146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



in that way, and when they are hurdled again at night that 

 sheep or lamb must be removed, and the disease not allowed 

 to get into the contagious state. In that way it can be 

 checked very easily. 



Question. How? 



The Chairman. There are various prescriptions in the 

 books. Our former secretary's sheep dip is first-rate for 

 foot-rot. If too strong it will take the skin off of a man's 

 arm, but if it is put on of the proper strength it will cure 

 the foot-rot. Then there is the prescription of verdigris 

 and carbolic soap in the old books. 



I should disagree with Mr. Avery, if he will pardon me, 

 with regard to the expense of keeping sheep. I think he 

 has got it too high, particularly in the item of hay ; because 

 I have found by actual experience that the highest-priced 

 hay, that is, the best quality of hay, is not so eagerly sought 

 after by sheep as a poorer quality. I have tried that experi- 

 ment by using a stack of very poor meadow hay, so poor 

 it was hardly worth putting in the barn. I found that when 

 my sheep had become used to it, say after feeding it two or 

 three days, they would leave early-cut rowen and hunt up 

 those old brakes. Of course, to keep them in condition and 

 to keep a flow of milk for the lambs, that feed must be sup- 

 plemented with a grain ration. And another tiling that 

 reduces the expense of keeping a sheep for the whole season 

 is, that, where ten years ago it used to take about three 

 months, more or less, to get a lamb ready for market, now, 

 by using a sire of one of the improved Down breeds, with a 

 good grade ewe, well fed, you can as often market a lamb 

 under fifty days as we used to do it in a hundred days. 



Mr. Geinnell. What age or size lamb do you find the 

 most marketable ? 



The Chairman. Our local market in Boston is not active 

 for lambs until into February. There may be occasionally 

 one asked for before that, but as an ordinary rule the market 

 for lambs does not open until into February, and at that 

 t ime lambs will be taken weighing from twenty-five to twenty- 

 eight pounds, which, bred from improved sires on good 

 grade ewes, ought to be put into the market at six weeks' 

 old. 



