406 
Illustrations of Irish Farming. 
turnips is increased ; 300 tons being always stored specially for 
their use. Last winter, owing to the exceedingly wet and un- 
favourable nature of the season, as well as of the previous, 
summer and autumn, Mr. Simson considered it necessary ta 
improve the feeding of his breeding ewes. This he did by 
allowing each sheep \ lb. of bran, mixed with 1 lb. of oats,, 
beginning about the 15th of January, and continuing until the 
10th of March, and the result was that he had only lour deaths- 
among 1000 sheep. The lambing season was also very suc- 
cessful, 1000 ewes having produced 1400 lambs. When the 
ewes, which are run thinly over the pastures during winter, begin 
to drop their lambs, those which are nearest yeaning are kept in 
a, large field during the daytime, and brought into a smaller 
enclosure of five acres at night. This field is provided with small 
paddocks, into which the lambs dropped during the night are put 
with their dams. There is also a hut, with fire-place, &c., in 
the field, for the shepherd who attends to the flock throughout the 
night. The ewes and lambs are turned into first year's grass, 
until the milk comes freely on the ewes, after which they are 
changed to older pasture, with the exception of ewes that have 
twins, which are not removed from the young grass. Mr. Simson 
finds that eating down the young grass early in this way, even so 
late as the beginning of May, does not prevent him having an 
early and good crop of hay, from such of his fields as he may 
afterwards shut up for mowing. If required, he topdresses, after 
the ewes and lambs have been removed, with guano at the rate of 
one cwt. per acre, which gives a large return. 
The lambs are branded when turned out from the lambing-field, 
the tups on the left rib, and the ewe lambs on the left buttock. 
This simplifies matters when the tup lambs are taken up 
to be castrated, which is done when they are about a month 
old. The tails of all the lambs are cut at about the same 
time, leaving them a hand-breadth in length. The great 
advantage of feeding the ewes well before and after yeaning is, 
that the lambs are strong, and thrive well afterwards, so that 
there is none of that tendency to scour and weakness which is 
prevalent where ewes and lambs are poorly nourished. 
The fattening and most of the other dry sheep are washed in 
a clear running stream, shorn about the 1st of May, and the 
ewes and ewe hoggs a month later. The lambs are dipped with 
Biggs' dip, a few days after the ewes are shorn, to keep off mag- 
gots, and all the flock is dipped in October with McDougall's 
dip, chiefly to destroy and prevent ticks, as no cases of 
scab occur, the fences being sufficient to keep strange sheep from 
getting in. The reason Avhy Biggs' dip is used in the first 
instance is, that it is more effective than any other in preventing 
