REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



dipped in boiling tar, to distinguish the kinds and ages of the sheep. This 

 kind of mark, though convenient, is injurious to the wool. 



After the operation of clipping, the young sheep are termed shearling sheep; 

 the castrated males, shearling wethers; the females, shearling ewes; the rams, 

 shearling tups or rams. But it is common to apply to them at this period the 

 following terms: The shearling wethers are termed dinmonts; the females 

 are termed gimmers; and the rams are still termed shearling rams; and these 

 names the animals retain until they are shorn of their second fleece in the fol- 

 lowing year. 



The shearling ewes or gimmers are, after being shorn, kept at grass for the 

 remainder of the season, and they receive the rams in October in the manner 

 described. 



The shearling wethers or dinmonts are soon after shearing fit for the 

 butcher. They are then about one year and three months old. If of the Lei- 

 cester breed, they will weigh 16 or 18 Ibs. the quarter, and their fleeces will 

 weigh 7 Ibs. each, or more. 



But should the pasture be inferior, the breed bad, or the stock not in suffi- 

 cient order, or should the state of the markets render it inexpedient to sell, then 

 the dinmonts may be kept upon the farm for one winter more. In this case they 

 are pastured precisely as when they were hoggets during the remainder of the 

 season; and when in autumn the pastures again fail, they are penned on tur- 

 nips, and treated in the same manner as in the previous winter. 



The dinmonts are frequently sold fat before they have completed the entire 

 winter's feeding. But it is more common to keep them during the winter on 

 turnips, to put them upon good and early grass in the spring, and to dispose of 

 them after they are shorn. They are then two years and two or three months 

 old, and have yielded two fleeces to the breeder. They will weigh at this age 

 from 25 to 30 Ibs. the quarter, or more, and their fleeces will weigh about 8 Ibs. 



These and other sheep, after they are shorn of their second fleece, are termed 

 two-shear sheep: the males not castrated are simply tups or rams; the males 

 castrated are wethers, and the females are ewes. It is more profitable to be able 

 to feed off sheep when shearlings than to retain them till they are two years 

 old. The former is the perfection of feeding; but it is a perfection attainable 

 on every arable farm in this country on which roots can be raised, and a supe- 

 rior breed of sheep maintained. 



In the practice of the farm, then, the male sheep are disposed of either after 

 having yielded one fleece, or after having yielded two fleeces. Such of the 

 ewes as are reared on the farm, but are not to be employed for breeding, may 

 be treated in the same manner. 



But with respect to the ewes upon the farm kept for breeding, it is necessa- 

 ry, after they have borne lambs for several years, to dispose of them, and to 

 supply their place by younger ewes reared upon the farm. A certain number 

 of gimmers being each year added to the breeding stock, an equal number of 

 the oldest ewes are disposed of, and thus the number of breeding sheep is main- 

 tained. 



And not only are all ewes which have borne the required number of lambs 

 to be disposed of in this manner, but all breeding sheep, of "whatever age, that 

 are not healthy, or that are of a defective form, and their place is to be supplied 

 by the younger and better stock reared upon the ground. 



These, then, have been the principal points of practice in the management 

 of a sheep-stock reared upon the farm: The female stock, like the males, were 

 suckled by the dams till July; they were then weaned, and pastured wi(ji the 

 wether-hogs during the remainder of the season, when they were put together 

 with the wether-hogs on turnips before winter; they were fed on turnips till 

 April, when they were turned out to pasture along with the wether-hogs; early 

 in June they were dipt; in the month of October they were joined to the rest 

 of the ewe stock, supplying the place of the older ewes that have been disposed 

 of; and after this time they are treated in all respects as breeding ewes, and 

 kept upon the farm till they have borne lambs for three or four years. The 

 males, it has been seen, were castrated a few days after birth, were weaned 

 in July, when they received the name of wether-hogs, were pastured during 

 the remainder of the season, and were then, together with the ewe-hogs, penned 



