100 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



and arable must be allotted from time to time to maintain the 

 sheep at various seasons. Different soils possess varying powers of 

 carrying sheep, as may be gathered from the fact that on some of 

 the arable sheep farms, with a small proportion of grass and water 

 meadow, and with a mixed cropping of corn and fodder crops in 

 which the fodder crops embrace the larger acreage, from two to 

 two and a-half sheep per acre over the whole acreage of the farm are 

 sometimes permanently carried. This is particularly the case where 

 an extensive system of catch cropping is adopted, whereas on 

 the thinnest hill land and heath some acres have to be given up to 

 one sheep. On a mixed farm in the Midland counties, with a small 

 proportion of grass, but with the arable land fairly divided among 

 corn and fodder crops, one to one and a-quarter sheep over the whole 

 farm may be carried, though this number is found oftenest in winter, 

 when they are on the roots, an extra number of tegs having been 

 bought in for wintering. The best place to take up the treatment 

 of a mixed flock is where the ewes have been deprived of their lambs, 

 as then the whole of the breeding and management of the lamb 

 until he is sold lies in the future. The stock is then complete also. 



The season of weaning varies in accordance with the period at 

 which the lambs are born, and is generally about four months from 

 the time of birth. Where lambs are born very early, however 

 (irrespective of show animals), it is customary to dispose of the 

 earliest as Easter fat lamb, the sales continuing for some time. 

 Dorset lambs, which are bred in the autumn as early as October, 

 are sold in early winter. Dorset ewes may be put to the ram in May ; 

 and often breed twice in one year, being put to the ram a second 

 time as soon as they come into season again. Hampshires and 

 Oxfords are born in January, February, and March ; Shropshires 

 and Southdowns in February and March ; and white -faced sheep 

 in February, March and April, according as the grass is likely to 

 come in. The lambing season is practically controlled by the season 

 when suitable food can be obtained, and the time when grass will 

 be ready for the lambs is the chief regulator. On arable land, 

 however, the cropping can be arranged so as to be available at any 

 time, and the time of grass need not be regarded so closely. On 

 hill land and mountains the lambing time is sometimes deferred as 

 late as June. For the purposes required here, as affecting sheep 

 on a mixed farm, February and March may be taken as the lambing 

 season ; consequently, the weaning season may be put at June. 



Head of Sheep at Different Seasons. A certain loss is always 

 experienced, and it usually varies from 3 to 5 per cent., but from 

 abnormal circumstances may go far beyond this. However, in the 

 estimate given here they are not taken into consideration, round 

 numbers being adhered to. 



Taking the flock of ewes as being 200 at the time of weaning, 



