Summer Management.
As soon as the warm weather approaches, 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 a few days before turning out. It would also check the tendency to excessive purging, which is induced by the first spring feed, if they were housed at night, and fed for the first few days with a little sound, sweet hay.
They must be provided with pure water, salt, &c., as in winter, for though they may sometimes do tolerably well without either, yet thrift and freedom from disease are cheaply secured by this slight attention.
Dry, sweet pastures, and such as abound in aromatic and bitter plants, are best suited for 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 the ox, and which are even essential to their own wants. In this respect, they are valuable assistants to the husbandman, as they feed greedily on wild mustard, burdocks, thistles, marsh-mallows, milkweed, and various other offending plants; and the Merino exceeds the more recent breeds in the variety of his selections.
Many prepare artificial pastures for their flocks. This may be done with a number of plants. Winter rye, or wheat sown early in the season, may be fed off 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 a 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 carried to the sheep in their folds. White mustard is a valuable crop for this purpose.
To give sheep sufficient variety, it would be better to divide their range into smaller ones, and change them as often at least as once a week. They seek a favorite resting-place, on a dry, elevated part of the field, which soon becomes soiled. By removing them from this for a few days, rains will cleanse, or the sun dry it, so as again to make it 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.
Washing Sheep.
In most of that portion of the Union north of 40°, the washing is performed from the middle of May till the first of June, according to the season and climate. When the streams are hard, which is frequently the case in limestone regions, it is better to do this immediately after an abundant rain, by which the lime derived from the springs is proportionally lessened. The practice of a large majority of our farmers, is to drive their sheep to the washing-ground early in the morning on a warm day, leaving the lambs behind. The sheep are confined on the bank of the stream by a temporary enclosure;
from which they are taken, and if not too heavy, are carried into water sufficiently deep to prevent their touching bottom. They are then washed, by gently squeezing the fleece with the hands, after which they are led ashore, and as much of the water pressed out as possible before letting them go, as the great weight retained in the wool frequently staggers and throws them down.
A good practice is to lead the sheep into the water and saturate the fleece, after which they are taken ashore. When they commence steaming, they are again led into the water, and washed clean. This insures thorough cleansing, where the water is pure. Others make use of a boat, one end of which rests on a bold shore, and the other is in deep water. The operator stands in the boat and plunges the animal over the side, when the washing is performed. It is sometimes done by sinking a tight hogshead or large box in the water, with heavy weights, in which a man stands, and the sheep are brought or led to him by another person, who walks on a platform reaching from the bank to the hogshead. Either of the last methods obviates the necessity of standing for a long time in water, by which colds, rheumatism, &c. are frequently contracted. In parts of Germany, and sometimes in this country, sheep are forced to swim across a narrow stream several times, by which the fleece is tolerably cleaned, if all the water be pressed out when they get to the land. The yolk being a saponaceous compound, and not an oily matter as is generally supposed, it readily combines with the water and passes out of the wool.