94 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



holiday season and before the Easter season. If ready 

 too early, they would reach the market in competition 

 with the vast supply of poultry that fill the market just 

 prior to the holiday season. If not ready early enough, 

 they come in competition with early spring lambs, and 

 at a lower price. 



Lambs for the spring market are supposed to be 

 ready for the shambles not later than the Easter season. 

 The milk lambs usually supply the needs of the market 

 until the approach of the Easter season. The winter 

 lambs, which come chiefly in the months of February and 

 March, will take the market at an early age when plump 

 and fat. Though they do not sell for prices so high as 

 milk lambs, they will at the age of six to ten weeks sell 

 for prices as high if not higher than they will bring sev- 

 eral months later. These good prices for really good 

 lambs may, and frequently do, continue for several weeks 

 after the Christmas season, but the price paid after that 

 season is less relatively in proportion to the weight of 

 the lambs. When prices can be obtained for such lambs 

 fully equal to those obtained for them several months 

 later, there are no good reasons for keeping them thus 

 long before selling them for meat. 



When lambs are to be sold for breeding uses, they 

 should come early rather than late. The aim should be to 

 have them come as early as winter lambs intended for 

 the Easter market, but they should not be pushed so 

 rapidly as the latter when young. Such lambs should 

 come thus early for the reason, first, that those who pur- 

 chase give the preference to large lambs when making 

 their selections ; and, second, that they usually grow to a 

 larger size. That the result last mentioned follows may 

 be disputed, but there would seem to be some truth in the 

 belief. And it seems to be more in evidence in the case 

 of Merinos than of some other breeds. It may rest upon 

 the advantage which a strong and well-developed animal 

 has on entering the winter over one not so well developed. 



