SECTIONS OF THE FLOCK. 101 



they may be estimated as having brought up 250 lambs, fifty of 

 which have been sold as fat lamb. There should be fifty theaves 

 ready to come into the flock. Lambs weaned at this time in the 

 previous year should not be kept on to be fattened as wethers : 

 therefore, in this case they are considered as having been sold, 

 though there are instances where they might be run on to be fattened 

 on the seeds during summer. The stock is, therefore, 200 ewes, 

 200 lambs, 50 theaves ; a total of 450. 



Immediately after this, fifty ewes are culled from the breeding 

 flock, and may be sold at once, or be fattened during summer. 

 The chance of selling the ewes affords an opportunity of lowering 

 the number to be kept through the summer, should the prospect 

 of keep be poor. The food available consists of seeds or leys, 

 vetches, and early cabbages. On a mixed farm it is usually advis- 

 able not to stock the pastures until after they have been mown. 



The same number of sheep, less the fifty culls, should be kept 

 through the autumn, and it depends on how well the tegs have 

 thriven when they are fit to be sent to the butcher. As fat tegs, 

 the earliest rarely go to market before the end of November, so 

 the winter season is entered with the same number. During 

 autumn the ewes will have found food on the stubbles and after- 

 maths of grass and leys, together with a little stale food behind the 

 leys or cabbages and white turnips. The lambs at the same time 

 may have had the first pick over the stubbles, grass, and leys, and 

 the first gnaw at cabbages or white turnips, with a small quantity 

 of cake or corn. 



The winter season (from November to May) sees great alterations ; 

 the tegs are gradually sold, and a new crop of lambs appear. Half 

 the tegs may go before the lambs are born, and the other half, 

 minus fifty she -tegs which are to be kept on as breeders, may be 

 sold subsequently. This allows for thirty to go in each month 

 from December to April inclusive. It will, however, depend very 

 much on the quantity of cake they have received from weaning 

 as to when they are fit to go out, and if it has been moderate, the 

 whole 150 may go out between February and April inclusive. This 

 has to be borne in mind when arranging the cropping. 



More briefly put, there would be at the weaning season, 1914, 

 200 ewes, 200 lambs, and 50 theaves on the farm, making 450. 

 However, 50 cull ewes would soon be sold, leaving 400. At the 

 1st of January, 1915, the same sheep remain, less 30 fat tegs sold, 

 leaving 370. 



During January, February and March the remaining tegs, less 

 fifty ewe tegs to be retained for the flock, are sold, reducing the 

 number of sheep to 250. Meanwhile 250 lambs are born, so that 

 the total is 500 ; but fifty of these are sold fat in spring, bringing 

 the total at weaning-time, 1915, to 450, as at the same period in 



