1862. 



THE ILLIKOIS FAEMEK. 



165 



From the Conntry Gentleman and Cultirator, 



Raising Lambs For Butchers. 



After the ewes are well reated, and used to 

 grass so that there is no danger of overeating, 

 they may gradually be put on better pasture. — 

 At this time an important point is to be aimed 

 at, and kept steadily in view, viz : not to hurry 

 your ewes too fast in the fall, so that the thrift 

 cannot be kept up in the winter, but aim at a 

 constant gain in condition, changing from worse 

 to better, and not better to worse. Of course if 

 your ewes are good milkers, as they begin to spring 

 bag they will begin to get thin; but this thin- 

 ness is perfectly natural, and does not interfere 

 with the ewes being in gcod heart and very thrif- 

 ty. About the 1st of Oct., I should say — others 

 Nov. 1st, the ram should be turned in. 



I have DOW to write on a delicate matter, but 

 I shall state what I know to be so, and reserve the 

 proof for the future, if it becomes necessary to 

 produce it. In selecting your stock ram then, 

 don't be too pinching, but buy a good one, as it 

 will be money well laid out, and that you will 

 never regret it ; and by all means buy a South- 

 Down. As I hBve watched this matter closely 

 for fourteen years, I can say with confidence 

 that no other breed is better or as good. But it 

 does not follow that you need buy of me. There 

 are many good South-Down flocks. I would be 

 glad if there were ten times as many. I might 

 mention Mr. Thome's of New York State, Thom- 

 as BufiFum of Newport, R. I , Mr. John Worth, 

 Weschester, Chester Co., Pa., and very many 

 others ; but my readers will notice their adver- 

 tisements. 



When I first commenced with South downs, 

 many of our old fashioned farmers would not 

 pay ten dollars for a ram lamb. Since seeing 

 the great advantage, these same farmers have 

 willingly paid $25 for ram lambs, only keeping 

 from 20 to 50 ewes, and will any day tell you 

 that they would not be without a South-Down 

 ram for fifty dollars ; but I have said, and say 

 now, that from $15 to $25, is enough for a far- 

 mer to pay for a ram lamb just to raise butch- 

 er's lambs. Some conted that a Leicester, Cots- 

 woled or other long-wool, is as good, but a host 

 of witnesses say they are not. A few years ago 

 many of the Leicesters were scattered in this 

 section, but after a fair trial, the South-Dowu 

 proved so much better, that I do not know of a 

 single Leicester left. Some of our farmers used 

 both in one season, dividing the ewes equally. — 

 The result was that the South-Down cross was 

 fat and sold clean before a single Leicester cross 

 was fit for market. The best of New-York 

 butchers buy lambs in this section ; they all say 

 use by all means a full bloded South-Down ram. 

 I may here stop to say that all black-faced 

 sheep are not South-Downs, and that the im- 

 proved South Down is much better than the com- 

 mon. 



Every thing working as it should, by the 1st 

 of March your lambs will commence dropping. 

 I should therefore commence about Feb. 1st, to 

 give the ewes son?e grain, and gradually increase 

 to half a pint apiece by March 1st — then by 

 April 1st have it increased to one pint of corn 



meal or one and a half pints oats. If the ground 

 should be much bare, so that the ewej can get to 

 the ground, they will not need roots before 

 lambing, but if confined to yards on clover, hay 

 and cornstalks, I should give about one pound 

 turnips apiece per day, increasing to ten pounds 

 when lambs are four weeks old ; but if the ews 

 can run through April on good sod intended for 

 plowing, they will not need so many ro'-ts. — 

 Many of our best farmers never feed any roots, 

 but they keep no more sheep than they can keep 

 well ; yet it is that this point that roots are of 

 great service, as they help to keep the sheep off 

 the grass intended for pasture until it gets well 

 started, and that almost insures good pasture 

 through the season. 



When the laonbs are three or four weeks old, 

 they can be learned to eat cornmeal, by putting 

 a little in the mouth, mixed with a little salt. — 

 After learning a few to eat out of the hand, par- 

 tition off a pen under shelter by themselves, 

 putting a bottom and top railing acres , then 

 nailing pickets on just wide enough to exclude 

 the ewes, and put a small trough within, placing 

 in it some sweet cornmeal, ground coarse, and a 

 little salt at first sprinkled on. Your lambs will 

 soon find it out, and if you please to take time, 

 you will find it an advantage to cut some turnips 

 or potatoes up fine for them. 



By now giving your ewes plenty to eat, and 

 nursing your lambs, they should be fit for mar- 

 ket in June, and the ewes in September worth 

 %\ more than cost, which, with lambs and wool, 

 should pay full $6 50 or $7 per head for ewes 

 winterec, especially if you raise many twins. 



J. C. Tatlob. 



Holmdel, N. J. 



Use of Sweet Apples. — A sweet apple, sound 

 and fair, has a deal of sugar or saccharine in its 

 composition. It is, therefore, nutritious ; for 

 sweet apples, raw, will fat cattle, horse?, pigs, 

 sheep and poultry. Cooked sweet apples will 

 "fat" children, and make grown people fleshy — 

 "fat" not being a polite word a? applied to grown 

 persons. Children being more of the animal than 

 "grown folks," we are not so fastidious in their 

 classification. But to the matter in question. In 

 every good farmer's house who has an orchard, 

 baked seweet apples are an "institution" in their 

 season. Everybody, from the toddling baby 

 holding up by its father's knee — children are de- 

 cidedly a household commodity-r-away back to 

 "our reverend grandmother" in her rocking 

 chair, loves them. No sweetmeat smothered in 

 sugar is half so good; no aroma of dissolved con- 

 fectionery is half so simpb as the soft, pulpy 

 flesh of a well baked apple of the right kind. It 

 is good in milk, Irith bread. It is good on your 

 plate with breakfast, dinner or supper — we don't 

 "take tea" at our house. It is good every way — 

 "vehemently good" — as an enthusiastic friend of 

 ours once said of tomatoes. — N. Y. World. 



Gentlemen who smoke allege thatit makes 

 them calm and complacent. They tell us that 

 the more they fume the less they fret. 



