SECRETARY'S REPORT. 123 



tliern, regretting that there are so few men who shear well, so 

 few girls who spin well, and so few women who weave at all. 



The period of gestation of ewes, as before stated, is from one 

 hundred and forty-fonr to one hundred and fifty-two days ; the 

 time at which they will receive the ram, depends somcwliat on 

 the time at which the lambs were taken away, and also some- 

 what on their condition ; it is a common remark that they will 

 receive the ram about the time of the first frosts, in the last 

 of August or the first of September. The time when they will 

 be put together, will be controlled by each farmer's views as 

 to the time when he prefers to have his lambs dropped. For 

 the early market lambs, September and October will be the 

 proper time, but for the fine-woolled lambs, or any others 

 which arc to be kept, November and the early part of Decem- 

 ber will do, so that the lambs shall be dropped when the ewes 

 can have good pasturage and a full flow of milk. Where the 

 lambs arc to be kept np and fed with meal, and additional 

 food can also be given to the ewes if necessary, there is no ques- 

 tion as to the desirability of having twins dropped, and one 

 point in making or selecting a flock, should be to get twin-bear- 

 ing and good milking ewes ; breadth and depth of loin and a 

 wide spread between the hind legs, giving room for a large 

 udder, are good signs of a milker. Mr. Youatt says : " If a 

 farmer has pasture enough, and good enough, twins are highly 

 dcsiral)le, for at only the usual expense before the yeaning 

 time, the number of his lambs is doubled, and the pasture being 

 good, and the lambs well fed, there will be very little difference 

 in health, condition or value between the twins and the single 

 lambs." The twins are generally obtained from ewes that are 

 three, or four, or five years old. The disposition to twinning is 

 luidoubtedly hereditary ; there are sometimes rams that have 

 the credit of being twin-getters, and that faculty usually 

 descends to their offspring, but this is oftener the case with 

 regard to the ewe, agreeably to the old English couplet, 



" Ewes yearly by twinning rich masters do make, 

 The lambs of sufh twinnors for breeders go take." 



Tiic female of every species has far more to do with the unu- 

 sual midtiplication of the offspring than has the male ; and the 

 farmer who wishes to increase liis stock through the medium of 



