782 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING, 



TABLE 3. Relative position oftJte lambs ami wethers given in Table 1, &c. Continued. 



The above tables have been constructed on the same plan which has been observed in 

 those for cattle. The average gain per day in pounds is calculated to the nearest deci- 

 mal; that is to say, when the remainder represents a fraction of greater value than one- 

 half it is reckoned as one, and where more than one animal is represented by the same 

 average rate of daily gain relative positions are determined by the numerical value of 

 the remainder. With regard to the tables of averages, it will be seen that the numbers 

 exhibited refer to pens of three, the weights and daily rate increase referring, of course, to 

 an average of the three animals in each pen. The weight of each pen has been divided 

 by three; a remainder of two has been reckoned as one, and a remainder of one has been 

 dropped. 



SHEEP AND MUTTON IN 1883. 



[From the Live Stock Journal. Inclosure No. 7 Consul-General Merrill's report.] 



The past season has been on the whole an average one to the floekmaster. Neither 

 liver rot nor fluke have disturbed the flock, although foot-and-mouth disease and scab 

 have caused some anxiety. The losses in Licolnshire and Norfolk were most severe, 

 and caused a drop at some of the sales. The regulations in force to prevent the spread 

 of the disease were ineffective, as the local authorities in some areas granted licenses 

 which were refused in other places; hence discontent and dissatisfaction, encouraged by 

 bad seasons, has produced a wonderful progeny of evils. 



In the spring there was quite a stampede. Farmers usually endeavor to have a good 

 crop of early lamb for market, which helps to pay the way at Easter. An embargo, 

 however, was placed on the sale. Her Majesty the Queen issued an order that no lamb 

 would be required for the royal household. This immediately lowered the price of thia 

 favorite dainty, and occasioned a serious loss to flockmasters ready to sell. The outcry 

 against the order was so great that another was issued explaining Her Majesty's com- 

 mands only affected the royal household, and was in no way intended to interfere with 

 the sheep markets. 



Doubtless Her Majesty's advisers, looking to the fearful decrease in our flocks of late 

 years, were anxious to retain all the ewe lambs possible for future use. But flock- 

 masters know their business, and can attend to it. They can spot the lambs which 

 ought to be fed for lamb and those which should make mutton. Sheep-breeders have 

 found out that mutton pays better than wool, and that fat lamb brings a better return 

 than mutton. The produce of black-faced short-wooled rarns and white-faced long- 

 wool ed ewes is found to be a profitable early lamb fbr the market; and the lamb dropped 

 by Dorset horns is par excellence the dainty of early spring. In Scotland early lambs arc 

 purposely bred from old ewes, being their last crop of lambs; consequently it pays to 

 both with as much artificial food as possible. These old ewes begin to lamb in 

 February, and drop more lambs than ordinary stock ewes, because they are put in good 

 , condition when the rams are with them. It would not pay to keep the lambs till they 

 got bigger, as it would increase the bill, and as mutton fetch less. Therefore flock- 



