PROFIT IX RAISING LAMBS. 77 



and a trustworthy commission agent to whom they can be sent for 

 sale has been selected, the method of packing for shipment should 

 be well considered. A roomy box, in which the lamb can stand 

 or lie, but cannot turn round, should be procured for each lamb. 

 Figure 28 represents a crate in which the author has shipped many 

 lambs to market without a single case of accident from any cause. 

 The size is 36 inches long, 24 inches high, and 18 inches wide. It 

 is made of lath 2 inches wide by 3 quarters thick. The best fast- 

 ening for the top was found to be four pieces of soft twisted tarred 

 hempen cord of the kind known as lath twine, and used for tying 

 bundles of laths, at the saw mills. This form of box is also suit- 

 able for shipping stock lambs ; these have been safely sent hi them 

 from New York to Charleston, S. C. , and also as far as Denver, 

 Col. In case of shipping to a distance, a bag of feed is tied to one 

 of the upper corners of the box, containing sufficient to last through 

 the journey, and a feed trough is fixed at each end of the box, so 

 that in case the lamb is carelessly put in wrong end foremost, or 

 happens to turn around, a trough is ready for use where it is 

 wanted. On the shipping card should be plainly printed directions 

 to the express agent to give half a pint of feed and water twice a 

 day to the lamb. Shipments for short distances should always 

 be made by express, so that there may be no delays. The time of 

 shipment should be so arranged that the commission agent may 

 be on hand to attend to the lambs on their arrival. For distances 

 of not over 100 miles, the time of travel is so short that no feed or 

 water is needed on the way, but the lambs may be fed lightly 

 and watered before they are placed in the boxes. In this way the 

 lambs travel with so little inconvenience that no loss of weight 

 occurs, a matter which, when the price is 25 cents a pound, is 

 worth consideration. The business of marketing lambs is exten- 

 sively carried on in the neighborhood of large cities in the east, 

 and thousands of ewes are yearly purchased in Ohio and western 

 parts of New York and Pennsylvania by drovers from New Jersey, 

 and eastern New York, and Pennsylvania, in the early fall, for 

 selling to farmers who keep them over winter, raise lambs the 

 next spring, and sell lamb's fleeces, and the fattened sheep within 

 twelve months, and repeat the operation yearly with great profit. 

 As an illustration of what may be done in this way, the following 

 may be cited : " Fifty-five ewes were purchased at $3 per head, and 

 until winter were pastured in a rough field at the rear of the farm, 

 where they more than earned their keep and care, by the service 

 they performed in destroying weeds. The account for one year, 

 opened and kept expressly for this flock, is as follows : 



