420 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



aided. Those lambs which have the strongest masculine characteristics 

 and show the greatest vigor and force are selected. The best breeders 

 keep the rams and ewes apart at night; others alternate their ranis 

 with the flock, thus giving to each an opportunity for recreation, while 

 still others turn a greater or less number of rams in with the ewes, all 

 together, and leave them to roam at their sweet will. Meanwhile the 

 ewes are given such food as will put them in good condition, a matter 

 considered of much importance. As winter approaches turnips arc 

 given, and during the winter months hay and straw, cut together, with 

 bran and malt dust, to which is sometimes added a little oil cake. When 

 lambing time arrives some sheltered spot is selected and inclosed with 

 hurdles, convenient to the field in which are the turnips or Swedes that 

 are to be fed. Storms are severe and the exposure great, but the losses 

 in the lambing yard are seldom serious. If the weather is fine the 

 lambs are allowed to go out on turnips in a few days after they are 

 dropped, but some farmers keep them in the lambing yard or pen for 

 two or three weeks, the ewes being fed there. The ewe and lamb are 

 generally kept on turnips and hay until about the first week in April, 

 when the water meadows or irrigated pastures being ready, they go 

 there by day, feeding on the new grass, and are taken at night to be 

 folded on Italian rye-grass, rye, winter barley or trifolium, the tup 

 and wether lambs getting a little cake or corn. When vetches are in 

 flower they furnish a very valuable food for the growing lambs. On 

 farms where there are no water meadows there is usually a larger quan- 

 tity of late Swedes provided, after consuming which the sheep are kept 

 on rye, winter oats, barley, mangolds, and trifolium until the vetches 

 are in flower. Lambs are generally weaned about the first or second 

 week in May, when they are kept on sainfoin or clover by day and are 

 folded on vetches by night. When the vetches give out they are fed 

 rape or cabbages with the aftermath clover or sainfoin. The sale lambs 

 have large folds of the above, the ewe lambs or the stock ewes clearing 

 up any food which they leave. Grass, cabbages, rape, and clover are 

 the reliance in summer and until such time in the autumn as the tur- 

 nips are ready. Rani and wether lambs have the choice of everything, 

 and are first served, the ewe stock cleaning up after them. By this 

 management the wether or sale lambs attain great size, and realize 

 high prices at the early fairs. Many go to the butchers as early spring 

 lambs. 



Shearing takes place in May or June, when professionals in that line 

 go through the country in parties of six to ten, doing the work at so 

 much per hour. After shearing the full-mouthed ewes are overhauled, 

 and a draft is made of all such as are not desired for another crop of 

 lambs. These draft ewes are fattened upon the farms, or as store 

 sheep are disposed of at the fairs to go into other counties, to be fat- 

 tened there or to produce one crop of cross-bred lambs. Here, as in 

 other parts of England, the keeping of breeding flocks and the fatten- 

 ing of sheep are considered quite distinct lines of business. 



