464 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
May 23,18S6. 
THE MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG STOCK. 
Lamb weaninpf is a reminder to us of the special care 
required in the treatment of young stock, and of the frequent 
applications which we have for help in this matter. For the 
lambs when weaned tempting food, and abundance of it, at some 
part of the farm where they cannot hear the bleating of the 
ewes, is the best thing. In most springs they run forward on 
the Swedes, clearing off the green tops, and making no incon¬ 
siderable mark on the roots, also long before weaning time 
This year Swedes left out in the open were very generally 
destroyed by the great frost. Some good work was done in 
folding the ewes and lambs first of all on Swedes from 
covered heaps, and then on Rye, some crushed Oats being 
used in the feeding troughs for the ewes, and some mixed corn 
crushed for the lambs. 
It is customary on some farms to separate all small or weak 
lambs from the others, and to sell them. We do not do so, but 
prefer leaving the whole of them together for the present, and 
to keep all of them going briskly by folding on Sainfoin or 
Tares, and still giving a little corn in troughs. In due course 
we shall select a certain number of the best ewe lambs to 
add to the breeding flock ; all strong wether lambs will be 
reserved for autumn and winter folding, and the smaller 
lambs will be sold. We are convinced that early maturity is 
a golden maxim in flock management, pointing literally to 
golden profits. 
Calves have to rough it, and suffer more from exposure and 
a low diet than any other stock of the ordinary farmer. To 
keep them healthy, well nourished, and going briskly they 
require perfect shelter and a perfect dietary, altogether different 
to that which they generally have. At the present time there 
are numbers of calves to be seen out on pastures, taking their 
chance with older stock, or if kept separated they receive no 
special care other than some gruel tw ce daily. It may seem 
and is right enough to see them now out on the fresh succulent 
herbage by day, but at night cold wind and cold showers prove 
very trying for them. It is altogether better to shut them in 
a snug yard or hovel at night, and so to avoid any risk of 
exposure to cold and wet. Every home farm should have 
one or more calf hovels, each having its separate yard and 
paddock. 
Corrugated iron sheeting answers admirably for sides and 
roof of the hovel and for sides of the yard. It is cheap, durable, 
and affords perfect shelter, and the calves are then kept 
thoroughly in hand, nothing being left to chance If they 
still have milk it is thickened with oatmeal; if it is separated 
milk, some boiled linseed may be used to replace the missing 
fat, but we find a liberal mixture of oatmeal and crushed Oats 
answers well, and always avoid cake or linseed bills if we 
can. No animals repay one better for careful tending, for 
good food, s'^elter, and kindly treatment than calves, and yet 
there are none among which losses are heavier from negligence 
and mismanagement. 
Young pigs may be helped early by having a slip board 
in the side or front of the enclosure in which they are kept 
with the sow, so that as soon as they begin feeding they may 
have access to some milk thickened with oatmeal or barley- 
meal. If kept going with this milk and meal after weaning 
they are soon out of hand, 1 lb. of meat for 5 lbs. of meal being 
the usual result Breed well, feed well, and shelter well tells 
with por! ers to a certain profit, either at 60 lbs. or twice that 
weight. Our experience is decidedly in favour of the lesser 
weight provided the porkers are really first-class. Dealers are 
then eager enough to have them; it is the second and third- 
rate animals which they dislike, and which pull down market 
returns. Keep them on a clean dry floor or one well littered 
with dry litter. They often suffer from cramp, caused by 
having to lie down on a damp floor. Dairy farmers 
having to buy all their straw and litter are very guilty in 
this matter, and suffer from losses accordingly. Cold and 
wet are the two things to avoid, and when young animals 
are shut in let it not be forgotten that they require a dry 
floor as well as a dry roof. 
WOEK ON THE HOME FAEM. 
Wonderful was the heat and brisk the growth of everything till the 
14th, when the weather became somewhat colder. Eye rushed up into 
ear in southern counties, where it was being mown for green fodder. 
