, the average increase is seventy-five per cent, of the breeding ewes ; in smaller flocks, eighty-five per cent. In seventy-one flocks, aggregating 139,968 head, one hundred ewes dropped eighty-three lambs ; of these, 63. 71 survived to yearlings. Texas has some really fine flocks ; for instance, that of Hon. H. J. Chamberhn, of Milam County, numbering twelve hundred head, yielded in 1884 ten and a half pounds of wool per head, with stock rams running from fifteen to thirty-three pounds ; and all showing stout, compact carcasses. Rev. W. H. Parks, of Bosque County, has another choice flock, many of his wethers at maturity weighing one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty pounds ; while, as to fleeces he sold, in 1884, to Denny, Rice & Co., sixty-nine that averaged seven pounds of scoured wool to the fleece. But it is a fact that a vast majority of wool-growers in Texas are quite too negligent in this matter of feed and care in winter and during droughts. The experience of flock-masters in Crosby and adjoining counties in the cultivation of alfalfa — which has been found so valuable in California and Colorado — will be con- ducive to good results. While alfalfa, if injudiciously given, is sometimes productive of scours, there remains no doubt that it is an enormously proliflc plant in warm climates and lowlands, and that, in the form of well-cured hay at any rate, it is accept- able to sheep and very fattening, producing fine-flavored mut- ton. The Kansas experiments with sorghum are also very sug- gestive to the Texans, showing that it is an excellent sheep-feed, yielding two cuttings a year which aggregate a greater total of .feed than corn will produce. The dead and half -rotten grass of winter, and the rank growth of wet spells, produce worminess in the sheep and a tender, brashy fleece. The same results were remarked in Queensland, FOR WOOL AKD MUTTON". 229 and the Queenslander reports an experiment which is instruc- tive to the Texas shepherds: "One of two young wethers, suffering from worms and greatly emaciated, was liberally sup- plied with good fresh hay, with a little bran at first. The result was that the animal became perfectly healthy and fat enough to be killed for mutton. The experiment was tried on a larger scale during the hot weather of December and January. Sheep have been thriving and fattening on a patch of lucern beside a flock pastured on indigenous grasses that was being decimated by worms. The lucern was comparatively green and succulent. In the other the most nutritious of grasses had been eaten off close to the ground." Sellman Bros., of San Saba County, state that, of twelve hun- dred lambs, they " lost about sixty head, or five per cent. This last loss we richly deserved, as I think that anyone who at- tempts to carry lambs through the first winter w ithout feed deserves to lose. Had we given the money, that those sixty head were worth, to the flock in feed, I feel confident that we could have saved fifty of them ; besides, the flock would have clipped wool enough extra to have paid for it. To verify this, we have lost but one out of two hundred and twenty-five buck lambs which we wintered on worse range than the other herd had, and gave less than one-fourth of a cent's worth of feed a day per head." Mr. E. A. Louis, of Kendall County, fed his " muttons," the past winter, six ounces of shelled corn per head daily. In a let- ter to me, describing his methods, he says : "I select a smooth, hard, clear surface and place the corn m. small piles over a large area, and they all, weak and strong, get their share, and without injury to the weaker ones. Before this I had troughs, but found out that the stronger ones crowded out the weaker ones and often seriously injured them." Corn has formerly been ninety cents in Kendall County (the present price is fifty) ; but even at the former price, Mr. Louis considers it to be very profitable to give to ' ' muttons " intended for the early spring market. There is one scouring-mill in the State — in San Antonio ; and it would probably be well if there were more. This vast State should prepare well for the coming struggle with Australia, for the New England market, for fine clothing wools. The growers should develop the system so long advocated of skirting their fleeces when the sheep are sheared, and grading and baling their v/ool, if need be, in their own State, before shipment. By this system their best wools would realize a higher price and find 230 THE AMEEICAN^ MERINO their way into the finest fanoy cassimere mills, where they are now unknown and condemned unseen. It remains entirely with the wool-growers of Texas to change this state of things. They can do it from choice now, but the time will come when necessity will compel them to do it. The best Texas ranchmen are taking much better and much more uniform care of their sheep, and are allowing their wool to grow one full year as is done in Australia. A Sample Flock. — Following is a statement of the actual expenses and receipts of a shepherd in San Saba County, who began by piu'chasing one thousand ewes, shearing four pounds per head, at three dollars a head : Dr. October 1, 1877. Original investment in stock, camp outfit, wages of shepherd for one year, etc $3,565 25 March 1st. Wagon, $60 ; pair of ponies, $50 110 00 Harness, $4 ; medicine, $1 50 5 50 Wages of Mexican and wife from March 1st to October Ist, seven months, at $16 112 00 Board of same, seven months, at $10 70 00 Grain fed to rams while running with ewes 20 00 Shearing 1,720 sheep, at four cents 68 80 Hauling 5,875 pounds of wool to market 29 38 Public weigher, weighing twenty-four sa^ks, at ten cents 2 40 Cost of twenty -four sacks, at sixty cents 14 40 Ten pounds twine, at fifteen cents ICO Needle for sewmg sacks 10 3,999 33 Cr. May 1st. Sale of wool from old ewes, 4,000, at twenty-five cents $1,000 00 October 1st. Sale of wool from 750 six-month-old lambs, avera,i2:ino- two and a half pounds, 1,875 pounds, at twenty-five cents 468 75 October 1st. Value of stock at expiration of first year : 950 old ewes, at $3 2,850 00 7.50 six-month-old lambs, at $3 2,'?50 00 Twenty merino rams, at $15 300 00 Value of outfit : Shot- «AKI>Ei^. Allen R. L. and L. F. 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