141 



*he was a iiiilkiiig animal and had to be treated as such. 

 The cow in milk requires much more feed than does me 

 dry cow, and so the milking ewe must be fed more liberally 

 than the dry one. The most economical thing to have done 

 with the ewe \vhen she dropped the lamb would have been 

 to put her and the lamb out upon green pasture. This date 

 would be around January the first. Green pastures can 

 easily be provided at this time of year, as oats, vetch, rye, 

 wheat, burr clover and barley pastures. The pasture method 

 is the way the farmer should handle his flock for the great- 

 est profit, but the Station wished to learn how much the 

 feed should be increased after the ewe came into milk, and 

 also study the effect of prolonged feeding of cotton seed 

 meal upon the health of the animal, so it was not possible 

 to employ the cheapest methods in this particular test. So 

 the mothers were confined in a third lot and fed upon an 

 increased amount of cotton seed meal and hulls. A small 

 passage was made in the fence leading out into the pasture, 

 w r hich was composed of oats and vetch, and the lambs only 

 were given the freedom of this run. 



But it might be that the farmer would not be supplied 

 w r ith a green field when the lambs begin to come, and he 

 would be interested in knowing just how much the feed 

 should be increased w r hen the ewe changes from a dry to a 

 milking animal. The majority of owners allow their ewes, 

 cows, sows and mares to run down rapidly in flesh wh^n 

 they come into milk. 



It has been a rule of the writers to increase the feed of 

 a mare or a cow twenty-five per cent, when the young 

 animal was born, thinking that this increase in feed would 

 be sufficient to maintain the mother in as good condi- 

 tion as she was before giving birth to the voting animal, 

 but tho following data show that an increase of twenty-five 

 per cent, was not sufficient : 



