CHAPTER XVII. 



TEGS. 



Tegs in Summer. Regarding the lambs from weaning time as 

 tegs, and speaking of them as such until they are a year to a year 

 and a-quarter old, and in the natural course are shorn, the object 

 is to get them fit for the butcher from November until spring. 

 On grass-land farms they spend the greater portion of the time at 

 grass, and it depends on the quality of the grass and the amount of 

 corn they receive throughout their career, and on the hay and 

 roots brought to them in winter, as to whether they go out as tegs, 

 or are well on to be fattened out as wethers in the following summer. 

 On farms where there is a large quantity of grass, but a fair pro- 

 portion of arable where roots can be eaten off on the land in winter, 

 they get a run on the stubbles in autumn, and probably white 

 turnips, rape, or cabbages as a night fold in addition to pasture. 

 In winter and early spring, until fresh keep appears, they are 

 folded on roots, receiving hay and corn if not intended to be fattened 

 out as spring tegs ; and corn is less often given if they are only 

 required to grow through winter and be fattened out when keep 

 becomes more plentiful in summer. Good grass land should carry 

 from ten to twelve sheep per acre from the time it is fit to stock 

 in spring until autumn, some being drafted out from time to 

 time as they fatten. On moderate pasture it is commonly reckoned 

 that an acre will carry two ewes and their offspring, which may be 

 taken as five sheep in all. 



Summer Keep or Feed. The lambs, on weaning, should be dipped 

 in one of the well-known dipping solutions to free them from 

 vermin which may be on them, and to prevent others from 

 locating themselves. This also has the effect of rendering them less 

 likely to be struck by the fly which lays its eggs on the wool, the 

 eggs speedily developing into maggots. The feet must be kept 

 sound by paring, and if disease breaks out they must be dressed 

 with a caustic foot-rot solution, of which there are many. On farms 

 where arable land greatly preponderates, the tegs are kept to a 

 great extent on the arable land at all times, as the grass is required 

 for other purposes ; though, if other kinds of keep are stale or short, 

 a fresh run on the meadows is desirable. During the early part 



