

[55] 



farmers, to make a hole under the fence large enough to 

 admit the lamb, and yet withhold the sheep, into the corn 

 field, provided the corn is tall enough to prevent the lambs 

 from nibbling off the bud. They will eat the young tender 

 shoots or suckers, and the bottom blades of fodder, that 

 burn up and are lost anyway, and will not injure the corn. 

 In this way they will be materially assisted in their growth 

 and maturity. Should there not be a field or pasture to aid 

 the lambs, a pen should be provided adjoining the " run " 

 of the ewes, with an arrangement to admit the lambs, in 

 which troughs are provided, kept filled with bran, meal, and 

 anything calculated to aid in pushing the lamb. 



It sometimes happens that a ewe loses her lamb, and in 

 that case, to prevent " garget," or inflammation of the udder, 

 the ewe should be milked a few times, never taking all the 

 milk, and increasing the intervals of milking. In a few 

 days the udder will become soft, and then the danger ceases. 

 A few doses (twenty grains to the dose) of saltpetre will 

 materially aid, by exciting the action of the kidneys. Cold 

 water washing is good, too, for the udder when soreness pre- 

 vails. 



It is a mistaken notion on the part of many farmers that 

 the best plan to improve the flock in all cases is to bring 

 every year or two a new ram into the fold. In-and-in breed- 

 ing has been established beyond controversy to be a neces- 

 sary system of perpetuating a breed or species, provided, 

 always, that a full-blooded buck of any kind is first started 

 with. The celebrated stocks of Spain have attained their 

 great superiority by this plan, and the sheep farmers of 

 England have established, by the same system, the long 

 wooled sheep of the Cotswold and Leicester breeds, as well 

 as the mutton sheep of Southdown and Shropshire. It is 

 of equal importance, however, that incestious breeding 

 should be avoided ; nothing has a greater tendency to weaken 

 the constitution of a flock than too close in-breeding. It is 

 an error that farm -rs are apt to fall into, especially if they 



