1000 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



food, especially where it produces scouring in the ewes, green rouen hay, cut straw, or pease haulm 

 should constantly be given, and also with rape, &c. 



6427. The castrating lambs may be performed any time from the age of a fortnight 

 or three weeks, to that of a month or six weeks, and in some districts it is deferred to 

 a considerably later period. It is, however, the safest method to have it executed early, 

 as there is less danger of too much inflammation taking place. But in all cases the 

 lambs should be in a healthy state when it is done, as under any other circumstances 

 they are liable to be destroyed by it. The operation is usually performed by the shep- 

 herd, by opening the scrotum or cod, and drawing out the testicles with the spermatic 

 cord. This he often does with his teeth in the young state of the animal. But where 

 the operation is performed at a later period, it is usual to have recourse to the knife, the 

 arteries being taken up and secured by means of ligatures, or the searing iron. The 

 business^ if possible, should be done in fine weather, when not too warm, and the 

 gelded lambs be kept in a dry, sheltered, quiet situation for a few days, until the 

 inflammation is gone off. If it should happen to be wet at the time, it may be advisable 

 to have them under some sort of shelter, where they can have room to move freely 

 about. 



6428. The weaning of lambs should be effected when they are three or four months 

 old, as about July, but it is done more early in some districts than in others. A proper 

 reserve of some fresh pasture grass, where there may be a good bite for the lambs to 

 feed upon, should be had recourse to, as it is of much consequence that an ample pro- 

 vision of this sort be had, in order that the growth of this young stock may not suffer 

 any check on being taken from the mother. Where they have been continued so long 

 as to graze with the dams, little check will be sustained in their separation if turned 

 upon such good feed. Some advise clover in blossom as the most forcing sort of food 

 in this intention, and with others saintfoin rouen is highly valued for the same purpose. 

 When good feed is not provided, of some of these kinds, the lambs soon decline in 

 flesh, or, in the technical language of the flock, are said to pitch ; and when once this 

 happens, they never afterwards thrive so well, however good the management may be. 

 With regard to the ewes, they should be removed to such distant pastures, or other 

 places as that they may not be heard by the lambs, which would cause them to be dis- 

 turbed in their feeding. And where the ewes sustain any inconvenience from their milk, 

 as by their udders swelling, it should be drawn once or twice, as by this means bad 

 consequences may be prevented. And as soon as the lambs have been removed, the 

 ewes are returned upon the pastures destined for their summer support. There is, how- 

 ever, one caution to be attended to in first turning the lainbs upon rich keep, which is 

 that of letting them be in some degree satisfied with food previously, that they may not 

 be surfeited i>y too quick and full feeding, and heave or hove as it is termed; keeping 

 them gently moving about the field has also been advised in this intention. In some 

 places where the lands are of the more poor kind, it is a custom to send the lambs to 

 the more rich vale or marsh districts, to be brought forward in condition or fattened. 

 In those cases, where the lambs of the male kind are reared on the home lands, as 

 wethers, they are usually restored to the flock in the latter end of the year, but which is 

 not by any means a good practice, as they often suffer for want of proper keep in the 

 winter, and lose what they had previously gained in growth and condition. 



Sect. IV. Of the Rearing and general Management of Sheep. 



6429. In the practice of sheep husbandry different systems are had recourse to, according 

 to the extent and nature of the farms on which they are kept, and the methods of farm- 

 ing that are adopted on them ; but under all circumstances the best sheep- masters con- 

 stantly endeavor to preserve them in as good condition as possible at all seasons. With 

 the pasture kinds of sheep this is particularly the case ; and with the view of accomplish- 

 ing it in the most complete manner, it is useful to divide them into different parcels 

 or lots in respect to their ages and sorts, as by that practice they may be kept with 

 greater convenience and benefit than in large Hocks together under a mixture of different 

 kinds ; as in this way there is not only less waste of food, but the animals thrive better, 

 and the pastures are fed with much more ease. The advantage of this management has 

 been fully experienced in many of the noithern districts, where they usually divide the 

 sheep-stock into lambs, yearlings, wethers, and breeding ewes : and in this method it 

 appears not improbable that a much larger proportion of stock may be kept, and the 

 sheep be preserved in a more healthy condition. With a breeding stock the sheep-master 

 must act according to his circumstances, situation, and capital which he possesses, either 

 selling the lambs to go to keep, fattening them for grass lamb, suckling them for house 

 lamb, or keeping them on to be grazed and sold as store or fat wethers ; the ewes being 

 sold lean as they are called, or fattened as circumstances, profit, and convenience may 

 point out. 



