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Raising Lambs — Subdividins: n Farm Properly, ^-c. Vol. III. 



for 12 or 13 weeks each summer during the 

 hot season, feeding them three times per day, 

 principally on clover grass cut in the morning 

 while the dew was on. Every 8 or 10 days, 

 I had their pen covered about one inch thick 

 with loam and on that a good littering of 

 straw ; this with the remnant of grass the 

 sheep left was spread over at each feeding and 

 kept them clean. The loam was put over for 

 the purpose of sweetening the pen and to pre- 

 vent heating so as to injure the sheep, as well 

 SIS to increase the manure by absorbing the 

 urine, &c. Those sheep were not designed 

 for the butcher, although some of them be- 

 came very fat, and I have reason to believe 

 that sheep will feed in a shorter time in the hot 

 season of the year if rightly cared for in this 

 way, than to run at large, tor in warm days 

 they lay in the shade, feeding only morning 

 and evening, but under a cool shed they will 

 feed freely at any time through the hottest 

 day. 



Those sheep, attended as above described 

 for 1'2 weeks, made thirty large ox cart loads 

 of as good manure as any produced by horses 

 or cattle, which I consider fully compensates 

 for the trouble. 



One acre of good ground -with red clover 

 kept the above sheep 13 weeks last summer, 

 and kept them well. This acre we mowed 

 once, and about two thirds over the second 

 time ; the remainder going to seed, I let them 

 run at large. I am satisfied that two acres 

 of grass equally as good would not keep the 

 same number of sheep for the same length 

 of time, as they destroy as much grass 

 with their feet as they eat. The sheep 

 were more healthy, less subject to scour 

 when kept in, than when they were out in the 

 hot sun, heavy dews and rain ; producing as 

 much wool of quite as good quality, as well as 

 more secure from the depredations of the 

 dogs. Very respectfully thy friend, 



Moses Pennock. 



James M. Thomson, M.D. Cor. Sec'y. Agr. Soc 



these seven Ewes, in 17 months from the time 

 of their purchase, brought me *28 lambs, which 

 were all reared in health, and were sold, the 

 first lambs for a guinea and a half each, the 

 second lambs for a guinea each, and the third 

 were sold with the ewes as couples. Besides 

 the 28 lambs, I had a fleece of wool from each 

 of the ewes at midsummer. 



Yours, respectfully, 



J. P. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Experiment to raise Lambs tivlce a year 

 from tHc same Ewes. 



Sir, — Having heard that the pure bred Dor- 

 setshire ewes would infallibly bring lambs 

 twice in the same year, I purchased, for the 

 purpose of making the experiment, seven ewes 

 on the 2d of December, 182.'3. They were all 

 in lamb, and by the 28th of that month had 

 yeaned nine lambs. Tlie first of these ewes 

 lambed the second time on the 2d day of July, 

 1826, the remaining six by the 26th of that 

 month ; they brought seven lambs. By the 

 14th of Match 1827, five of these ewes had 

 Inmbed the third time, the remaining two on 

 the 29th day of April, and produced, a' the 

 third lambing, twelve healthy lambx. Thus 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Snltdivldliig a Farnt properly^ die. 



It is a matter of no .email importance, and 

 it requires much skill and judgment to layoff" 

 a farm properly into fields and in closures so 

 as to realize the greatest possible advantage 

 by it, in regard to convenient access, equal 

 size of inclosures, and convenience in water- 

 ing of slock. The saving of fencing is also 

 a matter of considerable consequence, both as 

 it regards the expense in the first instance, 

 as well as that occasioned by subsequent re- 

 pairs. 



Fields for cultivation should be rectan- 

 gular, and the nearer they approach to a 

 i^quare, the less fence they require. The in- 

 closures intended for a regular rotation of 

 crops should be as near of the same size as 

 practicable, and the number of acres in each 

 field should be accurately a.scertained, and a 

 register kept of it. The importance of hav- 

 ing the fields to contain each a known num- 

 ber of acres, is of much consequence in ma- 

 nuring, liming, pla.«tering, and in sowing grain 

 and grass seeds, and also in determining the 

 amount of produce per acre, as well as ena- 

 bling a farmer to judge correctly of the 

 amount of labor bestowed on a given space of 

 ground. All of these matters are too often 

 guessed at, and sometimes the guessing is so 

 coarse as to lead both the proprietor and his 

 friends into great errors of judgment. Fields 

 being of equal dimensions, furni>h the sa^ne 

 amount of labor each year, in tilling them, 

 produce as near as human means can effect 

 it, the same amount of products, and give tha 

 ability to distribute the manure with an equal 

 hand over the whole farm. 



Although many farms are beautifiilly laid 

 off into fields .«o as to attain the objects above 

 stated in an admirable manner; yet there are 

 many others, so cut up as not to indicate much 

 intelligent design in its accomplishment, ei- 

 ther in respect to convenience, or the due 

 apportionment of the re.'-pective inclosures. 

 Where this is the case a system should at once 

 be adopted, the tendency of which would be 

 in a few years to regulate and correct it. — 

 Theie is something so incongruous in one year 

 cultivjitinnf a large field and the next a small 

 one, tliat it cannot be duly appreciated, ex- 

 cept by one who has made trial of it; for one 



