[51] 



^ market sufficiently large to make the breeding of early 

 lambs profitable, he, of course, will be prepared to care for 

 them at any time they may come, even in mid-winter, and 

 the earlier he gets them the larger his profits will be, if they 

 are well fed and cared for, when brought to the butcher. 

 Many farmers in the middle portion of the State are making 

 a specialty of this business, and are breeding their lambs 

 for December. The breeder always realizes a fancy price 

 for the first " spring lambs," often as high as five dollars 

 for fifty pound lambs. 



It should be borne in mind that but few farmers are 

 either suitably located or prepared to give the attention 

 necessary to this particular branch of husbandry, and to 

 those who are not, it would be injudicious to attempt it; but 

 with the farmer whose lambs begin to come in the latter 

 part of January and February, if he will watch closely on 

 cold or rainy days he can almost invariably save all lambs 

 that come at this period. In order to bring them early the 

 rams must be turned to the ewes about the 20th of August. 

 It is much better that the ewes should be served only once 

 by the ram, as oftener will frequently result in abortion. 



As mentioned above, it is both injudicious and expensive 

 to allow a ram to run with the ewes, especially at this 

 season. A good plan, and one that will preserve the vigor 

 of the ram, and enable him to serve the greatest number 

 of ewes, is to have him in a lot to himself, and in the 

 evening, late, turn in to him six or eight or ten ewes, first 

 having painted his belly with red paint. In the morning 

 every ewe he has served will be marked with red. The 

 entire batch should be turned out from him during the day, 

 thus allowing him to recuperate for another lot that will be 

 turned in to him in the evening. In this way he will rarely 

 ever serve the same ewe twice, and the breeder, by noting 

 in his book, as mentioned above, the date of service, will 

 know exactly what time to expect the lamb, and can give 

 those particular ewes extra attention at that time. After 



