326 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 
do well. Salt furnishes the chlorin required for the hydrochloric 
acid of the gastric juice, and has also other important functions in 
the digestion of food (p. 24). 
Hot-house Lambs.—The most extreme method of fattening 
sheep is that of producing so-called hot-house lambs (Fig. 90). 
The term “ hot-house ” applies to lambs born in the late fall or early 
winter, which are fattened during the winter months and marketed 
in the early spring. The quarters in which the lambs are fed are 
not artificially heated, the name having reference to the fact that 
the lambs are produced under artificial conditions for a market 
willing to pay a very high price for a fancy article, in a similar way 
Fra. 90.—Grade Dorset lambs from Merino ewes make excellent hot-house lambs. (Peterson.) 
as in the case of ordinary hot-house products. The lambs must 
be in fat condition to sell as hot-house lambs. Dorsets or Dorset 
grades are best suited for lamb production, as the ewes will breed 
earlier than the usual time, viz., during the early summer, and the 
lambs will be dropped during October and November. The mother’s 
milk is the best feed available, and ewes must be fed liberally on 
milk-producing feeds so as to give a maximum flow of milk. The 
ewes’ milk is supplemented by grain feeds as the lambs grow older. 
The following grain mixtures were found to give good results in 
trials with hot-house lambs at Cornell station: § 
* Bulletin 309, which see for description of the method of management 
of a hot-house lamb producing flock throughout the year, 
