The Holbrook news., 1919-08-08
Sheep Harvesting Their Own Feed and
 Saving Labor for Their Owner.

SneeP 7arVeSrln0 nelr own feeo ana
 Saving Labor for Their Owner. cornields. This practice has proved very satisfactory in many states. It, of course, neceSsitates purchases in the fall and marketing in December or January, and is, therefore, adaptable on large scale only to such farms or sections as are in position to make a practice of speculative feeding of live stock, as few farms at present raise sufficient number of lambs to harvest the grain from a large acreage of corn.
 A larger use of forage crops for fat tening meat stock can be adopted with a saving of labor. This plan permits the putting on of large gains with crops which are harvested entirely by the animals themselves.
 In many sections fal1-sown wheat and rye can be grazed by sheep, there by making a great saving in winter feed as well as in the labor of feeding. Nh sections such as Tennessee this practice has become very general, and is found to work exceedingly well in the production of winter wheat.
 Self-feeders for the feeding of hay to fatten sheep and lambs can be used to good advantage. Although their use in the feeding of grain to hogs will prove very satisfactory in the saving pf labor, it is not recommended that they be used in feeding grain to sheep and lambs.
 In range sections considerable win ter labor can be economized and great CT safety secured by the distribution of supplies of feed to strategic points on the winter range. Corn, cottonseed cake or velvet beans can be stored in metal granaries at points which will permit of their ready distribution to the stock in case of storms, which com monly make it impossible to get feed to the stock from the nearest railroad points. In the event of a very open winter this feed may deteriorate dur ing the following summer. In most sections, however, the climate is sui ficiently dry to allow it to remain in storage for use in good condition dur ing the second winter.
 In the past, injury has been done by advocating sheep raising on lands where little or no labor or attention is needed and farms are thereby cleaned of weeds. So far as their ap- petite for weeds is concerned. sheep may be regarded to some extent as scavengers. They will eat most weeds and on any farm will reduce greatly the amount of land labor needed to hold weeds in check on the areas of pasture and grain crops. It is a mis- take, however, to advocate the raising of sheep where the main interest is in weed control.
 While the labor required for sheep production is continuous, 1t is not heavy, and if properly supervised can well be performed by boys or aged men incapable of other kinds of farm labor, and by girls and women. Sheep management can be learned and un- derstood and the labor performed by anyone who is willing to observe care fully and think and attend to the de- tails as attention is required.
 It must be understood, however, that sheep raising should not be engaged in with an idea that little attention is re- Quired. The wants of sheep are numer- ous and varied, and frequent attention is required to forestall conditions that will result in i'll health or lack of thrift. At lambing time frequent at tendance day and night is necessary to avoid losses Of ewes and young lambs.