REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 379 



fleeces of such ewes as he has covered; and if more than one ram is with the 

 flock, then, by smearing the rams with different coloured pigment, as red and 

 blue, the progeny of each is known. Such ewes as have not received the ram 

 maybe taken from amongst the breeding stock and fed for the butcher. 



Rams are fit to propagate their species in the autumn of the second year. 

 Well fed females will receive the male even in their first year; but the proper 

 period is in the October of the second year. 



The food of sheep is herbage, upon which they feed during summer. In 

 winter, when the pastures fail, the feeding-stock are fed on a full allowance of 

 roots, or other succulent food; but the ewes are suffered to pasture during the 

 entire winter, and merely receive such an allowance of otherfood as is required 

 to keep them in condition. During hard frosts and snow, they may receive 

 hay, which may be either given to them from racks, or simply spread upon the 

 ground. They thus pasture in the fields, receiving hay when occasion requires, 

 until within a few weeks of the period of lambing, when they should receive 

 an allowance of turnips, or other succulent food, laid down in the fields where 

 they are pasturing. 



When the period of lambing arrives, every vigilance is necessary on the part 

 of the shepherd. He must be at all times at hand to assist the births. He must 

 take his necessary rest only during the day, and for the shortest time possible, 

 when his place can be supplied. 



The birth of the young must be assisted, but not precipitately. The proper 

 position of the foetus is with its head couched between its fore-legs. In other 

 positions the birth is difficult, and it generally becomes necessary to turn the 

 foetus, which is done by elevating the ewe from behind. Experienced shep- 

 herds are acquainted with these duties. 



When the young is born, it is to be immediately recognised, and licked by 

 the dam, and assisted to the teat when necessary. When the lamb of any ewe 

 dies, another should be supplied to her; either one of the twins of another ewe, 

 or one that has lost its own dam. Sometimes much difficulty is experienced in. 

 getting the ewe to adopt another lamb; and cases even occur, when the ewe, 

 From some unknown cause, deserts her own young. In proportion as the ewes 

 have lambed, they should, if possible, be transferred with their young to a field 

 of new grass. 



An operation to be performed upon the lambs is castrating the males which 

 are not to be reserved for rams. This may be performed in a few days aitvr 

 the birth, generally in 8 or 10 days. It is done by the shepherd, with an as- 

 sistant to hold the animal, and, at the same time, it is usual to cut off a portion 

 of the tail. The operation is performed on lots of the lambs, and not on each 

 singly as it reaches a certain age. It is well that it be performed early, the 

 difficulty and danger increasing with the age of the animal, and that the weather 

 at the time be dry, and, if possible, cloudy and mild. 



The lambs continue with the ewes sucking them till the period of weaning, 

 which generally takes place by the middle of July. Weaning is simply per- 

 formed by removing the young from their dams, and keeping them for a time 

 so far asunder that they may not be disturbed by their mutual bleatings. 



When the lambs are weaned, the ewes should be milked for the purpose of 

 relieving their udders and running them dry by degrees. Three rnilkings will 

 generally suffice, though, should any particular cases require more, it is the 

 province of the shepherd to attend to them. Supposing the lambs to be weaned 

 in the evening, the first milking may take place in the following evening, or in 

 24 hours; the next at an interval of 36 hours; the last at an interval of 48 hours. 

 When the ewes are to be milked, they are driven into a narrow pen, the milk- 

 ers, with pails, milking the ewes from behind; and on each ewe being milked, 

 she is turned round in the pen by an assistant, the milkers continuing their 

 work until the whole are milked. 



After being weaned, the lambs receive the name of hoggets, or hogs, the 

 rams being termed tup-hogs, the castrated males, wether-hogs, the ewes, ewe- 

 hogs. The wether and ewe hoggets are now pastured together for the re- 

 mainder of the season. When winter approaches, or rather when the pasture 

 fails, the hoggets, male and female, are to be put on a full allowance of roots. 



When the sheep are penned upon the turnips, they are confined to a given 



