SHEEP ON A FIVE-HUNDRED-ACRE FARM. 179 



by the number of ewes which are maintained, and this gene- 

 rally amounts to one to the acre. Taking a 5oo-acre farm we 

 should, in the first place, expect to find a dairy of twenty-five 

 cows, together with young stock, bringing the entire head of 

 horned stock up to fifty. There will also be the usual number 

 of working horses, with pigs and poultry. The total sheep 

 stock on such a farm would include during the winter i.e., 

 from October to January 500 ewes, about a dozen rams, and 

 from 150 to 1 80 ewe tegs. When lambing is completed, the 

 sheep stock will have increased to the following numbers, 

 which may be taken as approximately true of many farms : 



480 ewes 

 1 60 ewe tegs 

 12 rams 

 500 lambs 



Total sheep stock 1,152 



This stock is maintained throughout spring and summer, 

 and only begins to be drafted in early autumn. The cull ewes 

 are the first to go, and these make room for the ewe tegs. 

 The best wether or ram lambs and some of the ewe lambs 

 follow, until by October the head of stock is reduced to the 

 old limits. In some cases 1,200 or 1,300 sheep are maintained 

 during the summer upon 500 acres, and, as the lambs grow 

 rapidly, they are equivalent to the sheep of many districts 

 in size and appetite. Meanwhile the corn area is fairly kept 

 up, so that upon such a farm of 500 acres from 160 to 200 

 acres of corn will be grown. No description of farming is 

 more likely to prove profitable at any time when the price of 

 sheep is maintained, and when good barley can also be 

 grown. 



