MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 227 



or five families on the clubbing system and used to great ad- 

 vantage. Of course the legs can be cured just the same as the 

 ham of pork. 



LAMB FEEDING. 



The main features in fattening lambs are to get good lambs 

 and good feed and then a careful feeder to feed them. Sometrm.es 

 when the lambs are not thriving properly a change of rations- will 

 bring about an improvement, but of course the change from green 

 rations to those of a dry nature must be gradual or trouble will 

 crop up. One of the greatest errors that the novice is liable to 

 fall into is stuffing his lambs. He does not seem to consider that 

 it is not the amount of feed given so much as it is the amount 

 assimilated that brings the desired results. As the author has 

 often pointed out in his earlier writings, the lamb feeder needs to 

 see his lambs before eating, during the time of eating and after 

 they have eaten to know how they are doing. 



One of the most important considerations in lamb feeding, 

 where you raise your own lambs, is to keep them growing rapidly 

 in the summer on grass, and to have them in as fine a condition as 

 possible by fall. 



Lambs, to fatten properly, must be fed regularly twice a day, 

 morning and evening. Regularly does not mean five o'clock one 

 morning and seven o'clock the next, nor five o'clock one evening 

 and eight o'clock the next. Lambs, to fatten properly, must be 

 fed by the watch. 



In an address before the Missouri Improved Live Stock Breed- 

 ers' Association on feeding lambs, some time ago, Jacob Ziegler, 

 of Clinton, 111., said: 



"Lambs should have grain from the time they are ten weeks 

 old till the following spring. A trough can be set with oats in it 

 outside of the pasture fence, near the watering place, with an open- 

 ing in the fence for the lambs to get to it. They will learn to 

 eat by the time, they are four months old, at which time they 

 should be weaned. In weaning, give them the best green pasture 

 you have and what oats they want to eat and plenty of good water 

 and salt. They should be kept in that way until they are put into 

 winter quarters ; then they should have from a half pint to a pint 

 equally of shelled corn and oats per 'day, according to the size and 

 breed of the sheep, with all they can eat of good hay. Stockers 

 will do well on good hay alone, but better on a variety with a little 

 grain in stormy weather. A daily ration of one pound of grain, 

 with straw stover or any kind of roughness, is a good feed for 

 stockers. 



"They can be fattened on various feeds, such as corn, peas, 

 beets, barley, oats, clover and grass. They do well on either. But 

 for winter feeding my best results have been from corn and clover 



