EWES ON PASTURE 621 



begins ; and after they have lambed, I ton per day, or 22.4 

 Ibs. each, along with *i or 2 Ibs. of hay or good oat straw 

 in racks. The amounts should be slightly increased if snow 

 covers the ground. Ten days before lambing begins each 

 ewe should have J Ib. daily of a mixture of concentrated 

 artificial food such as crushed peas, Egyptian beans, and 

 cake, with oats (whole), and bran, varying in relative pro- 

 portion to one another, and also in quantity, to suit the 

 condition of the bowels. Heavy milking ewes, like those 

 with double lambs, should have this concentrated food in- 

 creased, but not to more than I Ib. each per day. The 

 mixture is gradually reduced as the lambs learn to eat and 

 become less dependent upon their mothers. Some farmers 

 provide no extra food, and others give too much, and set it 

 down to bad luck if the lambs do not thrive. It is a mistake 

 to have breeding stock either too fat or too lean : they are 

 then less prolific, and there is more risk of their producing 

 small-sized young, and, moreover, they give less milk to 

 support them. On an ordinary farm, twenty-five lambs to 

 every twenty ewes is a good crop, thirty lambs being more 

 than an average. With extra care in management, and by 

 breeding only from ewes which have been born twins, even 

 thirty-five, or, in the case of small and exceptionally suc- 

 cessful flocks, even forty lambs may sometimes be got. 

 The hereditary character of the prolific tendency in ewes 

 is strong ; for example, a cast Border Leicester ewe bred by 

 Andrew and J. K. Smith, Leaston, East Lothian, had since 

 1895 never fewer than two lambs, sometimes three, and, 

 during the last two years of her life, four at a birth. All her 

 female progeny have invariably borne two or three lambs at 

 a time. Five living lambs at a time is no very unusual event 

 to find recorded in agricultural papers. 



Ewes not in lamb (eild) may be noticed near to or during 

 lambing time by the following signs : 



I. By their jumping and playing in good weather; 2. By 

 being less bulky than the others in the region of the abdomen ; 



3. By no lamb being felt when the ewe is turned up, and the 

 tips of the fingers pressed against the lower part of the belly ; 



4. By having no " show," or increase in the size of the udder ; 



5. By the appearance on the bare skin about the udder of a 

 considerable amount of yellow waxy excretion which does 



