feeding in a small way can be put in place for twenty-five dollars or less if the lay of the land will allow the use of cement concrete to build the tank and drainage floor. No man can expect success if the lambs are infested with ticks or other vermin. Westerners, even if they have a clean bill of health at Chicago, should be dipped at the farm as soon as rested and improving. Feeders have neglected this to their sorrow and serious loss.

RACKS.

Racks can easily be built that answer every purpose for hay, fodder and corn feeding, and of any desired length up to twelve feet. The floor to a rack should be eighteen to twenty inches wide with side boards to the floor four to six inches high. The bottom of the rack should be about eight inches from the ground. Three feet is about the right height for a rack-the slats on the sides seven inches apart, slats one-half inch by three inches and necessary length. Old barrel staves make excellent slats. The sides of the rack should be perpendicular so the lambs can feed with their heads inside the rack between the slats. If the racks are loosely filled with hay they will soon have it all under their noses. If too much hay is fed they will eat off the top and fail to reach the finer part underneath. Cattle and horses will nose down for these finer parts, but lambs will not unless fed only what they will eat clean. The rack should be made of as light material as possible; to get the required strength inch plank for the box part and good shingle lathe for posts, and nails around the top.

It is my custom to clean the racks once a day. If not enough coarse straw to require it, the cobs at any rate are thrown out. Ear corn is fed in small quantities at the start once a day. When this once a day ration reaches near full half feed, it is divided and feed twice a day, increasing gradually till full ration is reached, always feeding a little short of the limit so that each lamb will come to the rack for his share.

It is the aim always to keep the racks clean. If corn is refused in any part of the rack the reason is found out and the rack scrubbed if necessary.

MANNER OF FEEDING.

Now, the lambs that have corn twice a day get good fodder from morning till after they have had their evening feed of corn, when they are fed what alfalfa they will clean up by morning. Those that have not yet reached full corn ration have their corn at noon, and fodder and hay as the others.

The lots must be kept clean by throwing in straw when necessary. The same is true of the shed floors. There is nothing they enjoy more than clean straw to play over and lie down on. They will not lie down or play when it is filthy under foot.

QUIETNESS.

It should be the aim of the feeder to be as quiet as possible about the lots when feeding or giving necessary attention. If he must whistle or sing while feeding the tunes should be the same. Neither should the feeder make noticeable changes in his clothes or it will cause restlessness among the lambs. As nearly as possible the same person should do all the feeding, and strangers passing through the barns or sheds should be under the escort of the feeder. A shepherd's crook should be found in a given place and a good pair of shears

with it. When a lamb needs togging it should be attended to quietly so that the others will not be scared.

The period of feeding is governed very much by the condition of the lambs when they go on feed, although the period can be lengthened when it is desired to use up a large quantity of hay or fodder or both, feeding lightly of grain in the meantime. But after they reach a full grain ration one hundred days' feeding will bring them to the danger point, whether they are thin or in good flesh when they are started, and it will be wisdom on the part of the owner to find a market for them as soon as possible. But it should be an axiom not to be departed from, not to sell till well finished.

The President: Now, members of the Institute, we all agree that we have listened to a most excellent address, giving evidence not only of a cultured gentleman, but of one who understands fully his subject. I am sure that there is not one person here this afternoon but who is interested in this subject. You don't all feed lambs, but I am sure you all delight to feed upon the lamb, and if you would have him well fed and have good lamb chops, let us discuss this question. If you have any questions, kindly give them to Mr. Jamison or present them to the Institute. We would be glad to have an earnest and live discussion of this most important subject.

Dr. Chamberlain: On account of the difficulty of sending in written questions, I would suggest that they be fired into the chairman, and that the chairman repeat them to Mr. Jamison, so that he may answer them.

Mr. Roudebush: I would like to ask Mr. Jamison what relative value he places on alfalfa hay in feeding lambs.

