Management of Sheep, 



15 



ears, as they consider it most essential to the finish of a first-rate 

 lamb-hog, and are frequently known to reject a well-proportioned 

 male animal, unless possessing what is termed ^' good looks." 

 The management of the flock during the lambing season is similar 

 to that of the Leicesters, except that in some instances, in the more 

 southern part of the county, mangel- wurtzel is used, and with 

 success, as is shown by the following correspondence with a lead- 

 ing breeder : — " When I formerly depended upon turnips for my 

 inlambed ewes, my loss was frequently very great : since using 

 mangel-wurtzel during the lambing season, out of 500 ewes I do 

 not recollect ever losing more than three from the effects of 

 lambing. The succulent nature of the root, and the lar^e pro- 

 portion of saccharine matter it contains, gives it a great advantage 

 over any other vegetable in the production of milk, so essential to 

 the breeding ewes in suckling their lambs in the early part of the 

 spring."* 



The principal breeders on the heath and wolds have a great 

 fancy to put forward their wether-lambs from the earliest period ; 

 they are separated from the ewe-lambs, and take precedence. 

 When taken off about the middle of July, they are still supplied 

 with corn or oil-cake upon the seeds, and thence they are placed 

 upon the turnips, cabbages being little used in this district, the 

 artificial food being continued. As the barley-thrashing advances, 

 they give them bruised barley and malt-comb with their oil-cake,- 

 which it is to be regretted cannot be supplied to them in the 

 shape of malt, containing more saccharine matter. If malt-comb 

 be good for sheep (the mere shadow, or husk), what must the 

 substance itself be? As the spring advances, the artificial food 

 is increased with the cut swedes. The " hilling," or getting up, of 

 the Swedish turnips at the close of the year is becoming a general 

 plan. The feeding qualities of the root are thereby preserved, the 

 land is not drawn by running up, and the vegetables are more 

 easy of access during the winter months. When this plan is 

 adopted, a portion is removed to the field intended for turnips 

 the following year, to be consumed at the latest period of the 

 season, that the turnip-land may be set free early for sowing with 

 barley and young seeds. When swedes are allowed to remain 

 on the land until they are daily pulled for the sheep, they get 



* After trying mangold for four successive years, I came to the conclu- 

 sion that cows fed on it gave quite as much milk, but much less butter and 

 cream, than when fed on turnips or carrots : also, that when ewes were 

 fed on mangold-wurtzel the lambs throve remarkably ill, which I attributed 

 to the same poverty of milk which had been proved in the case of the 

 cows. The kind was the orange-globe ; the roots large, and perfectly 

 sound ; were not used till after Christmas, and were grown on land of 

 rather weak staple, but what is termed hereabouts "good sand land."— H. 

 S. Thompson. 



