11 



it that the lambs are given better than usual care in the way of feed- 

 ing, and are they bred directly with a view to producing prime 

 lambs ? 



Fifth. Has your practice awakened the growers in your sec- 

 tion to the fact that it is very necessary to castrate ram lambs if 

 they are to be made prime for the market ? 



SHELBYVILLE, KY., Aug. 22, 1908. 

 W . C. Coffey, Urbana, Illinois. 



DEAR SIR: Your letter in regard to the castrating of lambs 

 received through Mr. Embry and we take great pleasure in giving 

 you what information we can. We have been castrating the lambs 

 which \ve contract for early in the spring for fifteen years. We 

 castrated only a few at first as people were afraid it would kill 

 them. We agreed to give them three dollars per head for all lambs 

 we killed by castrating. At the present time the majority of the 

 best farmers in our section castrate their lambs. 



We sell our lambs from fifty to seventy-five cents per hundred 

 weight higher any year than those who do not practice castrating. 

 As far as quality is concerned there is no comparison. It makes us 

 sick to go among a lot of buck lambs and attempt to select a good 

 load. A lamb should be castrated when he is a few days old ; how- 

 ever, since we have the greater part of it to do, we do not get to 

 many of them until they are two months or more of age. There is 

 no more art in castrating a lamb than there is in castrating a pig or 

 calf : just cut off about one-third of the sack, pull the testicles out 

 and let him go ; the sooner you get through the better. 



We think the quality is principally due to castration. They are 

 bred and fed the same as other lambs. We would be pleased if you 

 could manage to see a load of them. The best farmers here would 

 castrate their lambs were they to get no more for them than people 

 who do not practice castrating. They would follow the practice 

 because they can keep castrated lambs as long as they please and 

 they will grow and fatten if they are liberally fed. Not so with 

 buck lambs. After a certain time they go backward until they be- 

 come comparatively worthless. 



If there is any further information we can give you we shall 

 gladly do so. Yours truly, 



(Signed.) HAIX & CAMPBEU,. 



Nearly all of the lambs in the locality where Messrs. Hall & 

 Campbell purchase are marketed in the early summer before the 

 lambs are old enough to have the sex instinct developed to the same 

 extent as is characteristic of the general run of native lambs on 

 the market, and yet their letter is strong evidence that it pays well 

 to castrate lambs that are to be marketed at a comparatively young 



