368 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 24, 1889. 
The popular notion that a certain per-centage of losses both of 
ewes and lambs was inevitable is now pretty well exploded, and it 
may be laid down positively that given strong healthy ewes that 
are not over age, losses should be the exception. Such a flock last 
season gave us rather over an average of a lamb and a half per ewe, 
not a lamb being lost, the only casualty being the loss of a ewe. 
This satisfactory result was, of course, owing in some measure to 
good management during the lambing, but it was very much more 
an outcome of intelligent care the year ronnd, and especially in 
winter. Let us see what is best to be done for the ewe flock for 
the next three or four months. 
The period of gestation for a ewe is twenty-one weeks, so that 
if the tups were turned in the first week in September the first 
lambs may be looked for about the last week in January. From 
the present time, therefore, the ewes are to be considered as 
pregnant, and especial care must be taken to guard them from 
being hastily driven. The shepherd’s dog should always be used 
quietly, and strange dogs kept off. Many a flock has sustained 
serious injury by dogs breaking in at night, and we have more than 
once had reason to wish that the gypsies’ lurchers could be put 
down by law, for many a flock has been sadly harrassed by them 
tit night. It is for this reason that the ewes should always be 
driven near home or into a secure enclosure at night. Perhaps 
the home farmer runs less risk of harm from such a cause than 
others, as he has the advantage of a park with a wall or high fence. 
The folding of pregnant ewes upon arable land if done at all 
•should be during the first two months of pregnancy, and then only 
•upon tolerably sound land. With care there need be no harm done 
to the ewes by folding upon early Turnips or Mustard, and the land 
is then ploughed at once for winter corn. A little dry food should 
also be given in troughs regularly during the folding, both to keep 
up condition and prevent scouring. If this is given regularly a 
little while before changing folds there will be no difficulty in 
getting them to eat it. Chaff given alone will not be touched if 
■the sheep have access to plenty of fresh green food, but if mixed 
with crushed Oats and a little bran it will be eaten. In all trough- 
feeding only enough should be given to be cleared up at once, and 
the troughs should always be kept free of stale food or other filth. 
If the weather becomes so wet that the soil becomes sodden and 
very muddy in the folds the ewes should be withdrawn to sound 
pasture, and the folding be left to the hoggets. As was mentioned 
last week, our ewes are now in the park feeding solely upon the 
grass and acorns. They are in high condition, and should bring 
fine healthy lambs if only they have wholesome food and kindly 
treatment in December and January. It is then that so much harm 
is often done by injudicious feeding and folding upon arable land. 
It surely requires only ordinary intelligence to grasp the fact that a 
dietary consisting principally of cold, often half frozen, roots con¬ 
taining 80 per cent, of water must tax the system seriously by the 
frequent reduction of temperature and the little nourishment 
derived in proportion to the food consumed. In addition to this 
there is the heavy strain in walking upon land which has been 
churned into a mud puddle and become so tenacious that the feet 
can only be withdrawn with difficulty. It is true enough that 
strong young ewes will often bear all this with impunity, but there 
is usually a heavy per-centage of losses in flocks subjected to such 
treatment. We hold that such exposure of sheep or any live stock 
to the risk of health, simply because they can endure it, is decidedly 
a mistake from a commercial point of view. How can we expect 
animals to thrive if we allow health and strength to be taxed so 
severely ? 
When pasture comes to be cultivated as thoroughly as arable 
land most farms will then have enough sound dry pasture to carry 
ewes in winter. If they are taken upon this in December and fed 
according to the weather with what trough food, with Pea and Oat 
straw in racks may be necessary, they will require no roots. In 
January a few Mangolds or Cabbages may be given daily with ad¬ 
vantage, but all Swede or other Turnips should be held in reserve 
till after the lambing. There will then be no risk of losses by 
abortion, which do undoubtedly arise from the causes we have 
mentioned. A shepherd should have no latitude in this matter ; 
he must either yield implicit obedience or be sint about his 
business. A little tact and firmness should enable one to avoid 
extreme measures, but the health of the sheep must not be allowed 
to suffer through ignorance or obstinacy. 
[By an error of the printer “Salvator or Mountain Ash” Wheat 
appears in the second paragraph of the Home Farm article last 
week, page 346. It should have been “ S ilvator or Mountain 
White.”] 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Never was there a better provision of food upon the farm for live 
stock. Hay and stover of the best quality, an abundant crop of roots, 
Cabbage, and Kale, plenty of straw of all kinds, to say nothing of 
silage, which now takes a leading place upon many a farm. The layers 
for another year are full of plants, and autumn sown green crops, such 
as Trifolium, Rye, Winter Oats, and Tares, are all up and growing freely. 
