124 SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



DRAFTING EWES. 



This is one of the most important events of the year in the 

 history of a large breeding flock. Shearing ought to come 

 first, and a few days should elapse to allow the ewes to 

 get over their somewhat shabby appearance after they es- 

 cape from the hands of the shearer. Ewes look somewhat 

 wretched when first shorn. Less pains is taken with them 

 than with market sheep, and they are the proper material 

 for youngsters to try their 'prentice hands upon. A fortnight 

 later the marks of the shears have disappeared, and the ewes 

 are less likely to be seen with their backs up and their necks 

 craned, as we have often noticed them on a cold day late in 

 May. It is then that the master and his trusty shepherd 

 may look the flock over with a view to removing old and 

 faulty ewes. 



AGE. 



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It is wise policy to keep a young flock. It is thus main- 

 tained at a maximum value, and the draft commands the 

 highest price, and will sell either for breeding or fattening. 

 The usual draft is, as a rule, young, for three crops of lambs 

 only leaves the ewe four and a half years old, which is far 

 within the allotted span of a sheep's life. In a previous chap- 

 ter, when writing upon the late Mr. Humphrey's system of 

 improving the Hampshire Down breed, I mentioned that this 

 noted breeder never sold any draft ewes except to the butcher, 

 and that he had been known to breed from a ewe until she 

 was fourteen years old ! It was at this advanced period of 

 life that she bred Oliver Twist, the champion sheep of his 

 year. Such a fact may well be laid to heart by breeders who 

 consider one or two years over age as . about as far as they 

 like to go in keeping on ewes. A good ewe ought certainly to 

 be kept as long as she will breed, and seven or eight years is 

 not too old for this purpose. We should probably all be the 

 better of remembering this fact, and not allow splendid ewes 



