158 
Management of Grass Land. 
" available for the butcher." I shall therefore assume that our 
home-bred sheep and lambs will send to market annually 42 per 
cent, of the entire number shown in Table (B). 
Few farmers, probably, will find these figures precisely agree 
with the results of their own breeding and feeding operations, 
but they must bear in mind that an attempt is here made to 
strike an average of the productiveness of flocks and herds of 
different races, placed under the most varying conditions of cli- 
mate, food, and shelter. One of the most likely points to be 
questioned is the average rate of increase of a flock of sheep, 
viz., 130 iambs from 100 ewes. It would no doubt be easy to 
name districts where the customary increase is much greater. 
In the flat lands, 150 lambs to 100 ewes is a common occur- 
rence, but the hilly districts of the United Kingdom cover 
a great extent of country, and 130 lambs to 100 ewes would 
seem as extravagantly high to a breeder of mountain sheep as it 
would be thought below the mark by the owner of a sheep farm 
in the plains, who always provided succulent food for his ewes at 
the time of admitting the rams. From a number of letters on 
this subject I have selected two as representing the extreme 
views on this point. One is from an eminent Northumbrian 
farmer, who savs that in the four years 1868-71, 1280 ewes pro- 
duced him 2122 lambs, notwithstanding that in one of those 
years he had the bad luck to have 25 barren ewes. This is at 
the rate of 166 lambs per 100 ewes. The other extreme is 
described in a letter from a friend in Kent, who says, " Kent 
sheep, as a rule, do not twin much, and we much prefer they 
should not." . ..." I should say that if you were to put it 
at 105 lambs for 100 ewes, you would be about right as regards 
my district, though this year I have 400 lambs from my 350 ewes." 
The proportion of pigs annually available for slaughter is far 
greater than that of either cattle or sheep, as a breeding sow will 
generally produce two litters per annum, which may be averaged 
at seven each. The sows themselves are seldom kept more than 
two years, and the bacon-pigs are killed at one year to one and 
a half year old — average fifteen months. There are no sufficient 
data for determining the proportion of porkers to bacon-pigs 
slaughtered. In the large towns great numbers of pigs are 
killed for pork, and comparatively few for bacon. In the country 
districts it is exactly the reverse ; every well-to-do labourer kills 
his bacon-pig, and every farmer his two or three up to eight or 
ten ; but the quantity of fresh pork consumed by either farmers 
or labourers is comparatively trifling.* The large production and 
* Bacon-pigs here iiifludn all pigs killed for salting; ])orkers, all cousinued 
fresh. A portion of a pfirk pig i)ut in to pickle for a short tiuie would not prevent 
its being included in the latter cliuss. 
