44 Sheep Management. 



carried her lamb or lambs from five to seven days 

 overtime the result was usually weak or dead 

 lambs. After careful study and observation the 

 writer has been led to believe that outdoor life 

 and giving ewes all the exercise possible hastens 

 the date of lambing. 



The winter of 1910-11 was an unusually mild 

 one in Wisconsin, especially in the southern part 

 of the state. Because of this fine weather the Sta- 

 tion flock of breeding ewes could be turned out 

 into a field about a quarter of a mile away from 

 the barn. Here the hay was spread so they had 

 to pick it up. From the time that the ewes 

 were bred until all had lambed they were turned 

 out in this field daily on all but eleven days, when 

 they were kept in on account of snowy or rainy 

 weather. Our records for this year show that out 

 of 60 ewes which lambed only ten carried their 

 lambs from one to three days overtime. Four out 

 of the 60 dropped their lambs on the proper day 

 as given for them in Breeders' Memorandums, or 

 so-called Breeders' Calendars, 1 17 days, while the 

 remainder, 46 ewes, dropped their lambs at from 

 one to five days ahead of 147 days. All lambs, 

 whether dropped on or before time, were unusu- 

 ally strong and healthy. The record for this year 

 is quite different from that of former years, when 

 on account of more snow and bad weather the 



