60 



House Lamb. — Ploughs and Plovghmen. 



Vol. VI. 



For tlie Farmers' Cabinet. 

 House Lamb. 



Mr. Editor, — In tlie county of Essex, 

 England, and several of the adjoining coun- 

 tieis the practice of vxaking house lamb, as 

 it is called, for the London market, is car- 

 ried on to a great extent and to much profit; 

 and as there is neither secresy or difficulty 

 relating to the business, there can be no good 

 reason why the plan should not be adopted 

 by us, for the supply of our cities at that sea- 

 son of the year when such a luxury would be 

 sure to bring good prices and form a profita- 

 ble return to the farmer. 



The rtock of the " lamb farmer" consists of 

 about 200 ewes, kept as well as his pasture 

 will admit of, and to which a small allowance 

 of grain is furnished, peas being generally 

 admitted the best for the purpose. To these 

 ewes the rams are put in the beginning of 

 June, and by the end of July most of them 

 will have become impregnated, it being natu- 

 ral to this breed of sheep, the Dorsetshire, to 

 jfo to their kind at a very early season ; and 

 this tendency on their parts becomes periodi- 

 cal, so that a better chance of early lambs is 

 had from ewes thus accustomed to breeding, 

 than from those untried. The lambs at a fort- 

 night old are separated from their dams, and 

 placed in small pens, two or three in each, in 

 the lamb house, which is by some constructed 

 with three compartments, one being divided 

 into pens for the lambs of different ages, the 

 oUier two communicating with this, and also 

 wiih the farm-yard — ihe one to receive the 

 dams of the iambs which are in the pens, the 

 other to receive the dams of those lambs that 

 have been sold off'; and into these two divi- 

 sions the ewes, as here distinguished, are re- 

 spectively driven twice a day, when the dams 

 of the lambs which have been sold oft" are 

 brought out separately, and held, while the 

 lambs suck them; they are then put away, 

 and the lambs are let into the adjoining apart- 

 ment to their own dams. While the lamb is 

 very yonng, it is incapable of taking much 

 milk, and the ewe will aiford sufficient for its 

 su.-teriance; but as it increases in strength, 

 a.ssistance becomes necessary, and sometimes 

 cow milk is given, beginning with a quarter 

 of a pint at a meal, and that twice a day, ex- 

 clusive of the milk from the ewe: the regu- 

 lar practice being to divide the twenty-four 

 htHirs by four cqu-.il period.s, and to feed the 

 lambs with ewe's milk and cow's milk alter- 

 nately, at intervals of six hours. This atten- 

 tion is requisite to insure succe.ss, as well as 

 the greatest cleanliness; the best lamb houses 

 having board floors, covered thick with wheat 

 straw always kept dry and fresh. At about 

 six weeks old, they are fit for the butcher, 

 and produce according to their value, some- 



times as high as ten dollars a-piece, much 

 depending upon the early state of the market. 

 The ewes should be well supplied with roots 

 during the time of suckling; and the forego- 

 ing method includes all the rules observed by 

 the chief farmers in the lamb trade — a prac- 

 tice which has caused much wonder, and the 

 success of which has been imputed to various 

 mysteries, but, except in the contrivance of 

 the barn, the whole is comprised in regu- 

 larily and cleanliness. J. G. 



For the Farmers' Cahinpt. 

 Ploughs and Ploughmen. 



Sir, — I am glad to find that the committee 

 of arrangement have determined on having 

 a ploughing match at the approaching Exhi- 

 bition of the Philadelphia Agricultural Socie- 

 ty, to be held on the 29th and 30th of the pre- 

 sent month. If I had the opportunity, I would 

 urge upon them the expediency of excluding 

 altogether from the trial, all speedy plough- 

 ing, awarding the premium to the best plough- 

 man, without regard to the speed with which 

 the work had been accomplished. Every one 

 knows that our ploughmen can beat all na- 

 tur^ in this qualification, but it is as generally 

 known and acknowledged, that the quality 

 of the work is deplorably deficient; so that, 

 with the best implements in the world, we 

 are accustomed to do the worst work, because 

 of our national propensity to go ahead, which 

 in ploughing cannot be indulged in with im- 

 punity. Our furrows are taken too wide also, 

 on the same go-ahead principle; — the best 

 ploughing consists of the smallest furrows 

 well laid, so that the ploughed land shall ap- 

 pear, comparatively, as smooth after the ope- 

 ration as after harrowing, with no large 

 chasms to be left to the chance of being filled 

 up by the harrows. 



In the first edition of Tull's Husbandry, 

 there is the drawing of a plough with four 

 coulters, which is said to have worked easily 

 and most effectually, by which a wide furrow 

 was sub-divided into four widths before it was 

 turned over, and on falling off' the mould-plate 

 it became perfectly pulverized without the 

 use of the harrow, and yet it was placed in 

 its proper position without the least difficulty 

 — the remark being, "In proportion to the 

 number of furrows and the pulverized state 

 of the land, so will be the yield of the crop, 

 both in quantity and quality." By these 

 mean.s, a furrow 10 inches in width could be 

 reduced to four of 4 inches each, much time 

 and labour being .saved in the operation of 

 afler-harrowing, and a much better seed-bed 

 provided for the crop. As the first edition of 

 that valuable work is scarce and in few hands, 

 perhaps it might be amusing and instructive 

 to your readers if, in some future number of 



