142 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



overfeeding these stock lambs in their infancy ; they 

 will the earlier go afield and learn there to seek their 

 subsistence in the form of grass and herbage. Corn 

 should not be fed to them, neither to the ewe lambs 

 nor the ram lambs, for corn mainly makes fat and 

 fat impedes vital functions rather than helps. The 

 ram lambs developed on corn are slow, sluggish, 

 early losing their usefulness ; the ewes developed on 

 corn are uncertain breeders and often poor milkers. 

 To develop bone and muscle and stamina in these 

 stock lambs should be the aim and this is accom- 

 plished by feeding food rich in bone and muscle- 

 making materials, of which wheat bran is easily 

 among the first and oats comes next. They should 

 have abundant chance of exercise too, which may be 

 denied somewhat to the lambs that are to go fat to 

 an early market. Then there should be constant 

 watchfulness to avoid infection from parasites and 

 if this is done the shepherd will have splendid 

 growthy stock lambs. 



FEEDING FOB THE MARKET. 



Supposing now the lamb crop is mostly to go fat 

 to market as soon as ripe. We will assume that 

 they have been born in winter, which is the proper 

 season for all lambs to be born on farms, unless one 

 can get them in the fall, and that they have comfort- 

 able quarters and their mothers have been so well 

 fed that they have an abundance of milk for them. 

 Next there must be provided a small room or pen 

 in which the lambs can go and the ewes can not. 



