FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 93 



We can in this way divide up the burden of lamb raising so that n(4 

 ewe will be compelled to keep more lambs than she is able to care for. 

 Those lambs not disposed of at Easter time can be sold at high prices to, 

 fill an ever increasing demand for very early lambs, at figures that make 

 a handsome profit to the producer; and his ewes are relieved of their 

 burden early in the season and will thus be prepared to breed early, 

 ready for the next year's harvest. But should he prefer, he can feed 

 them over and again get fancy prices for Christmas lambs; or, if he has 

 Ijlenty of grain feeds, he can feed for the spring market, shearing early 

 in February, and get even greater prices. 



Sheep managed in this way should yield a return in wool and lamb^ 

 of from |6 to flO per head, according to the length of time the lamb is 

 fed, and the price received; and we very much question if any other 

 farm stock will yield as much for food consumed and labor expended. 



Moral : "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well." 



Mr. Welch: I can feed 640 lambs in ten minutes, and this without frightening the 

 lambs or causing them to pile up. The men do not have to get in the pen with the' 

 lambs at all. Between each two adjacent pens and separating the lambs is a rack and 

 feeding trough combined, from which the lambs may be excluded by dropping a board 

 on each side. This board is dropped from the aisle which runs lengthwise of the barn 

 and divides it into two sets of pens. From this aisle a man may walk down the rack 

 and sweep it out, and then put in the grain. The boards are then raised and the 

 lambs allowed to eat the grain. The silage and hay is fed into the rack from the 

 floor above. Human labor is thus economized, with the result that the past season 

 it has cost but three cents for each pound of grain, and the lambs made an average 

 gain of two pounds per week. Naturally the lambs have plenty of light and pure air, 

 and have fresh water by them all the time. 



SHEEP RAISING ON THE FARM. 



A. B. COOK, SHIAWASSEE COUNTY. 



We have listened with pleasure to the talks b^^ our many dairying 

 friends this morning, and now are given five minutes to speak a few 

 words for the sheep on the farm. 



One dairyman present at this meeting told me that he keeps seven 

 hired men, all boarding in his own home. Another, that this is his 

 first "outing" from home in over two years. 



When one gives up his home life and his time all days of the week, 

 and puts up with the many discomforts which the dairyman must, he 

 is surely entitled to the nice income which the good dairyman who puts 

 his product on an appreciative market receives. 



Can we not find some way to conduct our farms with profit and at 

 the same time have liberty to a degree at least for ourself and family, 

 and be quite independent as to hired help. 



The advantages of sheep are the ease with which they are cared for, 

 the ease with which they are fenced against, and the fact that the sheep, 

 where good mutton qualities are combined with a good, heavy fleece 

 of wool, are found to be almost always money makers. Sheep have 

 always been admitted to be one of the very best soil imj)rovers in the 

 line of stock. 



