Feeding Lambs for Rapid Growth 331 



Hay tea is sometimes used as a milk substitute, 

 but it is a poor oue. Only a small proportion of the 

 nutrients of hay is soluble, and the water extract is 

 a dilute and comparatively innutritions food for a grow- 

 ing animal, the use of which can be justified only in the 

 absence of milk in any form, and which, when used, 

 must be very liberally fortified by grain feeds. 



THE FEEDING OF LAMBS 



The first growth of lambs is chiefly fi-om the moth- 

 er's milk, and we have little occasion to consider sub- 

 stitutes for this food. The fact first in order and most 

 important in this connection is that well-fed mothers 

 are absolutely essential to rapid growth. A lamb must 

 be fed through its dam. Nothing is more pitiable than 

 the sight of a pair of hungry twin lambs making an 

 effort to satisfy their insistent demands for groAvth 

 with the milk furnished by a small, lean, under- fed 

 mother. It is a repetition of the cruel command to 

 "make bricks without straw." As a matter of fact, the 

 treatment of the ewe before the birth of her young 

 should be such as to prepare her for the strain of 

 supplying a generous flow of milk. 



Ewes that are suckling lambs, Avhile fed from the 

 barn, should be supplied with good clover or alfalfa 

 hay, or hay from fine mixed grasses. Pea and bean 

 straws are excellent coarse feeds for sheep. Timothy 

 hay is an abomination as sheep food, especially under 

 these conditions. The grain ration should not be less 

 than three -fourths of a pound daily, made up in part 



