A YEAR WITH THE EWES. 107 



ewes and lambs during the lambing season. This should be in 

 readiness before the most forward ewes are expected to lamb. 

 Where temporary lambing pens have to be put up, they should 

 be placed in the most convenient position with regard to food, 

 so as to avoid unnecessary carting. This should be decided upon 

 long before, and to provide straw for litter a stack of corn should 

 be built near, so that when threshed the straw may be available. 

 There is no better form of temporary lambing pen than that adopted 

 on the Wiltshire and Hampshire Downs. Except on small or 

 very compact farms such yards are preferable to a permanent 

 one, as the carting of bulky material to and fro, and the expense 

 of getting the manure made in the yards on to the land subsequently, 

 is avoided. They well repay the trouble of erection. 



The Lambing Yard. Before describing the method of construct- 

 ing a yard, it is advisable to point out what divisions of an ordinary 

 lambing flock are usually found necessary. In dealing with a 

 ram-breeding flock, many subdivisions of the lambs, according to 

 sex and age, are necessary. The ewes require to be handled to see 

 which are likely to lamb earliest, which is generally indicated by 

 the udder, though young ewes frequently do not show much sign 

 of milk until just previously to lambing. Those likely to lamb 

 at once should be separated from those which will not lamb for 

 some time ; drafts of the latter should be put with the former 

 from time to time. Those which will lamb early should be yarded 

 at night, but it is advisable to keep the others out of the yard as 

 long as possible, because foot-rot is likely to be contracted in the 

 yards, as the feet soften and become foul when kept on dirty 

 bedding. 



Around the ewe yard, a number of small pens, a hurdle square, 

 should be fixed, so that, as lambing becomes imminent, the ewe 

 may be separated. A pen should also be provided for the ewes 

 which have lambed, and in large flocks additional yards are 

 required, so that, as the lambs become stronger they may be taken 

 out into the fields during the day. The divisions are, therefore, 

 made in accordance with the size of the flock in the first instance, 

 and the age of the lambs subsequently. 



It is a good plan to build the yard so that the straw stack is in 

 the middle, to facilitate rebedding. The method of making a yard 

 as carried out in Wiltshire and the neighbouring counties is as 

 follows : Rows of hurdles are set up to form the outsides of the 

 pens ; about 4 ft. inside these, posts about 6 ft. or 7 ft. in length 

 are driven into the ground at intervals of about 10ft. Deal 

 battens about 3 in. by 2 in. are nailed from post to post to afford 

 support to the roof. Outside the row of hurdles, but close to it, 

 another row is laid on the ground, and on this a layer of straw is 

 placed ; these are then lifted up so as to stand parallel with the 



