MARCH. 



RURAL OCCUPATIONS. 



Cattle still require feeding in the yard. 

 Ploughing and sowing are now going on vi- 

 gorously, while the dry March air favours 

 the operation ; and spring- wheat, rye, barley, 

 beans, peas, etc. are got in. The principal fall 

 of lambs takes place now, and the shepherds 

 are full of cares. Night and day they must 

 be on the watch to assist the ewes, to che- 

 rish weakly lambs with warm milk, to restore 

 others that appear dead by administering a lit- 

 tle spirit ; to counteract the unnatural disposi- 

 tion of some mothers that refuse their offspring; 

 or to find foster-mothers for poor orphans, 

 which is often done by clothing them in the 

 skins of the dead lambs of those ewes to which 

 they are cpnsigned. Others for which no fos- 

 ter-mothers can be found, or which cannot 

 suck on account of their being wry-necked, are 

 reared generally by the assistance of a tea-pot 

 with cow's milk, and are called cades or pets. 

 In hilly or more northern counties, where the 

 cold is greater, and the grass not so early, 

 lambs are later also, even till far in May. 