Late Turnips have been sown more extensively than usual, and there 
will be plenty of such food in store for lambs next spring. Turnips are 
so plentiful that we are assured by a large flockmaster he is offered as 
many acres as he requires for some 7000 sheep free of cost. Farmers 
will thus get their land manured in readiness for spring corn, but we 
greatly deplore such evidence of a want of capital by so many farmers 
to purchase sheep for their own requirements. There is undoubtedly a 
scarcity of sheep among tenant farmers, and capitalists have seized the 
opportunity to purchase sheep and put them out to feed among needy 
farmers. The high price of sheep in this country has not escaped the 
attention of the foreigner, and importations are on the increase, con¬ 
siderable consignments coming from Norway, and we have even heard of 
some useful consignments from Lapland. 
Dairy cows still have an abundance of grass, and the butter retains 
the high colour and full flavour of summer. There is no doubt that 
much good is being done by dairy schools and butter-making contests. 
We approve of a recent suggestion that trained dairymaids, or some of 
those young ladies who lecture so charmingly and demonstrate so clearly 
upon butter making, should be engaged by farmers to visit their dairies 
and inspect and advise what is best to be done under the peculiar con¬ 
ditions existing at each farm. We have no doubt much good might be 
done in this way, but we fear many a worthy farmer’s wife will be slow 
to comprehend the value of granular butter. We were recently assured 
by a keen commercial man that good butter was very much owing to 
climate. No doubt some such ideas, or mere carelessness and prejudice, 
hinder the progress of dairy reform among those most interested in it, 
and yet it is all so very simple, and there is no insuperable difficulty in 
the way of making really good butter anywhere in this country. 
Competition for Malting Barley. —We are requested to insert 
the following paragraph :—There is a large competition at the Brewers’ 
Exhibition, London, this week for the valuable prizes offered for Malting 
Barley. The Champion Cup, open to the world, as well as first, second, 
and third prizes, have been won by Webbs’ Kinver Chevalier Barley. 
This is the third year in succession that this variety has won the premier 
honours at the Brewers’ Exhibition. Webbs’ Kinver Chevalier Barley 
was introduced by Messrs. Webb & Sons, The Queen’s Seedsmen, Word- 
sley, Stourbridge. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32-40" N.; Long. 0° 8-0" W.; Altitude, III feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
1889. 
c£ £ 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
a . 
o-d 
V- d 
Temp, of 
soil at 
1 1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
d 
«s 
October. 
$ aJ d^ 
CCS ci 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5 o 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Sunday . 
13 
Inches. 
19.806 
deg 
40.3 
deg. 
40.0 
Calm. 
deg. 
48 0 
deg. 
57.9 
deg. 
35 5 
deg. 
86 9 
deg. 
32.4 
It-. 
Monda’y. 
14 
29.972 
3s.7 
38 7 
S.E. 
47 7 
569 
36.9 
79.3 
32 3 
_ 
Tuesday .... 
15 
29.954 
45.5 
45 3 
S.E. 
46 9 
59.2 
37.1 
9 >.2 
31.8 
0.025 
Wednesday . 
16 
2'*.763 
57.3 
55.8 
S.E. 
45.6 
60 6 
44.3 
70 7 
42.8 
0.442 
Thursday... 
17 
29 797 
47 2 
46.4 
W. 
50.0 
58 4 
43.8 
95.0 
39.4 
— 
Friday . 
18 
29.68.) 
45 5 
45.1 
E. 
49.4 
56 6 
41 2 
63.3 
31 5 
0.081 
Saturday ... 
19 
29.163 
50 9 
49.2 
E. 
49.7 
52.8 
48.7 
67.8 
45 5 
0.726 
29 730 
4 5.5 
45 8 
48.6 
57.5 
41.1 
77.6 
37.0 
1.274 
REMARKS. 
13th.—Fine and generally bright, a l.tearly and in the evening. 
14th.—Foggy early, fine bright d -y, fog again in evening. 
15th.—Fog till 9 am., then fine and bright with solar halo about midday; cloudy 
after 2 p M. 
16tli.—Cloudy, with occasional sunshine till 4 P.M., then very wet till 10.30. 
17th.—Generally bright but cloudy at times in afternoon. 
18th.—Foggy early; fair day ; rain after 10 P.M. 
A very oidinary week, terminating, however, with a sharp fall of barometer, and 
heavy rain on Satuiday night and Sunday morning,—G. J. SYMONS. 
