EAitLY LAMBS. *31 



sbcej), wliicli begin to lamb about Michaelmas, are kept 

 iu the close during the day, and in the house during 

 the night, until they have produced twenty or thirty 

 lambs. These lambs are then put into a lamb-house, 

 which is kept constantly well littered with clean wheat 

 straw ; and chalk, both in lump and in powder, is pro- 

 vided for them to lick, in order to prevent looseness, 

 and thereby preserve the lambs in health. As a pre- 

 vention against gnawing the boards, or eating each 

 other's wool, a little wheat straw is placed, with the 

 ears downwards, in a rack within their reach, with 

 which they amuse themselves, and of which they eat a 

 small quantity. In this house they are kept with great 

 care and attention until fit for the butcher. 



" The mothers of the lambs are turned, every night 

 at eight o'clock, into the lamb-house to their offspring. 

 At six o'clock in the morning these mothers are 

 separated from their lambs, and turned into the pastures ; 

 and, at eight o'clock, such ewes as have lost their own 

 lambs, and those ewes whose lambs are sold, are brought 

 in and held by the head till the lambs by turns suck 

 them clean : they are then turned into the pasture ; 

 and at twelve o'clock, the mothers of the lambs are 

 driven from the pasture into the lamb-house for an 

 hour, in the course of which time each lamb is suckled 

 by its mother. At four o'clock, all the ewes that have 

 not lambs of their own are again brought to the lamb- 

 house, and held for the lambs to suck ; and at eight, 

 the mothers of the lambs are brought to them for the 

 night. 



*' This method of suckling is continued all the year. 

 The breeders select such of the lambs as become ikt 



