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CHAPTER IV. 



EWES AND LAMBS. 



In the establishment of a sheep farm the main considera- 

 tion with the farmer should be, not to obtain the greatest 

 number of sheep most rapidly, but to so manage the flock as 

 to make them the most valuable for the purpose he has in 

 view, be his object wool or mutton or both, or for breeding 

 early lambs for market, and in doing this the husbandman 

 must pursue that plan most likely to increase the size of the 

 carcass, and to improve the quality and quantity of wool. In 

 making the necessary calculations, the manner of selling must 

 must be taken into consideration. A farmer remote from any 

 market for early lambs will have to devote thought to the wool, 

 as that is more easily carried to market, but if he is conve- 

 niently located, his chief source of profit will be to produce 

 early and many lambs. This idea determines the breed of 

 sheep to be kept, and, in starting the flock, this should be 

 borne prominently in mind. But in either case much and 

 continued care must be bestowed upon the ewes and lambs, as 

 without proper attention to them the flock will, by various 

 vicissitudes, become rapidly lessened. 



A ewe bred to a buck will go five months, or more accu- 

 rately one hundred and fifty- two days. With this knowl- 

 edge the farmer can so time the coming of the lambs that 

 they will drop at any time desirable. In Tennessee the lambs 

 begin usually to come about the 1st of January. But this is 

 a bad time for them to fall, unless breeders are making a 

 specialty of breeding lambs for early spring market, in 

 which event they must have suitable arrangements made for 

 giving them extra care and attention. At that time we gen- 

 erally have very inclement weather, and it necessarily in- 

 volves the loss of many larnbs. The custom of allowing the 



