OXFORDSHIRE DOWN SHEEP. 355 



The stock ewes are generally divided in August, and rams 

 selected to suit each lot ; they run over the stubbles, and are 

 penned on rape or cabbage at night. They then clean up the 

 pastures till Christmas, having bean or pea straw at night. It 

 is considered unwise to give them many turnips before yeaning. 

 They are then brought into the foldyard for lambing, and are 

 fed on hay, cotton cake, and a few roots, and remain so till the 

 lambs are sufficiently strong to go into the turnip field. They 

 will be found very good mothers, being strong and prolific, pro- 

 ducing a considerable proportion of twins ; this, however, 

 depends much upon the nature of the land. The lambs wheD 

 taken into the field have a fold in front of their mothers, where 

 they are supplied with hay, corn, and, as the case may be, cut 

 swedes, or crop off the greens ; the ewes with twins are also 

 given com. The lambs are usually weaned when about twenty- 

 two weeks old. The plan now adopted is to have the fold 

 thoroughly well set, and allow them to remain in front of the 

 ewes, and after a few days they will become quite reconciled. 



They are a healthy class of sheep, and cases of giddiness are 

 seldom known in any of the flocks. The management closely 

 approaches that practised in Hampshire and Wiltshire, where 

 the attention to ewes and lambs has become proverbial — early 

 maturity (i.e., 201b. a quarter at a year old) requiring great 

 attention during the young stage; and we are satisfied from 

 experience that an early acquaintance with suitable artificial 

 food and a frequent change of the natural produce are points of 

 the gravest importance. The master's eye is required daily to 

 note progress. A check to the young system is often bad to 

 recover from, and it is a great argument for the folding system 

 that the sheep are so frequently under the eye that any marked 

 change must be noticed at once. 



Mr. Druce adds : Just a cursory reference to a ram named 

 Freeland, whose impress upon the most fashionable flocks is 

 still marked, and whose name may certainly be found at the 

 head of the pedigree of many of the sheep which command the 

 highest prices now, bred by A. F. M. Druce in 1874, took 

 all the chief prizes wherever shown in 1875, and was afterwards 

 let to Mr. Treadwell for the season. His career the next year 

 was equally successful, and was let at Mr. Druce' s annual sale 



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