82 MARCH. 



RURAL OCCUPATIONS. 



Cattle still require feeding in the yard. Plough- 

 ing and sowing are now going on vigorously, 

 while the dry March air favours the operation ; 

 and spring-wheat, rye, barley, beans, peas, etc. 

 are got in. The principal fall of larnbs takes 

 place now, and the shepherds are full of cares. 

 Night and day they must be on the watch to assist 

 the ewes, to cherish weakly lambs with w r arm 

 milk, to restore others that appear dead by admi- 

 nistering a little spirit ; to counteract the unnatural 

 disposition of some mothers that refuse their off- 

 spring ; 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 

 consigned. Others for which no foster-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. On the contrary, in the southern counties, 

 especially wherever the Southdown breed of sheep 

 prevails, the fall of lambs is much earlier, many 

 of them appearing in December, and in February 

 lamb is pretty common on the table in London. 

 Many of these lambs are house-lambs. All require 

 great attention. The shepherds of large flocks 



