SINGLE AND TWIN LAMBS. 153 



CHAPTER XVI. 

 SINGLE AND TWIN LAMBS. 



THE number of twins or of single lambs is an important 

 matter affecting the profits of sheep farming. An abundance 

 of twins is a matter for congratulation, but is not an unmixed 

 advantage. They will not attain the size of single lambs for 

 sale in the following autumn ; the ewes require more food, and 

 are often more reduced in condition through suckling, and the 

 strain upon the mother is heavy, especially in the case of two- 

 tooths. Still, a good many twins are required in order to keep 

 up the number of lambs, which is liable to drawbacks from 

 death, barrenness, and slipping. Twins give the opportunity 

 to the shepherd of dividing them, and thus supplying lambs to 

 ewes which have lost their own offspring, and which, other- 

 wise, would go as barreners. Without a fair proportion of 

 twins we should unquestionably suffer from a short supply of 

 lambs, even upon the assumption of a lamb to a ewe through- 

 out the flock. This apparently modest estimate is by no 

 means always realised, in spite of twins, as barren and aborted 

 ewes may easily constitute 5 per cent, of a flock, and often 

 double that proportion. Deaths among very young lambs are 

 also frequent, so that the general statement that " for every 

 ewe put to the ram there should be a lamb at weaning time " 

 is not far from correct. 



How TO OBTAIN A BIG CROP OF LAMBS. 



Some flocks, and some farms, seem naturally adapted for 

 producing a large number of lambs. It may be reasonably 



