POINTS m MANAGEMENT. 93 



advantageous condition of the herbage at certain periods 

 of the year, to suit the dam and her offspring at the time 

 of suckhng and weaning. 



First : At the time of impregnation, the ewe should be 

 in good condition ; the result of good, succulent food ; 

 she should be ' sappy,' and prone to conceive. 



Second : At the time of lambing there should be rich, 

 succulent grass, in order that her food may be easily con- 

 verted into milk. 



Third : At the time of weaning there should be rich, 

 nutritious grass, to compensate to the lamb for the loss of 

 his dam's milk. 



The extremes of cold and heat should be carefully 

 avoided as periods for lambing. A lamb should be well- 

 grown and strong before he has to face the heats of 

 summer, which wither and burn up everything, vegetable 

 and animal. Little or no nutriment remains in dried 

 grasses. Their albumen, alkahes, and saccharine matters, 

 have passed into their seeds, or descended into the earth ; 

 or are extracted by sun and rain ; and they are, conse- 

 quently, particularly unfit for young stock. 



The season of the year when the first proposition can 

 be best realised, is that when all nature is springing, and 

 animal life animated with the instinct of propagation — 

 the spring of the year. I should, all things considered, 

 select the months of October and November as the most 

 suitable for putting the rams to the ewes. If the rams 

 are in high condition (as they ought to be), five weeks 

 will be sufficient for ' tipping ' every ewe in the flock. 



The ewes will consequently lamb in the month of 

 April (in cold districts the lambing may advantageously 

 come in earlier), when the autumn grass is abundant, and 

 the weather stiU genial, and free from any excessive 

 heats. The lambs will become strong and hardy before 



