PEOPEE PLACE FOE LAMBING. 143 



as the 1st of April, and those who breed rams for sale, as 

 early as the lOth or 15th of March. These very early lambs, if 

 properly fed and kept growing, are about as much matured at 

 their first, as late dropped ones are at their second shearing.* 

 It is understood, of course, that lambs yeaned earlier than 

 May, in the Northern States, must, as a general thing, be 

 yeaned in stables. But this in reality diminishes instead of 

 increasing the labors of the shepherd. The yeaning flock is 

 thus kept together, and no time is spent traversing pastures 

 to see if any ewe or lamb requires assistance, or in getting a 

 weak lamb and its dam to shelter, or in driving in the flock 

 at night and before storms. And the yeaning season may 

 thus be got through with before it is time for the farmer to 

 commence his summer work in the fields. 



Peopek Place foe Lambing. — Stable yeaning, too, is 

 safest, (though I once thought otherwise,) even in quite 

 pleasant weather, provided the stables are roomy, properly 

 littered down and ventilated, and provided the sheep are 

 sufliciently docile to allow themselves to be handled and their 

 keeper to pass round among them, without crowding from side 

 to side and running over their lambs. While the stables 

 should not be kept hot and tight, they should be capable of 

 being closed all round ; and they should be so close that in 

 a cold night the heat of the sheep will preserve a moderate 

 temperature. On the other hand, they should be provided 

 with movable windows, or ventilators, so that excess of heat, 

 or impure air, can always be avoided. 



Excessive care is not requisite with hardy sheep in lamb- 

 ing, and too much interference is not beneficial. It is well 

 to look into the she%p- house at night, the l.ast thing before 

 going to bed, to see that aU is well ; but then if all is well, 

 many even of the best Merino shepherds leave their flocks 

 undisturbed until morning, holding that the lamb which 

 cannot get up, suck, and take care of itself until morning in 

 a clean, well-strawed^ comfortable stable, is not worth raising. 

 Our English shepher.ds, who have charge of choice breeding 

 flocks, usually go round once in two hours through the night 



* We liave seen that Mr. Chamberlain, the importer and leading breeder of the 

 SileBian Merinos in tliis conntry, has his lambs dropped A:om NoTember to February. 

 Under the admirable arrangements of Mr. O., and under the admirable handling of hia 

 German shepherd, this works well, and a lamb is rarely lost ; and being early taught 

 to eat roots, &c., separate f^om their dams, they attain, a remarkable earliness of ma- 

 turity. Such a system would not, of course, succeed with ordinary arrangements and 

 handling, nor would it be profitable for ordinary purposes. 



