[54] 



and effect. A tin can, provided with a spout, or a coal oil 

 can that has not been used, with a rubber nipple on the end, 

 will be all that is necessary, and the lamb will soon know 

 its feeder, running to him, butting around his legs, 

 begging for its food. At first not more than a gill of milk 

 should be given, and it should be warmed up to about 

 natural heat, or one hundred degrees. After a few days,, 

 when the lambs begin to grow and play around, it can be 

 given ad libitum. 



While a ewe is suckling her lamb her food should be of 

 the most generous character. Good clover or blue grass 

 pastures should be supplemented with bran, oats, corn, or 

 meal, and, in fact, if good lambs are expected, and early 

 ones, the dam must be extremely well fed, as the food of the 

 lamb must be derived from the mother, and if she has not 

 the food she cannot be a free milker. Roots mixed with, 

 bran, oats, oil-cake meal, or grain will aid materially in the 

 flow of milk. Pea straw is a favorite food for ewes, and it 

 has more nourishment in it than any other kind of hay, as 

 will be seen by a reference to the analysis. As soon as the 

 lamb is large enough to notice other food besides its dam's 

 milk, it should be tempted to eat a little wheat bran 

 sprinkled in a trough, such as is mentioned in a previous, 

 chapter ; or, some bright sweet clover hay will be apt to get 

 a nibble. After it once begins to feed this way you can 

 make it weigh heavier and grow more rapidly than it would, 

 on its dam's milk alone. A lamb that is pushed heavily by 

 an abundance of food for the first three months will show 

 itself by producing large vigorous sheep, while, on the con- 

 trary, if it is stinted of food for that time it becomes 

 dwarfed, and will never make a good healthy sheep. All 

 animals whose maturity is hastened will be stronger,, 

 thriftier, and longer lived than one that has been half 

 starved in its growth. Besides, they make far better 

 breeders. Should the pasture be bordered by a corn field 

 it is a good plan, and one that is followed by many good 



