OCT.] PUT RAMS TO EWES. 51 1 



is easily done, if one space is left unoccupied when 

 the cellar is filled. 



PUT RAMS TO EWES. 



Of all the systems of barbarity in relation to sheep, 

 there is none more prominent than the management, 

 almost every where common twenty years ago, of 

 turning a number of rams promiscuously intoua flock 

 of some hundreds of ewes. Where breeding is -pursued 

 on enlightened principles, much attention is given to 

 the choice both of ewes and rams, in selecting the lots 

 of the former (50 to 60 in each) and in assigning the 

 latter to the respective parcels. I have been present 

 with that excellent farmer, the late Duke of Bedford, 

 when he attended to this business ; he had every ram, 

 with the lambs got by him the preceding year, in dis- 

 tinct pens, that he might not only examine the rain 

 himself, but also his progeny, before he determined 

 what ewes to draw off for him ; and the conduct i$ 

 perfectly reasonable : such attention, united with a 

 careful selection of cull lambs, must keep a flock in a 

 state of progressive improvement, proportioned to the 

 accuracy of judgment, eye, and hand of the farmer 

 who practices it 



i^MEER. 



