Book VII. 



MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 



1059 



7194. The ewes, during winter, are seldom allowed any other food than what their summer pasture 

 affords, except that a small part of it may sometimes be but lightly eaten, and reserved as a resource 



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against severe storms. When these occur, however, as they often do in the Cheviot district, there is little 

 dependence on any other food than hay. When the snow is so deep as completely to cover the herbage, 

 about two stones avoirdupois of hay are allowed to a score of sheep daily, and it is laid down, morning 

 and evening, in small parcels on any sheltered spot near the house, or under the shelter of stells or clumps 

 of trees, on dift'erent parts of the farm. 



7195. The ewes in March, at least the gimmers or young ewes, are commonly allowed a few turnips once 

 a day, on farms on which there is any extent of arable land ; which are either carted to their pastures, or 

 eaten on the ground, by bringing the sheep to the turnip field through the night. A part of the field, in 

 the latter case, is cut off by nets, or by hurdles, which enclose the sheep in the same way as if they were 

 intended for fattening. When they are ready to drop their lambs, they are no longer kept on the turnip 

 field, and get what turnips may be left on their pastures. But it is seldom that the turnips last so long, 

 though it is desirable to have a few remaining to be given to the weakest ewes, or to such as have twins 

 in a separate enclosure. 



7196. Afeiv days before the time of lambing, the ewes are collected for the purpose of being udder- 

 locked. The sheep are raised upon their buttocks, their backs next to the operator, who then bends 

 forward and plucks off the locks of wool growing on or near the udders, for the purpose of giving free 

 access to the expected lambs. At the same time he ascertains the condition of the ewes, and marks such 

 as do not appear to be in lamb, which may then be separated from the others. This operation is not 

 without danger, and several premature births are usually the consequence. It is therefore not so general 

 a practice as it was formerly, though still a common one on many, if not on most farms. 



7197. The separation of the hogs from the ewe^, where these have been allowed to pasture promiscuously, 

 should always take place at the commencement of the lambing season, and the lowest and finest part of . 

 the pasture be exclusively appropriated to the nursing ewes. On the Cheviot hills the hogs are generally 

 pastured apart on the coarser herbage. 



7198. The lamhing season commences with the first or second week of April, according to the time at 

 which the rains were admitted ; and such as have twins, generally lamb among the first of the flock. At 

 this season, the most constant attention is indispensable on the part of the shepherds, both to the ewes in 

 labour and to the newly dropped lambs. Though the Cheviot ewes are not so liable to losses in partu- 

 rition as some larger breeds which are in higher condition, and though they make good nurses, unless they 

 are very lean, and their food scanty, yet, among a large flock, there are always a number that need assist- 

 ance in lambing, and in a late spring not a few who have not milk sufficient for their lambs, particularly 

 among the gimmers or young ewes. A careful shepherd at this time always carries a bottle of milk along 

 with him, which he drops from his own mouth into that of the lamb that may need it; brings the ewes 

 that have little milk to a better pasture, or to turnips, and confines such as have forsaken their lambs in 

 a small pen, or barrack as it is called, temporarily erected in some part of the farm-steading. The same 

 confinement is necessary when it is wished to make a ewe that has lost her own lamb, nurse that of 

 another ewe that has had twins, or that has perished in lambing, or is from any other cause incapable of 

 rearing her lamb. The ewe, after being shut up a few hours with the strange lamb, usually admits it to 

 the teat, and ever after treats it as her own ; though sometimes a little deception is necessary, such as 

 covering the stranger with the skin of her own lamb. At this important season, an enclosure of rich 

 early grass, near the shepherd's cottage, is of vast advantage. Thither he carries the ewes and twins, 



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