458 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. f Ch. XXXIX. 



lambs. All improvement, however, in the quality of food before yeaning 

 should be managed with great caution, and intelligent flock-masters find 

 it safer to transfer the ewe and the lamb to better food after the operation 

 than before. 



When large flocks are kept upon downs and mountainous pastures, the 

 ewes are most commonly left to lamb in the open field, without any other 

 care than the occasional attention of the shepherd, to assist any one that 

 may need it. Indeed this is generally the case even upon small farms that 

 have the convenience of enclosures adjoining to the homestead ; though 

 some careful breeders, situated upon extensive downs, have the precaution of 

 employing small huts mounted upon four wheels, which may be thus drawn 

 to the dock for the use of the shepherd, wherever the sheep may be. 



In the north of Scotland, Mr. Sellar, of Strathnaver, tells us " that ewe- 

 flocks are generally placed in valleys, through the bottom of which runs a 

 ' burn,' or brook. Nearest to the burn is some haugh of flat green pas- 

 ture ; next to this, on each side of the burn, a rocky gravelly hill covered 

 with heather, and behind that, the mountain-waste of peat-bog covered 

 with alpine plants. The lambing season taking place at the very juncture 

 when the cotton grasses* have gone out of season, and before the deer's- 

 hairf has sprung, the ewes of course descend to the burn banks for their 

 food, and repose, during night at yeaning time, on the gravelly ridge 

 immediately behind ; where their lambs are dropped." He finds no im- 

 provement, for yeaning, so good as to sow this gravelly ridge with wliins, 

 or furze ; which gives shelter in bad weather, and when periodically burned, 

 in rotation with the heath, aff'ords succulent food; not, i'or feeding ewes, 

 inferior to turnips : and he describes a ride up one of these valleys, at 

 lambing time, early in an April morning to see the ewes bleating-in on 

 each side with their young lambs from their lairs among the whin blossom, 

 as a very gratifying spectacle. 



This, indeed, is not a bad plan upon wide extensive pastures ; but that of 

 having a well sheltered fold close to the shepherd's cot for the ewes at 

 yeaning time is preferable. On moderate farms, in an enclosed country, 

 another mode, however, is that of putting up some moveable covered pens, 

 which may be formed with hurdles, in a warm paddock under the eye of 

 the master. The pens should be littered with straw, fern, or leaves, so as 

 to be perfectly dry ; but they should be open to the ewes, allowing them the 

 free range of tlie field, v^ith power to retire to the pens when they please ; 

 and this will be found better than folding, as sufficient room is thereby 

 seldom allowed for the perfect convenience and quiet of the animals at that 

 moment of uneasiness. At all events, whether penned or in the open field, 

 the yeaning should always be eff"ected on a piece of smooth pasture, con- 

 taining neither ruts, ditches, nor holes of any kind. 



The most constant and arduous attention is requisite on the part of the 

 shepherd at yeaning time ; for although nature seldom requires to be 

 assisted, yet sometimes the labour is so difficult, as not to be safely eff'ected 

 without aid, which every experienced shepherd should be capable of render- 

 ing. In very severe weather also, when the yeaning has been long in its 

 completion, the ewe is often so exhausted as to need some warm gruel, and 

 housing from the rest of the flock until she be recovered. 



THE LAMBS 



Are not unfrequently dropped in such a state as to appear nearly lifeless, 

 and nothing but the greatest care will restore them to animation ; but we 



* Eriophari. f Scirpus Ccespitosus. 