Never have we found this crop more useful both for mowing and 
sheep folding. The dry weather has been highly favourable for keep¬ 
ing down weeds among crops and for clearing land, but it has ren¬ 
dered root-sowing somewhat diflScult. As ploughing of late-folded 
land has been done harrows and drills have followed closely, and 
where land has been thrown up in ridges seed-sowing has been done 
and the rollers passed over before the soil became too dry for the 
work. On fruit farms horse and band hoes have been kept going 
briskly. The land is clean, and from Strawberry fields to orchard 
trees the abundant blossom gives promise of an abundance of fruit. 
Caterpillars are rampant on the trees, and sprayers are already in full 
action. 
As the ewes are separated from the lambs for the weaning they are 
turned on some rather poor upland pasture for awhile, and then all 
over-age ewes, and those with faults or blemishes rendering them unfit 
for breeding again, are separated from the flocks, and they will go into 
folds on pasture early in the autumn, to be brought into saleable condition, 
and at the same time to do some good to the land. It is quite useless 
folding such old sheep on roots to pull out their teeth on food which 
they cannot consume. Much better is it to reserve the roots for the 
hoggets. See that the sound ewes, or rather the breeding flock, has all 
due care bestowed on it now and onwards through the summer. After 
the shearing has been over sufficiently long for any wounds inflicted 
by the ahears to heal, and after, not before the weaning, let the ewes 
be dipped in Cooper’s dressing to destroy ticks and other parasites, 
and then let them have really good grazing for the three or four 
months intervening before attention must again be given to breeding 
matters. All such matters of detail depend as to time and locality, 
there being a difference of months between flock work on arable and 
dairy farms, and between north and south. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamden Squarb, Loxdon. 
Lat.51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude 111 feet 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
d 
"3 
oi 
1895. 
May. 
1 Barometer 
at 32°, and 
1 Sea Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inohs. 
Sunday .. 
12 
30'214 
68 5 
57-0 
S.E. 
56-2 
80-4 
49-1 
115-9 
44 2 
0 031 
Monday ., 
13 
30310 
65-9 
60-0 
N.W. 
57 1 
79-4 
57-2 
12T9 
53-2 
Tuesday .. 
14 
30-302 
64-7 
57-9 
N. 
58 6 
75-3 
54-9 
122-1 
49-2 
Wednesday 
15 
30-U35 
58-1 
52-0 
N.W. 
59 1 
63-4 
55-1 
1047 
51-8 
_ 
Thursday.. 
16 
29-858 
491 
40 7 
N. 
57-9 
53-9 
44-1 
104-9 
38-6 
— 
Friday 
17 
29-729 
43-4 
37 7 
N.W. 
55-4 
50-1 
39-1 
77-1 
34-6 
0-119 
Saturday .. 
18 
29-597 
48 9 
46-3 
N.E. 
£3-7 
56-3 
40-9 
101-8 
39 9 
— 
30-011 
5.-9 
50-2 
56-9 
65-5 
48-6 
1l6-9 
44 5 
0-150 
REMARKS. 
12tli.—Hazy, close, and frequently cloudy day, threatening in afternoon, and a slight 
shower between 4 P.M. and 5 p.m. 
13th.—Hazy and cloudy early, generally sunny during the day, but cloudy at times and 
rather close. 
14th.—Warm, and a little hazy, alternate sunshine and cloud. 
15 th.—Generally cloudy till noon: sunny afternoon. 
16th.—High wind and alternate cloud and sunshine. 
17th. —Overcast almost throughout and chilly, spots of rain in evening and showers at 
night, 
18th.—Ram from 1 a.M. to 5.30 A.M., overcast; with occasional spots of rain till noon, 
occasional gleams of sun after. 
More than 3.° between the maximum in the shale on the 12th and on the 17th. 
Monday, 13th, was warmer than an average July day, and May 17th had about the 
temperature usual at the end of March. This cold spell in May is an almost invariable 
occurrence, and generally occurs in the second or third week. Happily this year the 
nights have generally been cloudy, and so we have not yet had actual frost.— 
G. J. Symons. 
