162 SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

 WINTER FEEDING OF SHEEP. 



A GREAT change has come over the winter feeding of sheep 

 during the last thirty years. Thirty years ago I was introduced 

 to farming, and I well remember that tegs were fatted in my 

 part of the country so as to come out of their wool fit for the 

 butcher at from fourteen to eighteen months old. They were 

 usually shorn and sent to market as they ripened, being drawn 

 one or two score at a time as they became fit. The same 

 system no doubt prevails still, but nevertheless, there has been 

 a marked movement in favour of early maturity. Some twenty 

 years ago Mr. W. J. Edmonds, of Southrop, in Gloucestershire, 

 read a paper, in which he spoke of bringing out eight stone 

 sheep at ten months old. We now speak of bringing out ten 

 stone sheep at eight months old. I can remember when Mr. 

 Hulbert's nine to ten months old sheep made a sensation in 

 Cirencester market when penned in November. Now seven 

 to eight months old sheep, weighing 20 Ib. per quarter, are 

 constantly shown. 



As further proof of the advance in earliness of maturity, it 

 may be mentioned that even in the memory of middle-aged 

 shepherds it was very common to keep back two-tooth or 

 shearling ewes till they were four-tooth, or, as it was called, 

 " double two-tooths," before they entered the ewe flock. Now 

 many people advocate tegs dropping lambs at one year old. 



A large number of lambs in these days never see winter 

 keep after they are weaned. They are begun in January upon 

 turnips, and are sold to the butcher in August, September and 



