234 Bulletin 309 



pen to provide against chilling the newborn lamb before he gets dry. 

 The lambs are all right as soon as they get dry and up on their feet, if 

 the temperature in the pen does not go below 20° F. 



After the lambs are bom, the ewes with their lambs have been penned 

 together and the ewes fed grain and some succulent food. Each pen has 

 usually contained eight to ten ewes and their lambs. The size of these 

 pens is about ten by fifteen feet. The grain ration has always been made 

 up nearly in accordance with the following formula: 60 pounds of wheat 

 bran, 30 pounds of corn meal, and 10 pounds of old-process oil meal. 

 Sometimes the proportions have been changed or other grains have been 

 added, but the above formula is a representative one for the ewes. They 

 have been fed lightly at first and then increased to two or three pounds 

 per head per day. Besides clover hay for roughage, it has been the prac- 

 tice to provide roots, feeding about two pounds of sliced turnips or mangels 

 per head per day. It has been thought that turnips gave better results 

 than did mangels. When no roots have been available, silage has 

 been fed in the same amount, two pounds per head per day, with good 

 success. 



As mentioned before, the best food to keep the lamb growing is his 

 mother's milk, and the main object in feeding the ewe at this point is to 

 get the greatest possible milk-production. Care must be taken that neither 

 the lamb nor his mother shows signs of scouring; such signs exhibited by 

 either indicate overfeeding of the ewe. Careful shepherding at all times 

 is the keynote of success with this kind of sheep husbandry. 



Care of the young lambs. — No matter what the size of the hothouse 

 lamb may be, he will not top the market unless he is fat. In order to 

 attain this condition, as indicated above, the best food is his mother's 

 milk and plenty of it; this must be supplemented with grain, however, 

 as the lamb grows. At different times the following mixtures have been 

 tried: 



(i) 50 pounds of corn meal, 50 pounds of wheat middlings, and 5 

 pounds of oil meal; 



(2) 25 pounds of wheat bran, 25 pounds of wheat middlings, 25 



pounds of hominy chop, and 8 pounds of oil meal; 



(3) When the lambs were one month old, 45 pounds of whole corn, 



45 pounds of whole oats, and 10 pounds of oil cake, pea size. 

 When this last mixture was used it was fed once a day, after 

 which the trough was swept out clean and a mixture like No. 

 I or No. 2 was fed once daily. No advantage was found in 

 the use of No. 3, and therefore its use has been discontinued of 

 late and mixtures like No. i or No. 2 have been relied on en- 

 tirely. 



