Flock Improvement. 49 



are more profitable than old ones. They cost less to 

 keep by about 20%, and they cut fully 20% more wool. 

 Their wool also is of greater value, and altogether it has 

 been proved that it costs nearly double to grow the 

 same quantity of wool from old sheep as it does from 

 young ones. Young sheep count better in both wool 

 and mutton returns. The older ewes, of course, make 

 better mothers than the quite young ones, but when the 

 ewes are very old they cannot furnish sufficient milk for 

 the lamb, for their failing teeth prohibits them, on 

 ordinary pasture, from keeping up their condition. A 

 systematic yearly culling of the inferior and ageing 

 ewes, and saving of the better ewe lambs, will keep the 

 flock permanently young. and improving, and earning 

 greater and greater profits. 



