276 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 2, 1891. 
caused either by exposure or improper food, or both. Our readers 
were warned a few weeks ago against using rotten Turnips for 
ewes and lambs. When we did so the thought occurred that the 
warning was almost superfluous, because every sensible farmer 
must be aware of the risk of serious injury to the flock from such 
food. But we have now proof that the warning was not uncalled 
for in the numerous reports that have reached us of losses from 
■this very cause. Strange indeed is the crass ignorance that brings 
"the flock into such jeopard}', or which persists in the exposure of 
lambs only a few hours old to cold cutting winds, and snow and 
hail. A worthy farmer well known to us has been losing several 
iambs daily for the last three weeks chiefly from exposure, and yet 
he appears unable to see the necessity for a special provision of 
•shelter for them. He says it is bad luck, and actually hints at the 
prevalence of some mysterious disease among his lambs. Well 
might he be asked what has luck to do with it ? 
Pleasant indeed is it to visit a flock that is under really 
intelligent and skilful management, for there we at once find 
how much importance is attached to shelter. If the flock is a 
large one there is probably a lambing yard with an open shed 
running right round it, not a costly building at all, but just a 
roof projecting from the wall or closely boarded fence, high 
enough for the shepherd to walk under to attend to the sheep, and 
only wide enough for partitions to be made of single thatched 
hurdles, set securely in the ground just as they would be in a 
fold, and with thatched hurdles in front. In this simple and 
inexpensive manner cribs are contrived sufficiently large to contain 
one ewe and its lamb at first. They are only confined to the 
•crib till the lambs are seen to be healthy and strong, are suckled 
well by the ewe, and the ewe is settled nicely to its lambs, eats 
freely, and has recovered from any straining or protracted labour. 
'They are then turned into the yard to make way for other ewes 
about to lamb, or which have just lambed. It is obvious that 
by this method every ewe is under close supervision ; so, too, are 
the lambs, and if any special treatment is required it is done 
quietly and effectually. 
If the ewe has had much straining and labour in delivery, it 
is carefully washed with wa,rm water, and is syringed gently once 
or twice with carbolised oil. If the udder is hard, and the lamb 
is unable to di’aw down its milk, the udder is rubbed with equal 
parts of olive oil and spirits of nitre, which soon softens it, 
and then it is milked sufficiently to relieve it before putting the 
lamb to it again. Occasionally the ewe will not suckle its lamb, 
and will butt it upon every attempt of the lamb to suck. It then 
has to be fastened securely by the head, and made to take its lamb, 
and it usually becomes quiet after a day or two. Cases of pro¬ 
tracted labour are much assisted by administering ergot of rye, 
hut we very seldom have recourse to it. 
The cribs afford complete shelter, and as ewes and lambs leave 
fhe cribs they are still sheltered in the yard from cold wind, only 
leaving it when “ winds blow soft and fair,” and we may add in a 
general way that the lambs are never exposed to cold and wet 
•during the first month. Where there is no lambing yard it is not 
■difficult to provide a snug enough fold with cribs and two or three 
sufficiently large enclosures. It matters not how or with what 
materials this is made, but shelter the lambs must have, and nothing 
must be left to chance. 
Be it understood that we are treating of the management of 
quite young lambs, but the treatment applies to all of them 
whether the lambing be late or early. This season, though the 
weather was so favourable for the early lambs, every possible 
precaution was taken to afford them shelter, they were able to 
leave it much sooner than usual owing to the exceptional dryness 
of the weather in February, and were such sturdy animals when a 
month old that not one has been lost from the colder March 
weather. Writing about the great snowstorm which began on 
March 9 th, Professor Wrightson says the famous Downton 
College flock was folded on a large round hill 56 acres in extent, 
entirely exposed to the tempest, and both sheep and lambs bore it 
wonderfully well. But it may be taken as certain that the ewes 
and lambs were in the very pink of condition, and they were 
early lambs too, so well nourished as to bear with impunity an 
amount of exposure that would have been fatal to younger or 
weaker animals. Every farmer should time his lambing in 
accordance with his prospective provision of feed. In Suffolk we 
began in January, in the Midlands it is usually two months later ; 
but though the solar heat is then becoming more powerful daily 
the nights continue cold, the weather is frequently stormy, and a 
few hours’ exposure to cold and wet is fat-al to quite young lambs. 
