FATTENING EARLY LAMBS 247 



Wintering Lambs. 



On a large number of farms the ewes do not begin to 

 lamb until April, when grass is beginning to grow. Very 

 little if any concentrated food is given. About the end 

 of August or beginning of September the lambs are 

 weaned. With hill and mountain sheep, the lambs which 

 are retained by the farmer are usually sent in the autumn 

 to the lowland farms for the first winter, i.e. from ist 

 November to ist April, when the owner will take turnips 

 either per head of sheep (say, 5d. to 6d. per head per 

 week), the owner supplying J Ib. cake per head per day; or 

 per acre of roots, depending on the size of the crop. E.g., 

 at West Linton, Peebleshire, they are sometimes let at 

 6, I os. per acre ; the farmer supplies the hay, and carts 

 the cake for the owner. For wintering lambs the price 

 is about 5 to 6 per score, or even more. These lambs 

 would return to the hills and mountains the following 

 spring, where they would remain over the second 

 winter, and in the following autumn (two and a half 

 years old) those which were not required for stock 

 purposes would be sold at the great " store " sales to 

 the arable farmers, and in some cases dairy farmers, 

 to be fattened off for mutton during the late autumn, 

 winter, or spring months as the case may be. Some 

 of the lambs sent down from the hills and mountains 

 to lowland farms may be fattened off during the first 

 winter, say at nine months old, in the same way as 

 those bred on the lowland farms. 



Mutton Production. 



In the early part of the autumn, the hill and 

 mountain sheep which pass through the auction marts 

 in thousands supply the lowland farmer with store 



