SECTIONS OF THE FLOCK. 103 



In arranging for the feed until May, the eating capacities of the 

 earlier lambs have to be taken into consideration. The earliness 

 with which they are born of course greatly controls the quantity 

 of food they will eat ; and this food will rather be an equivalent 

 to roots, than roots themselves, as they require soft succulent food, 

 such as turnip tops, rape, or kale. All food, however, is best 

 estimated on the equivalent of swedes, or other standard crops. 

 Mangels, kohl-rabi and cabbages (as long as they last into winter) 

 may be regarded as the equivalent of swedes. Sprouting crops are 

 more difficult to estimate, as the severity of the winter and the 

 backwardness of spring growth affect them. The feeding power of a 

 kale crop may far exceed that of roots even in winter time, and to 

 a greater extent in spring ; but this only relates to that planted early 

 in the previous spring. Late planted kale and rape give small 

 return in winter ; but when kale gets its spring shoots in April, it 

 crops very heavily. 



It must always be borne in mind that there is greater likelihood 

 of decrease than increase in the supply of food, as the risk of injury 

 from frost, mildew, and other destroying powers has to be run ; 

 therefore, it is unsafe not to make the provision per head in excess 

 of bare estimates. The strain on the food will be heavy in the early 

 spring months, when the 200 ewes, and a portion (say half) of 

 the tegs are still in hand, and the lambs are beginning to feed. 

 All sections of the flock require to be well fed at this season : the 

 ewes to supply milk for the young lambs, so that they may not 

 receive a check in growth, the tegs so that they may come rapidly 

 into condition for killing. 



The food available during March and April consists of a portion 

 of the swede crop not consumed, mangels, autumn-sown catch 

 crops (except tares), rape, and kale. In May the leys and grasses 

 may be looked to for help ; trifolium and rape, together with 

 autumn-sown catch crops, including tares, should also be available. 

 The fat tegs should have been sold ; but the place of the latter 

 portion sold is more than taken by the theaves and young lambs, 

 which by this time have acquired big appetites. Where the land 

 is largely composed of pasture, or where grasses and clovers are 

 grown in rotation, the flockmaster can generally feel secure of feed 

 throughout May. 



If the food of the farm shows at any time that there will be 

 more than is required to carry such a flock as has been described, 

 the farmer has a chance of buying in more, if the prices look 

 favourable. It is, however, foolish to buy sheep which show no 

 chance of profit. It is better to take in others at agistment, at a 

 small price per week. Failing this, it is wiser to plough in a 

 portion of the crop as a green manuring. By doing this, the land 

 gets the advantage of earlier working, which is always beneficial. 



