90 ON LAMBS. 



for reasons to be given hereafter, when treating of 

 wethers : male lambs cut, have their flesh as good as 

 female lambs, but they do not attain the size of those, 

 which have not been cut : most people, who fat lambs 

 for sale, do not like to cut them, until they are large ; 

 and although their flesh has not so good a flavour, 

 they sell better. 



Q. At what age can lambs take other food than 

 milk? 



A. There are lambs, which begin to eat at the 

 troughs and in the rack, and to feed on grass when 

 eighteen days old ; then the following things may be 

 given them in their troughs. 



Oat-meal alone, or mixed with bran ; it is said, that 

 bran gives them too much belly, if it is not mixed 

 with other food. 



Peas ; the blue coloured are more tender and nour- 

 ishing than the white or grey : if they are cracked in 

 boiling water, and mixed with milk, they are the 

 more tender and relishing ; they may be also mixed 

 with oat- meal or barley flour, but barley flour alone 

 disgusts them, from its sticking to their teeth. 



Oats or barley in grain, (or passed two or three 

 turns in a mill) is the food, that lambs like the best ; 

 it is also the most healthy, and that which fats them 

 the most readily. 



Hay, such as is the finest ; that is, not coarse hay. 



Straw, twice thrashed to make it softer. 



Dry trefoil, oat chaff, &c. and particularly saintfoin. 



The grasses of low grounds, and all such as are 

 good for fatting wethers, as will be shewn in the next 

 chapter. 



