CHAPTEE lY. 



MANAGEMENT FROM BIRTH TO WEANING. 



N our remarks we suppose a sheep farm, i.e., a light 

 limestone soil, principally arable, if with water 

 meadow so much the better, as the latter adds much 

 to the food resources, and renders the farmer more 

 independent of seasons. When dry healthy pastures exist, the 

 ewes and lambs may be removed thence when the lambs are from 

 ten to fourteen days old, and have a portion of roots drawn 

 there ; but, as a rule, stocking grass at this season is very 

 injurious to its summer prospects, and it is better to keep the 

 sheep on the turnips — a certain area having been planted for 

 this purpose. A hardy winter variety, such as the Green 

 Eound turnip, or White Swede, is sown late, so as to stand the 

 winter and make good seed stalks in the spring. These young 

 shoots are readily eaten by the lambs, which run forward 

 through creeps or lamb hurdles, of which the best we have 

 seen is made by Messrs. Carson and Toone, of Warminster, 

 Wilts. 



The lamb commences to eat when about a month old. Now 

 is the time to begin artificial feeding, if our object be to force 

 forward for early sale. This will, of course, depend upon cir- 

 cumstances ; but on the exposed downs, where the majority of 

 breeding sheep are kept, it does seem a good plan not to winter 

 the wethers, as their room may be so usefully occupied by ewes. 

 The climate is often rather exposed for young sheep, and we can 

 frequently get more money, in proportion, in the autumn than 

 in the spring, even if we have no such object. The outlay in 

 artificial food is repaid by superior growth, and in the relief to 