Mr. Jamison: I believe chemical analysis used in comparing alfalfa with other feed rates it almost as high as bran in value. I tried it this year. I felt that I would about as lief have it as to have bran, because lambs eat it as readily, or more so, as they do bran, and if you know anything of the value of bran for that purpose, to keep up the bone and muscle of animals, then you will know something of the value of alfalfa as feed. I may not have enough alfalfa to finish my lambs, but if I don't I hope I may have enough rye to finish them. Two years ago I hoped to have fattened my lambs on rye. Most of the feeders would say: "When you get them to the lot keep them there; never let them out." I don't believe any such a thing, if you have anything good for them to eat when they get out. They go out with a rush the first day, take a big run, but each single day after that they will go out orderly, eat what rye they want; if it is pleasant, lie down in the field and rest, and if it is unpleasant, come back to the barn quietly and orderly. I don't know of any better way, when lambs are shorn in the spring, than to give them their regular feed and allow them to run on the rye field through the day.

Professor Wm. R. Lazenby: There is one point that is suggested by Mr. Jamison that raises a question in my mind. He spoke about feeding the roots, and claimed, as many do-they measure by the dry matter in the roots, beets, as I suppose they were—that he did not think it was profitable. Now, is it not likely we make a mistake in measuring, say certain root products by the weight of dry matter, percentage of dry matter? I suppose I look at this matter from the standpoint of the horticulturalist rather than a stockman, but I know that stock foods are measured by our chemists in proportion to the dry matter they contain. But now, how is that with fruit? Our best fruit, fruit that we enjoy, and I suppose the fruit that does us the most good, has a very high percentage of water. Good milk, I suppose, good milk is 87 per cent. water, and yet I apprehend that for young animals, at least the ones that cannot find any food, however much higher percentage it might have of dry matter, that would be as good as this milk that has so much water in it. I am not here to say that everybody could raise roots, of course, for stock, but I do think that if I had to choose between a good slice of bread, and could have a generous slice, and one apple, or have two slices of bread and nothing else, I would take the one slice and the apple, because I think it would do me more good, and I think the equivalent to the apple is a pretty good thing for all classes of stock. We have raised this year between fifty and sixty tons of carrots upon the university gardens. Now, we do not use these ourselves, but we sell them to the horse breeders, a firm of horse breeders. They pay us fourteen dollars a ton for carrots. While they are paying for quite a percentage of water, that is true, compared with other food for these horses, for I suppose the percentage of water is very high and the percentage of dry matter correspondingly low, yet I believe that succulent food is of greater value to those horses than anything else that is given.

Mr. Markel, of Pickaway county: I would just like to say this to Mr. Jamison's remark-that the float valve would freeze up. If it will be of any benefit to farmers, I will say I have my float valve so it never freezes up. I have the pipes laid three feet under ground, so they never freeze up, and when I haul it out to my gardens I simply make a very small tank, just large enough to work in. Now that float valve never freezes up, and from that float valve I feed all those animals which are on a level with the float valve. As fast as they drink it it always keeps floating out of the top.. At other places where I feed my fat cattle, the float valve is in those places and it never freezes up. We cover the troughs at night. I think it would do for sheep.

Mr. Keller, of Madison county: I have handled sheep the greater part of my life. I am a "hillican," and it is true that "hilliçans," as a rule, like to handle sheep, and for that reason I proceeded in it. I do not feed precisely as Mr. Jamison does. I usually begin to feed my lambs

