260 FARM ANIMALS 



sheep ranges it is customary to bring up on the 

 bottle a large number of lambs which fail to get 

 owned or which become motherless through the 

 death of the ewe. These lambs, which the sheep 

 men call "bums," are by no means pitiable objects 

 after they have been cared for in the pens or about 

 the farm houses and fed at regular intervals on 

 cow's milk from a bottle. The successful use 

 of cow's milk in producing a uniform rate of gain 

 in lambs depends upon its being given to them 

 at frequent intervals while they are young. The 

 relative merits of cow's milk from the bottle, 

 ewe's milk from the bottle and ewe's milk directly 

 from the ewe has been tested in a number of ex- 

 periments. It appears, in general, that lambs which 

 suck the ewes make more satisfactory gains than 

 by any other method of obtaining milk. If fed 

 large quantities of ewe's milk from the bottle, 

 however, they lay on flesh in a very rapid man- 

 ner. Satisfactory gains are also always obtained 

 from the use of fresh, wholesome cow's milk. 

 Thus, in a comparison of cow's milk and sheep's 

 milk, this did not appear to exercise any great 

 influence on the lamb. The fat content of ewe's 

 milk is nearly twice as high as that of the cow, 

 but the lamb does not appear to miss the fat in 

 the cow's milk. 



Rations. As is apparent from the above brief 

 discussion of rations used in fattening sheep a 

 great variety of satisfactory rations may be com- 

 pounded for this purpose. These rations vary in 

 different parts of the country according to the 

 ease and economy with which different feeds may 

 be obtained. For example in Utah, Colorado, 

 Idaho and other Rocky Mountain states an ex- 

 cellent ration may be prepared from sugar beet 



