690 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRGULTURE. 



In five, but if jour inquirer will try rye he will find it will hardly faff 

 him once in a decade. We set our drill at one bushel per acre and after 

 a rain has softened the ground sow rye over our clover fields. Sow two 

 bushels after corn. Now our wise Northern shepherd would have his 

 beet cellar to fill this want, and we have fed the mangels with enitre 

 satisfaction here. 



The foregoing brings to mind that lambing is here, the time of great- 

 est anxiety to the shepherd, especially -when lambs here at the scales 

 will bring $5.50 delivered in July, so a few lines inay be of benefit to some. 

 Half of the battle is won if we have our ewes strong in flesh, which we do 

 by giving them first I/2 ear to II/2 ears of corn during December and 

 January while thej' run on pasture and not wait until the bleat of a 

 hungry lamb gives us warning that there is no milk in the udder. We 

 now need two pastures and two sheds, never turning a ewe with the flock 

 aftef dropping her lamb. This prevents the lamb from being run over 

 or going astray with the flock and failing to be claimed afterwards. 



Upon finding a chilled lamb the old way was to wrap it up and lay it 

 before the fire, but if you will heat a kettle of water almost too hot to 

 bear your hand ik and srabmerge the lamb up to its throat and gradually 

 let it cool, in 30 minutoB you can I'ub until nearly dry and take it back 

 to its mother. If twins, subject both to the same process, else the mother 

 will be able to detect a difference and disown one. A shepherd up-to-date 

 will never let a ewe that has drooped a lamb and lost it fail to suckle if 

 any other ewe has two. Skin the dead lamb and place skin like a blanket 

 over the lamb you wish claimed, tying it oa securely around throat and 

 legs, being sure to let it drop well down behind, as it is here the mother 

 smells when lamb is nursing, and your object will be accomplished in 

 24 hours; cut the skin off as soon as you are satisfied. Put the mother 

 and lamb from sight of flock when you are doing this, as she will be more 

 likely to concentratie hfer affections on the lamb ff this is done. 



Fix a Iamb creep any Avajj to exclude old sheep, sprinkle a little bran 

 in troughs and you will soon have your lambs eating. One important 

 matter »feout troughs: never use the V-shaped trough, as it hoppers the 

 food down so they will gobble it too fast. Get a plank for the bottom 

 12" to 15" wide. Owing to. the high price of lambs in late years we haye 

 very few carried over into yearling form, but the best gains we ever made 

 was to let them follow catUe fed on shock corn. I am carrying a small 

 bunch of Cotswcld rams that way new and they are doing finely. We 

 sheared them In Auigiist to relieve them during excessive heat of late 

 summer and fall. 



We are having a very hard winter aad sheep and lamfes are dying, 

 some having lost quite 25 per cent. 



