196 TwENTY-FlEST BlENNIAL EePOST 



ton breed used during the past few years, but tbe Hamp- 

 shire is now claiming considerable popularity. In this 

 way a very good market lamb, having a dark face, is 

 produced and at the same time the flock is being gradually 

 graded up, in cases where the ewe lambs are retained to 

 replace the old, worn-out ewes of the flock. 



The care generally given to the flock varies a great 

 deal throughout the Stat<*. Oftentimes, the ewes run 

 out on pasture the entire year. Pastures in winter and 

 in early spring are commonly supplemented with rye, 

 corn fodder, sheaf oats or a little grain. In general, the 

 practice is to give the flock shelter for a period of four 

 or five weeks at lambing time, when some sort of grain is 

 commonly fed. 



The best results are obtained when the lambs are 

 sold milk fat from their mother's side, at from four to 

 four and one-half months of age. A portion of the lambs 

 are marketed in May, perhaps fifty per cent, of them in 

 June, thirty per cent, in July, and the remainder in 

 August. At the time when the run of western fed sheep 

 on the market is closing, the lamb crop from Kentucky 

 and other mid-south states begins to arrive. Last sea- 

 son, the Louisville market began the season on a twelve- 

 dollar basis, for spring lamb. For some time, Kentucky 

 has been a supply factor of considerable importance in 

 the spring lamb trade, and the statement was made to 

 the writer by a leading commission man in Jersey City, 

 this summer, that the best spring lambs they received 

 came from Kentucky. 



Within the past three years there has been a small 

 decline in the number of sheep kept in Kentucky. The 

 present contraction of the industry in the State can only 

 be of temporary nature. With a great decrease of sheep 

 in the Rocky Mountain district, and with the increasing 

 consumption of lamb by the American people, Kentucky 

 is destined to play a much larger part in this important 

 branch of animal husbandry, spring lamb production. 

 Great economic changes are occurring in the country, a 

 movement which is forcing the center of meat production 

 eastward to the farms of the East and South, and it seems 

 that in the future a large supply of the lamb and mutton 

 must come from the small farm flocks, and there is no 



