SHEEP. 97 



so as to make them waste nothing - . You should make your 

 ewes gain on hay alone. 



You have turned your ram out late and your ewes are well 

 on grass before the lambs begin to fall. Give them a dry hillside 

 where they can get out of the wind. Every day the rams should 

 be castrated and the tails docked. The best way to dock is to 

 strike a blow with a sharp chisel on the end of a block of wood, 

 working the skin of the tail towards the body before the blow 

 is struck, so the skin will make a pad over the end of the tail. 

 The most successful way to castrate is to do it as soon as the 

 lamb can get on to his feet. Then take a pair of shears and clip 

 the scrotum off next to the body, leaving skin enough to make 

 a pad. If a sheep loses a lamb, be careful that her udder does 

 not spoil. 



Spring has come, and the first thing is fences. The best sheep 

 fence is barbed wire, with posts fifty feet apart, cleated every 

 eight feet. A sheep never tries a fence that yields a little at his 

 pressure, but he will sometimes force himself through a fence 

 that is rigid. To put posts so far apart the ground must be 

 smooth, and in practice you can seldom do it, but you can 

 approach it. 



Spring also brings the question of crops before you. You 

 should put in this first year five acres of oats. Let them get 

 dead ripe and harvest them as hay, and feed them to both the 

 team and sheep without threshing. Both will eat them clean 

 and thrive wonderfully. You should have two acres of ruta- 

 bagas. Plow in good season and harrow every two weeks until 

 June 25th, then plant. You have killed the most of the weeds 

 by the harrowing. When the turnips are large enough single 

 them to twelve inches, and the most of the cultivating can be 

 done with the horse. The turnip should get its greatest growth 

 in September and October. For lambs, roots must be cut. For 

 any animal with a full mouth, feed them whole. Let them sweat 

 in piles covered with the tops before you put them in the cellar, 

 for a week. At the same time that the turnips are planted, June 

 20th to 30th, put in five acres of rape into which you can turn 

 the sheep when the fall feed gets short. Make this and the 

 turnip ground rich, and a wonderful crop will result. Sow in 

 drills or broadcast, as suits you best. If you are skilled enough, 



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