CHAPTER XII 



MILK LAMBS AND HOW TO OBTAIN, GROW 

 AND MARKET THEM 



Chapter XII considers the following phases of this 

 question: (i) What is meant by a milk lamb; (2) The 

 essentials in a milk lamb; (3) How to obtain milk lambs; 

 (4) How to change the breeding habit in ewes; (5) Expe- 

 rience at the Minnesota station ; (6) Milk lambs other 

 than from Dorset sires ; (7) Where milk lambs should be 

 grown; (8) The quarters suitable for milk lambs; (9) 

 Care and food for the dams; (10) Care and food for the 

 lambs; (11) Marketing the lambs; (12) Management of 

 the dams when the lambs are sold; (13) Disposing of the 

 dams to be sold; (14) Growing milk lambs chiefly from 

 grazing; and (15) The room for the industry. 



What is meant by a milk lamb — In the strictest sense 

 a milk lamb is one that is sent to the market while yet 

 unweaned. Any lamb, therefore, that is sold prior to the 

 weaning season could with propriety be termed a milk 

 lamb, even though it should have reached the age of 18 

 to 20 weeks. But that is not the sense in which the 

 term is usually understood. Strictly speaking, a milk 

 lamb is a lamb that is dropped in the late autumn or early 

 winter and that is pushed forward by forced feeding and 

 sold at an age usually not more than 10 weeks from the 

 date of birth. They are frequently called winter lambs, 

 from the season during which they are usually grown. 

 They are also known as hothouse lambs from the forcing 

 and pampering to which they are subjected. The milk 

 lamb industry, though of long standing in Great Britain, 

 is of comparatively recent introduction into the United 

 States. The sale of such lambs as happened to come 

 early when not more than two to three months old has 



