Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-04-25

SPRING MlNlGENRNT or snREP.

As soon as the warm weather approach
es and the grass appears. sheep become
restive and impatient for the pasture.
This instinct should be repressed till the
ground has become thoroughly dry, and
the grass has acquired substance. They
ought, moreover. to be provided for the
change of food by the daily use Of roots
for few days before turning out. The
tendency to excessive purging which is.
induced. by the FIRST spring feed, may be
checked by housing them at night and
feeding them for the first few days with
little sound, sweet hay. They must be
provided with pure water and salt; for,
though they may do tolerably well without
either, yet thrift and freedom from dis
ease are cheaply secured by this slight at-
tention. ssf 4a
As to water, it may be said that It is
not indispensable in the summer pastures,
since the dews and the succlence Of the
feed answer as a substitute but q wide
experience. having demonstrated that free
access to it Is advantageous, particularly
to those having lambs, It should be con-
sidered matter Of importance on q sheep
farm so to arrange the pasture, if possible
as to bring water into each of them.
Salt is indispensable to the health, es-
pecially in the summer 1t is common to
give it once week, while they are at
grass. 1t is still better to give them free
access to it. at all times, by keeping il in
a covered box, open on one side. A large
hollow log, with holes cut along the side
for the insertion Of the heads Of the ami
mails, answers very well. A sheep hay
Ing free access to salt at all times will
never eat too much of it; and it will take
its supply at such times and in such quanti-
ties as nature demands, instead Of eatinR
OF it voraciously at stated periods. as in
termediate abstinence will stimulate it to
do. When salt is fed but once q week, it
is better to have a stated day, SO that it
will not be forgotten; and it is well to lay
the salt on fiat stones-though If laid in
little handfuls on the grass, very little Of it
will be lost
TAR.-This Is supposed by many to
form q very healthful condiment for sheep,
and they smear the nose with It, which is
licked and swallowed as the naural heat
of the flesh. or that of the weather. causes
it to trickle down over the nostrils and
lips. Others, suffering the flock to get
unusually salt hungry, place tar upon Hat
stones, or in troughs. and then scatter salt
upon it so as both may be consumed to-
gether. Applied to the nose, in the ma
| ture of a cataplasm, it may be advantage
Gus in catarrhs, and in the same place, at
the proper periods, its odor may, perhaps,
repel the fly, the eggs of which produce
the "gout, in the head" as it is termed.
However valuable it may be as a medicine
and even as IA debeagent in the cases spec
flied, there is but slight ground for conf
dence in it merely as a condiment.
Dry, sweet pastures and such as abound
in aromatic and bitter plants, are best
suited 10 sheep walks. No animal, with
the exception of the goat, crops so great
a variety OF plants. They eat many which
are rejected by the horse and OK, which
are even essential to their wants. In this
respect they are valuable assistants to the
husbandman. as they feed greedily on
wild mustard, burdock, thistles, marsh
mellows, milk weed, and various other
offending plants; and the Merino exceeds
the more recent breeds in the range Of his
selections.
In pastures, however, where the dry
stocks of the burdoek Or the hounds
tongue, or tory-weed have remained
standing over the winter, the burrs are
caught in the now long wool, and. if they
are numerous, the wool is rendered entire
| ly unmarketable and almost valueless.
Even the dry prickles of the common and
Canada thistles, where they are very nu-
mcrous, get into the neck wool of sheep.
as they thrust their heads under and
among them to crop the first scarce feed
of the northern spring; and. independent
ly of injuring the wool, they make it difii-
sheep. Indeed, it is a matter Of the sound
aCf tn kn nj
pastures, those free from these and simi-
lar plants; and in region where they are
pastured the year round, they should be
kept from contact with them for some
months prior to shearing.
Many prepare artificial pastures for
their tlocks which may be done with
number of plants. Winter rye. or wheat
sown early in the season, may be fed of
in the fall, without injury to the crop;
and, in the following spring, the rye may
be pastured till the stalks shoot up and
begin to form head This affords an
early and nutritious food. Corn may be
sown broadcast, or thickly in drills, and
either fed off in the fields or cut and car
red to the sheep in their folds. White
mustard is also a valuable crop for this
purpose.
To give the sheep sufficient variety, it
is better to dtcide their range into several
smaller ones, and change them as often,
at least, as once week. They seek
favorite resting-phce, on dry, elevated
part of the field, which soon becomes
soiled. BY removing them from this for
few days, rain will cleanse or the sun
dry it. so as to make it again suitable for
them. More sheep may be kept. and in
better condition, where this practice Is
adopted, than where they are confined to
the same pasture.
No one who has observed with what
eagerness sheep seek shade in hot
and how they pant and apparently suner
when a hot sun is pouring down upon
their naked bodies, will doubt thst, both
as matter of humanity and utility, they
should be provided. during the hot sum-
mer months, with better snefter tnan
that afforded by common raii-ience.-
Stock Journal.