The food question must be held over for our next paper. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
“ The roots are very extensively injured, the hay is of poor quality, 
and any early growth of grass or artificial ‘ keep ’ is now out of the 
question ; the water meadows are also unusually hare for the middle of 
March. It may not perhaps be far wrong to say that it will cost the 
farmers an additional 10s. a head to keep their sale pens to the July 
fairs, with the unto-ward prospect of their not realising so much as last 
year by another 10s. a head; mirtton being now quoted at about Is. 
per 8 lbs. less than last spring.” Thus writes a worthy Hants farmer, 
knocking off £1 per head in the prospective value of lambs with a 
stroke of his pen, -svithout having regard to the fact of the low price of 
mutton just now arising from a crowded market. Feed is scarce 
generally, hoggets are consequently being sold before they are ready; 
the inevitable reaction will come, and lambs may very' safely be held for 
a rising and not a falling market. 
It is quite true that very much of last season hay is of poor quality, 
in lamentable contrast to the excellence of silage. AVe were ■watching 
some store beasts being foddered with silage out on a Leicestershire 
pasture recently, and we were jileased at the eager manner in which it 
was eaten. It was carted out to them from a silo, and was very dark in 
colour, but the flavour -was excellent. It is the only example of silage 
in its locality, and has attracted some attention, but the silo has been 
an obstacle there to any extension of ensilage. Glad were we to 
explain to some inquirers the process of stack ensilage, its certainty 
and economy. 
As usual the grass land intended for hay and silage had its dressing 
of chemical manure at the end of February, but so little rain followed 
that the spreader was attached to the water-cart, and sewage applied 
through it sufficiently to dissolve and wash in the chemical manure. 
The sewage was very much diluted, but the effect of this watering is now 
visible in the growth and colour of the herbage. Yes, growth positively; 
and we can assure our readers that the bare brown pastures which now 
meet the eye are more justly attributable to poverty of soil than drought 
or cold. It is tnie enough the season is backward, but it is also true 
that pasture generally is not cultivated in anything like the true sense 
of the term. On really fertile pasture there is already a nice bite for the 
lambs; on neglected pasture there is nothing worthy of being termed 
feed. Every home farmer should be able just now to show the tenant 
farmers some rich pasture full of growth, and then xrasture cultivation 
would soon become general. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQTJAKE, LONDON. 
Lat. 61° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" “W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE day. 
a 
73 
M 
1891. 
March. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
d . 
kS 
P'S 
P— 2 
O) ® iH 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Sunday.22 
Monday...... 2'! 
Ihiesday .... 24 
Wednesday.. 25 
I'hnrsday.... 26 
Friday .27 
Saturday .... 28 
Inches. 
01.046 
.11.090 
29.9(X) 
29.718 
29.6.18 
£9.807 
2;).713 
deg. 
3.5.6 
35.1 
43.1 
49.7 
43.4 
39.6 
41.0 
deg. 
31.4 
32.5 
41.4 
46.0 
37.6 
85.3 
38.7 
N.W. 
SE. 
s.w. 
N.AV. 
W. 
W. 
IS.W. 
deg. 
38.2 
37.9 
37.7 
39.0 
40.4 
39.9 
39.2 
deg. 
45.3 
43.4 
51.8 
56.9 
49.2 
45.7 
51.6 
deg. 
25.2 
3i.4 
33.1 
43.1 
37.6 
52.3 
33.8 
deg. 
.83.2 
64.1 
82; 6 
101.1 
95.6 
84.4 
87.4 
deg. 
18.0 
26.9 
26.9 
87.5 
32.1 
26.7 
28.4 
In. 
0.010 
0.072 
0.049 
0.040 
29.845 41.4 87.7 j | 38.9 ^ 41.1 
84.1 
85.5 
28.1 0.171 
REMARKS. 
22nd.—Cloudy caily, bright day. 
23rd.—Slight sno 2 V from early morning till 10.30 A M., then dull with oojaslonal flakes of 
enow. Generally bright after 1.30 P M. 
21th.—Bright till li.4'« A.M., then cloudy, with spots of rain for a couple of hour?, and 
bright again after. 
2.5th—B ight mild morning, showery afternoon. 
26th.—Bright mild morning shower of soft hail at 0.40 P.M., and again with rain and 
thunder at 2 P.M.; shower at 4 P.M. Bright evening and night. 
27th.—Brilliant earlv, frequent sprinkles of rain and soft hall after 11 A.M., and a heavy 
shower of soft hail, whitening the ground between 4 and 5 P.M. Brilliant night. 
28th.—Generally overcast in morning, frequent sunshine In afternoon. 
A week with much bright weather, but rather cold winds and frequent showers of 
rain, snow,and solt hail. Temperature slightly above that of the precedingvteek,but 
about V below the average.—G. J. Symons. 
