5S 
.saifis. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
lambs are young-; forty at this season is as many as should 
be kept together, and if the flock is less, it would be bet¬ 
ter for various reasons. Ewes should be examined ear¬ 
ly in the morning, and see that the lambs just dropped, 
are capable of sucking, which is commonly readily de¬ 
cided by the distention of the belly. When the lamb 
becomes chilled, it may be resuscitated by placing it in 
warm water, and next, rub it with cloths till dry; give 
him no milk until he calls for it, and then he may have 
all that nature requires without injury; milk from a far¬ 
row cow is not suitable to feed young lambs. Ewes may 
give too little milk, especially when they drop their 
lambs early in the spring. In such cases, it well pays to 
aid the lambs by milk fed from a bottle a few days. Their 
milk may be greatly increased by feeding them turneps, 
potatoes or similar green food. Given to those that drop 
their lambs early, the growth of the lambs is greatly pro¬ 
moted, which is of much future importance, for when 
they are stunted at this early period of their existence, 
they never turn out so well afterward. With the root 
crops may be fed preserved after-grass or rowen; oats, 
corn or oil meal may be made use of for the winter food 
of breeding ewes. Red and white clover are of much 
consequence as spring food for breeding ewes; no sort 
of pinching sheep stock answers any good purpose; food 
in abundance should always be provided, and good water 
should constantly be at hand. Those ewes that first take 
the ram, it is profitable to mark off, that they may be 
early selected and extra care taken with the early lambs. 
Merino ewes in good order are apt to give a plenty of 
milk, and will take care of their lambs, In case she does 
not own her lambs, shut her into a small pen, and make her 
stand to suckle the lamb a few times, which will gen¬ 
erally bring her to natural affection. Some recommend 
tying up the ewe and let a dog bark at them, which 
frightens them into obedience and affection for their off¬ 
spring. 
It sometimes happens that ewes with an abundance of | 
milk lose their lambs. It may be profitable to provide 
her with another that does not fare as well; to effect this, 
place the skin from the dead lamb over the body of the 
live one, and the unfortunate mother will own it. The 
skin need not remain on more than a day or two. 
As'soon as a lamb becomes smart, his tail should be 
taken off; the best way is to turn the animal on his back 
and hold his hind legs. The operator takes hold of the 
tail with the left hand, but is cautious not to pull it. 
Then place the knife across the tail about one inch from 
the body, near the intersection of the two cords with the 
tail; then with the edge of the knife, shove up the skin 
about one-third of an inch; when the edge strikes be¬ 
tween the joint, immediately cut it off. By this process, 
the skin will project beyond the bone, and of course heal 
much sooner. By cutting off the tail as the lamb stands 
on his feet, the wool prevents the cutting readily, and by 
pulling the tail as is usual, it leaves the bone to project 
beyond the skin, and thus prevents the healing some days. 
The ewe lambs should be cut shorter than the wethers. 
In respect to the business of castrating or gelding the 
lambs, it should be performed early, as there is less dan¬ 
ger of too much inflammation taking place. The pouch 
should be taken off pretty close to the body, and when 
the operation is attended to early, there is no need of any 
application to the wound. 
The lambs should be immersed in a decoction of tobac¬ 
co water, say five pounds of good tobacco steeped in a 
sufficient quantity to dip one hundred. This should be 
attended to about one week after ihe ewes are clipped, to 
destroy all the ticks which have by this time found shel¬ 
ter in the lamb's fleece. 
Three months and.a half or four months is as long as is 
profitable for the lamb to drawmilk from the ewe. Turn 
them into fresh and sweet feed reserved for the purpose, 
either pasture or meadow, at a distance from the ewes, 
out of hearing; if possible, there should be no water in 
the lot, as they may over satiate and injure themselves. 
In order that the young stock suffer no check, they should 
have good feed and a plenty of it. The milk should be 
drawn from the ewes within four or five days after wean¬ 
ing, to prevent any bad consequence by the udder swell¬ 
ing 
The best way to get a smart and even lot of lambs is to 
put out the buck only in the day time with the ewes. I 
sometimes put out the bucks two or three hours each day 
with the flock, stabling them the remaining part of the 
time. 
The method of turning a number of rams into one 
flock is highly exceptionable, as tendirig to prevent the 
main object and injure both sexes. 
Sheep are very sympathetic animals, and have more to 
do in making their progeny than any other species. 
Therefore to insure the lamb to be struck off after the 
fashion of the sire, he should be placed with them in the 
day lime only. 
By placing ewes in full vigor with rams deficient in 
constitution, you will produce more females than males. 
To effect the contrary, let your rams be of full age, and 
robust, placed with old or young ewes that are not in full 
maturity, and bucks will be multiplied more than ewes. 
Merino ewes should not be allowed to breed until the 
third year. Their time of gestation is about five months, 
and are able to produce three births within two years. 
Those that are backward in taking the ram, the best 
means to be employed, are those of good stimulating 
keep. 
Covered sheep folds are often of very great advantage 
in securing and protecting both ewes and their lambs. 
Lambs should by no means be winter stocked with the 
ewes; being weaker, they cannot have an equal chance 
at the food. 
In order to guard against the injury of the sheep fly, 
which is more troublesome to breeding ewes, many 
breeders in this vicinity, make use of Scotch snuff, 
thrown up the nose by a common syringe; a pound of 
snuff is mixed with eight quarts of water; one-half gill 
is sufficient for each nostril. It requires two hands to op¬ 
erate expeditiously. The head of the sheep partly enters 
a frame constructed for that purpose, and secured fast to 
| receive the injection. The time selected for this opera¬ 
tion, is the fall season. Those sheep that are affected 
with the grub in the head, occasioned by this fly, may be 
sought out during the winter and spring months. They 
exhibit a general stupidity and dullness; stand rather 
drooping. The viscid matter that flows from the nose 
is sometimes of a bloody color. Good keeping during 
the summer months is the greatest preventive for this 
and most diseases that trouble the sheep family. 
Respectfully yours, S. W. Jewett. 
Weybridge , Vt., Dec. 7, 1844. 
ROT IN THE POTATOE. 
I read in your December number, page 371, with 
much interest, the letter of Prof. Jackson on the disease 
in the potatoe. It is of much importance that all the 
facts in relation to the subject should be correctly stated; 
I therefore trouble you with this note, to correct one er¬ 
ror in the Professor’s letter. He says—“No balls are 
formed on any of the diseased plants.” This is undoubt¬ 
edly true of those that he examined, but on my plants 
many were formed. 
I do not think that the disease is attributable to the ho¬ 
ney dew exclusively, because we have those dews very 
frequently, but they have never affected potatoe vines be¬ 
fore. Perhaps some disease existing in the growing po¬ 
tatoes 'predisposed them to be affected by the honey dew. 
There are two facts which I observed in my field, 
which I have not seen noticed in your paper. The first 
is, that the disease was confined to the tubers nearest to 
the surface; those lying deep were unaffected. The se¬ 
cond is, that the rotten potatoes were full of long white 
worms. I saw nothing which looked like fungi, with 
the naked eye, but it did not occur to me to examine them 
with a microscope. The odor was intolerably foetid. 
N. N. D. 
Land being capable of greater cultivation, and great 
quantities lying entirely uncultivated, the idea of abun- 
dancy of labor is erroneous. 
The most profitable farming is the highest and best 
farming. 
