324 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 
Feeding Lambs.—The dam’s milk generally forms the sole 
feed of lambs during the first two or three weeks of their lives ; about 
this time they begin to nibble a little grain or hay, and should have 
access to both thereafter. A lamb creep should be provided where the 
ewes cannot eat the feed intended for the lambs; the creep or pen 
may be built at one side or corner of the barn with two boards, 1 x 
6 inches, of the desired length, to which are nailed vertical strips, 
1x 4 inches wide and 3 feet long. The slats are placed far enough 
apart to let the lambs slip through. A low, flatbottom trough is 
placed within the space set apart for the lambs on which the grain 
is fed, like ground oats, bran, cracked corn, a little linseed meal, etc.® 
Pure water should be supplied regularly. A creep should also be 
provided for the lambs as the ewes and lambs are let on to the 
pasture in the spring, where they may find their grain feed. This, in 
addition to the dam’s milk and pasture, will enable them to make 
a rapid and healthy growth. The ewes will not, however, need any 
grain when on good pasture. In experiments at’ the Wisconsin 
station ° it was found that lambs fed grain up to ten months old 
reached a given weight four to seven weeks sooner than when no 
grain was fed before weaning time, and the lambs were ready for 
the market at any time during this period, so that advantage might 
be taken of favorable market conditions. In experiments with dif- 
ferent grain feeds for unweaned Shropshire lambs for periods 
averaging ten weeks 0.3 to 0.4 pound of grain was eaten daily, 
with resulting average gains of about one-half pound per head 
daily. The following amounts of different grain feeds were re- 
quired per 100 pounds of gain in body weight: Wheat bran, 71 
pounds; corn meal (4 trials), 74 pounds; whole oats, 78 pounds; 
and cracked peas, 81 pounds. Unweaned lambs that go into the 
breeding flock should receive feeds like oats and peas, wheat or bran, 
while corn is preferable for lambs intended for the butcher, as it 
tends to produce a fat carcass. 
Stomach worms are a common sheep disease east of the Mississippi, 
especially in lambs, and are a serious drawback to American sheep raising. 
The eggs of the worms are distributed over the pasture in the droppings of 
the sheep, where they soon hatch and are taken into the system of the sheep 
while grazing. Old infested pastures, especially blue-grass, are to be avoided’ 
in feeding sheep, and these are changed to clean, fresh pasture every two or 
three weeks, if possible, during the summer months. Rape pasture and other 
annual crops will prove of great value where the permanent pastures have 
become infested with worms. Where sheep are suffering from stomach 
worms, either of the following remedies may be resorted to: Gasoline, 
° Kleinheinz, “ Sheep Management,” p. 65, 
® Reports 1896 and 1903, 
