Practical Agriculture. 
b-2'd = 257 
by the late Mr. Pawlett, show ed a gain of 4 lbs. weight per head 
in one month from weaning on the 10th of June instead of the 
10th of July ; and the two lots, fed together till the following 
February, gave a Aveight of 5^^ lbs. per head in favour of the 
earlier weaned. 
Where the state of the pasturage will allow, the ewes are JioJe of 
taken away from the lambs, leaving the young animals for a weaning, 
time in the fields to which they have become accustomed. The 
ewes are placed for some days upon a piece of bare grass, with a 
view of quickly drying up their milk ; and it is common to 
draw their udders once or twice. An old plan, still maintained in 
Wales, is to mix a portion of ewe's milk with cow's milk, and 
therewith produce an excellent ewe-milk cheese. 
The lambs thrive best when frequently shifted to fresh grass Graxing kmbe. 
or other herbage, as grass aftermath or clover, which must not be 
rank, strong, and succulent ; and they should always be thinly 
stocked. In August they are upon clover allowed to grow almost 
up to its second flowering, or upon sainfoin, or trefoil, or rye- 
grass, with a bite of vetches or rape for only part of each day, lest 
they should over-eat this succulent food. Sometimes a moderate 
allowance of cabbage is carted to them ; and they have access to 
water and to lumps of rock-salt, which are a health-requisite in 
the sheep pasture or fold. In August and the early part of Preparing 
September, the young sheep are prepared for their winter food, '''f^bs for 
'either by gradually breaking them to a fold of rape or white ^^'"'''^'^ °° 
turnips for a few hours daily, with hay, or cut-chafF, or cut 
oat-straw, in cribs, or by carting turnips to them upon their 
pasture before they are confined upon the field of roots altogether. 
And it is at this period that linseed-cake, or, still better, the 
astringent decorticated cotton-cake, or a mixture of bran and 
cake, or of malt-coombs and cake, up to J lb. per head per 
(lay, is found of greatest value. 
For destroying parasitic insects, curing scab, and promoting Dipping, 
the growth and good quality of the wool, several processes are 
adopted ; namely, " dipping," in which sheep or lambs are im- 
mersed, all but their heads, in a liquid in a bath-box, and then 
'held upon a draining rack till the surplus of dripping liquid has 
run back to the bath ; " bottling," in which the liquid is applied Bottling, 
to the skins of long-woolled sheep by opening the fleece with a 
stick, and wetting the skin from a glass-bottle having a channel 
cut in the cork ; " pouring," in which the fleece is divided by Pouring, 
thumb and finger in " sheds " in several parts of the body along 
the whole length of the sheep, and pouring on a mixture out of 
a can with a long spout ; and lastly, " smearing," in which oint- Smearing, 
ment is rubbed on the skin by the finger along opened sheds in 
the wool. One period for the operation is early in summer, 
1 