in the fall, just merely early enough to have no shrinkage. Then I feed for the April market. I simply feed them, as I say, scantily, but sufficiently, corn and fodder and clover hay, until about the first of February, when I increase the feed and continue on full feed until possibly the middle of April. I find that I then have them upon full feed about sixty or seventy days. By that I mean that in feeding them I give them all they will eat without sustaining any loss. It is a very careful matter in feeding lambs and getting them on full feed without any deaths recorded or without any serious results from overfeed. It is a very ticklish matter, as we sometimes express it, in beginning to feed them corn so that they will have no deaths by that means. I usually crop my lambs about the first of February. I might say too that we dip them early in the summer, in order to get rid of the ticks, and that in February, about the first of February, we take off their fleeces. I find that they do so very much better, in fact, I think the corn goes one hundred per cent. further when the fleeces are off. We house our lambs in a basement barn and find that they get along very well. We allow them to run out every day, even sometimes when it is snowing. They go out and prance around and leap and bound and enjoy even the cold atmosphere, only sometimes a few days after they have been clipped. We shell our corn for the lambs. Mr. Jamison don't like that. I have fed my lambs on ear corn, but I find that they do much better by shelling the corn, which costs about three cents a bushel. Now, I might say further we use the self-feed, and we shell enough corn for a week or ten days' feeding. That facilitates labor. By feeding ear corn cobs accumulate in the troughs, some of them seem to get sore mouths, and I find it is not so successful as the shelled corn, and have it as a self-feed. They eat that all day long, and sometimes at night we find them eating, and they drink at all hours. We have water in the basement barn. I do not regulate it with a float valve, but a spout or something further, and we can always have sufficient water, and it scarcely ever runs over. On our tanks, where we feed cattle, we use the float valve and that is all.

Mr. George E. Scott: I don't know as I can get the information from Brother Jamison, but I would like to know some of the results of corn ensilage.

Mr. Jamison: I have had no experience with it at all. If I was satisfied I could use it in buildings I think I should give it a trial. But I have plenty of alfalfa hay and good corn fodder. Ensilage would go further, but I think I can get along all right until I can experiment with it, but it must be fed with alfalfa and clover hay to help it out. Ensilage should not be fed by itself, but should be fed with alfalfa or clover hay.

A member: Brother Jamison told me he was raising alfalfa and that it averaged from three to five tons per acre every year. Now he tells us that alfalfa is worth as much as bran. Bran is worth twenty dollars

a ton with us. Now, four tons to the acre would make eighty dollars. I choose to sell the alfalfa instead of putting it into sheep and then selling them.

what it costs

A member: I think the gentleman made one mistake. He said that bran was worth twenty dollars a ton. If he means that is he is all right. It is not worth that nine times out of ten. worth twenty dollars a ton.

Bran is not

Mr. Rankin: What was the real cause of the death of those lambs suddenly? I would be anxious to know what was the trouble with them. A member: Heart failure. (Laughter.)

Mr. Rankin: I asked the question in good faith and I must assure you, gentlemen, that answer is not satisfactory.

A member: It is generally caused from fatty degeneration. That is the most common cause of death in lambs. I think Mr. Jamison will tell you that.

Dr. Chamberlain: I was about to say that I thought a more careful answer could be given. In regard to feeding roots, you can't get a Yankee to feed roots. He won't bend his knees enough to cultivate them, to store them and to cut them up, and to feed them, not so long as he can make corn ensilage, which will answer for the same purpose. Prof. Lazenby speaks of a diversity of food. I remember being at an Institute when Prof. Lazenby told how many quarts of strawberries it would take to give a man a full feed of albuminoids, and my memory is it would take three bushels to feed a man the necessary albuminoids and about six bushels to give him the necessary That

is the truth as to animals, it does not seem to agree with our high prices of labor to attempt to raise roots. You can't get a half dozen Yankees in the United States to bother with roots when you can make corn ensilage that will answer the same purpose.

Mr. E. P. Snyder: There seems to be a good deal of trouble about lambs on full feed, that seems to be the cause of their death sometimes. Why ever put them on full feed? Raise good heavy merinos, put them on grass and make them feed on grass, and by that way you will feed them at a good deal less expense and get a good deal more out of them. You can find that a fact, gentlemen; you can get as good a price for them at any time as you can for the other.

Mr. Durbin, of Greene County: I can't help but agree with Prof. Lazenby in what he says about the raising of sheep. Now, I don't believe there is a solid feed in that two hundred bushels. Nature itself sets us one of the best examples we have, and we find that the man who sticks close to nature is the man that is going to succeed.

Mr. Holden, of Meigs: I though maybe I could tell you a little something about alfalfa, as I got into it by mistake. I had three or four acres that I sowed for millet and I got alfalfa. I have had it about three