SHELTERING LAMBS IN FALL. 201 



to. I have already sufficiently adverted to the high import- 

 ance of preserving the udders of breeding ewes in a perfectly 

 normal condition. When entirely dried off, they should be 

 put on good feed to get into condition for winter. 



As soon as the fall frosts have touched the grass, it is 

 highly beneficial nay, it is indispensable in good sheep 

 farming to give lambs some kind of artificial feed. Turnips 

 are (I am sorry to say,) but little raised among the great mass 

 of our sheep farmers, and rape and cabbage are nearly 

 unknown as field crops. Any of these would be vastly 

 cheaper than grain feed ; but in default of them, grain feed 

 should be given. At first a little sprinkling of oats, shorts, 

 bran or the like should be put once a day in troughs, in their 

 pasture. By keeping them from salt on other occasions and 

 salting their trough feed very slightly, they, led up by the 

 crones, will first nibble at and then eat it ; and when even a 

 few do this, the rest will rapidly follow their example. A 

 spoonful of oats a head is more than enough to begin with ; 

 and when they get well to eating, this may be gradually 

 increased to half a gill per head and before winter to a gill, 

 or to its equvalent in shorts, bran, or other grain. Bran 

 and shorts, or shorts and oats, mixed half-and-half, are 

 proverbially good feed for lambs. An addition of turnips to 

 these would leave nothing to desire. Indian corn, in despite 

 of the fears entertained of it by some persons, for that object, 

 is also an excellent lamb feed ; but it must be given more 

 sparingly. A bushel of it is equivalent to its weight in 

 oats.* 



SHELTERING LAMBS IN FALL. Sheltering lambs from the 

 heavy, cold rain-storms which fall for a month or a month 

 and a half before the setting in of winter, in our northern 

 latitudes, is now beginning to be practiced by all the best 

 flock-masters ; and when the ground becomes wet and cold, 

 and frequently freezes, toward the close of autumn they should 

 also be regularly housed every night. It is well to have 

 racks of hay ready for them in their stables ; and it is very 

 easy to learn them to eat grain, etc., there. If it is regularly 

 placed in the troughs over night, with a very light dusting of 

 salt, as before mentioned, but two or three days will elapse 

 before it will be regularly and entirely consumed. Getting 



* A bushel of corn weighs 68 Ibs., a bushel oats 32 Ibs., by the rule established in 

 New York. 



9* 



