194 THE LAMBING SEASON. 



SECTION I. 



THE LAMBING SEASON. 



The ewe goes with lamb five months. The g-eneral time of yean- 

 ing is about the end of March, but in some of the western counties, 

 and particularly in Dorsetshire, by which the metropolis and many 

 of the towns in the west are principally supplied with house-lamb, it 

 is so contrived that the lambs shall be dropped in the middle or even 

 the beginning of February. With the best care a great deal of danger 

 attends this early lambing, and even at a later period a few cold nights 

 are fatal to many of the lambs. There is nothing that requires more 

 reformation than the treatment both of the ewe and the lamb at the 

 time of yeaning. 



During the time of gestation more attention is required than is 

 generally paid. To enable the ewe to produce her lamb with com- 

 parative safety, she should not be too well fed. One of the most 

 prevalent causes of puerperal fever, or dropping after calving, in the 

 cow, is her too high condition. It is more particularly so with the 

 ewe ; and there are few things that the farmer should be more careful 

 about than that the fair, but not unusual of forced, condition of the 

 animal is preserved. A week or two before the time, a little better 

 keep may be useful in order to give them sufficient strength for the 

 lambing. It is a kind of middle course which the farmer has to pur- 

 sue, and the path is not very difiicult to trace : too high condition will 

 dispose to fever; on the other hand, with too poor keep the ewe will 

 not have sufficient strength to go through the process safely, nor will 

 she have milk enough for the lambs. If the dam has not sufficient 

 support previously, the lamb will be weakly when it is dropped, and 

 will not thrive well afterwards. 



When the time of 3'eaning approaches, a little care may prevent a 

 very great loss to the farmer. The ev,-es should be brought as nearly 

 home as possible. They should be sheltered from the wind, if it be 

 only by a high and thick hedge ; but a kind of shed, however rudely 

 constructed, would abundantly pay the expense of building it. At 

 night, particularly, they should be folded in some sheltered place. 



At the period of lambing the shepherd should be far more attentive 

 than he is frequently found to be, and especially than he is if the pelt 

 of the dead lamb is absurdly made his perquisite. If the master's 

 loss is the servant's gain, it will not be surprising if casualties occur. 

 A reward, increasing in proportion to the number of ewes and lambs 

 saved, would do more than any other thing to save both the dam and 

 her offspring. The care of the farmer or lamber will vary a great 

 deal according to the period of the year and the state of the v.-eather. 

 In the early lambing the greatest losses are at the beginning: they 

 arise principally from cold. In March or April the latter part of the 



