THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



537 



a small piece of tui'uip laud in so lato a season ol' 

 the year. I have now liiiished the part of my sub- 

 ject as to how ewes are so often caused to slip their 

 lambs by wet and bad weather. I shall now pro- 

 ceed to point out how often they are caused to do 

 so by very good keeping and fine dry weather, 

 which, probably, will cause some of you to ditier 

 from me in opinion; but facts are stubborn things, 

 and nothing will ever cause me to alter mine, after 

 seeing so many proofs of this kind. I have said, 

 in the former part of this subject, that we Uock- 

 masters often half starve what we term our flock 

 ewes during the latter part of the summer; and in 

 the autumn, after our sale sheep are sold, we some- 

 times have plenty of turnips to be fed off for wheat, 

 when we begin to keep our flock ewes well with as 

 many turnips as they can eat; and when we find 

 we are getting late with our wheat sowing we are 

 sometimes too liberal with our turnips, thinking we 

 shall get our ewes in good condition to go through 

 the winter well, as most of us like to see our sheep 

 in high condition if we have an opportunity of get- 

 ting them so ; and on turnip farms many peojjle 

 put their ewes on to feed their winter turnips or 

 swedes as soon as their wheat land is all fed off. 

 By this time, where they have been given as many 

 turnips as they could eat during a greater part of 

 the autumn, they begin to get in too high condition 

 to carry their lambs healthy to their proper time of 

 birth. This more frequently occurs when ewes 

 are kept on swedes, and allowed as many as they 

 can eat, before they are three-parts gone: after that 

 time it does not apply, as the lamb is too large in 

 them. Therefore I say avoid giving plenty of 

 swede until after that period. I have more fre- 

 quently found my two-tooth ewes slip lamb from 

 this mode of keeping, and I account for it in this 

 way — they are often better in condition at starting 

 than the other two ages of ewes, which have suckled 

 lambs through the early part of the jirevious sum- 

 mer. And another reason is, some people push on 

 their young age of ewes with belter keep, on ac- 

 count of their youth, to get them in as good con- 

 dition as possible, without a moment's consider- 

 ation as to the laws of nature, or how the tender 

 lamb in the ewe can stand so much what I term 

 forcing. If ever you have your ewes in what you 

 think extra good condition, that is the time when 

 comes the great mischief. This most frequently 

 occurs in a very fine dry autumn, when the sheep 

 will " prove " double as fast as in a cold wet time, 

 even if you were to double their keep, where we 

 keep them on a folding system. I never remember 

 to have had any losses from the cause which I have 



been now pointing out m a wet cold autumn, as I 

 could never raise the ewes' blood too high in that 

 kind of weather. Gentlemen, I will now proceed 

 to state to jou in what way I mean the blood is 

 raised too high in the ewe for the lamb to be carried 

 healthy to its time of birth. By what 1 have been 

 able to find out, the lamb is not so very attractive 

 of its mother's blood until it gets towards half- 

 gone, as I have never experienced any losses in this 

 way previous to about that time, if I had forced a 

 ewe ever so fast, as I have generally found a lot of 

 ewes, almost fit for the butcher when put to ram, 

 invariably carry their lambs well to their proper 

 time. I account for it in this way — you cannot 

 raise them much above the standard with the best 

 of keep on a folding system without cake or corn ; 

 and unless you raise the blood too high just at the 

 nick of time that the lamb is so attractive of its 

 mother's blood, I am of opinion you have nothing 

 to fear from the cause I am now representing, as I 

 found my remarks upon notes of experience. I 

 have known a lot of rather poor stock ewes, on 

 more than one occasion, taken from a poorish farm 

 and put with a lot of ewes, in what I call high stock 

 order, on good land. They were all rammed 

 together ; and all kept on well during the autumn 

 season, mostly to turnips, and at last swedes. They 

 were never separated; and the poorer lot at the end 

 of the autumn had got equal to the lot bred on 

 better land. The consequence was that the lot of 

 ewes which gained so very fast during the latter 

 part of the autumn about half-slipped their lambs ; 

 and the lot which were in high order at first, and had 

 been bred on the better land, scarcely slipped any. 

 This was occasioned, no doubt, from their having 

 made blood too fast at the time the lamb was so 

 attractive of its mother's blood, and before the lamb 

 was sufficiently large in the ewe to contain the 

 quantity which flowed to it, while the other lot of 

 better ewes had made a full flow of blood gradually, 

 long before. Now I will explain to you in what 

 way I have found this overflow of blood take place, 

 and the symptoms by which it may be known. 

 Many years ago I had some two-tooth ewes which 

 got into high condition in November. They had 

 been kept well to turnips for some time, and about 

 the end of that month they were put on to as many 

 swedes as they could eat, taking care never to over- 

 fill them. In about three weeks they began to look 

 like a lot of fat sheep, and to cast their lambs. I 

 immediately removed them from the swedes and 

 put them to turnips again. I also examined one of 

 the lambs immediately, as it came from the ewe. 

 The cleaning came away with the Iamb, and I saw 



