104 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



life of an animal nutrition is more perfect than 

 later and the cost of producing growth is much 

 less. Digestion is more perfect, the young 

 animal can consume more in proportion to its 

 weight and it is more perfectly assimilated. 

 A pound of flesh on the baby lamb can there- 

 fore be made at a much less cost than after he 

 is older. Seeing that the young mutton com- 

 mands by far the higher price it is plain that 

 the earlier weight is put on the better so far 

 as profit is concerned. 



The practice in England is to have in the 

 hurdles in which the flock is usually confined, 

 "creeps" or openings wide enough to let the 

 lambs slip through while restraining the ewes. 

 These creeps usually have small rollers at the 

 sides so that the lambs as they grow and nearly 

 fill the opening may squeeze through without 

 injury to themselves or loosening of their wool. 

 Thus the lambs "run forward" to an enclosure 

 of their own where they find fresh grazing of 

 turnips or vetch or clover or grass, according 

 to the situation and season, and in these small 

 enclosures are kept troughs replenished regu- 

 larly twice a day with some grain mixture. 

 English feeders use great amounts of "cake," 

 which is either of linseed or cottonseed. This 

 cake is made at American oil mills when by 

 pressure oil is extracted from the crushed 

 seed. American feeders usually buy "oil- 

 meal," or ground cake, whereas our British 

 cousins prefer to buy the actual cakes and 

 break them at the barn into bits as large per- 

 haps as hickory nuts, or somewhat smaller for 



