24 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
Percentage of lambs.—Taking 
example pure-bred merino ewes _ pro- 
ducing 75 per cent. of lambs, the average 
British ram on merino ewes would give 
about 5 per cent. more, or 80 per cent- 
The British ram on a crossbred (British 
ram on merino ewe) should be about 10 
per cent. more, or 40 per cent., while 
several of the pure British breeds would 
go 100 to 130 per cent. 
Food during rearing of lambs.—lIt ig 
most important that the ewes and lambs 
should have good feed continuously, that 
for 
no check may occur which would more or 
less defeat the object of early maturity in 
than 
natural herbage is generally required, 
lamb-raising. Something more 
Good introduced grasses such as Peren- 
nial and Italian Kye, Prairie, Kentucky 
Blue, Timothy, and the like should. be 
provided, Luceine for and 
summer toppiag, and rape and Red 
clover for the winter and early spring are 
hard ts beat. Care must be taken, how- 
ever, in putting sheep or cattle with 
empty stomachs on the three later fodder 
spring 
plants for the first time, or hoyen may 
Neither should they be pnt on 
windy or wet days at first. Get them 
gradually accustomed to the change by 
with full 
stomachs for a few hours a day ; they will 
result, 
putting them on fairly 
then be fairly safe. Lucerne, clover, and 
rape are all good preparations for wheat, 
and the droppings of the sheep provide 
valuable manures and greatly help to 
keep up the fertility of the land. 
Rape is a capital crop for topping stock 
and improving the quality of the meat— 
it has been found that 60. to 100 lb. of 
superphosphate will about double the 
yield of green fodder of rape, and much 
of the manure can be returned through 
plongking in the later growth for the 
benefit of wheat, besides adding organic 
matter to the soil. 
Cultivated Pastures.—Land that has 
been heavily stocked, no matter how rich 
at first, must become gradually depleted 
of pho phates on account of stock, and 
and especially young stock, appropriating 
so much in the composition of their 
carcases, Which is not returned to the 
land in their manure. The phosphates, 
then, must be returned to the pastures 
by top dressings occasionally with phos- 
phatic manures if their fertility is to b° 
kept up. The clovers which may b° 
sown with all pastures will probably keep 
the land well supplied with nitrogen, 
Burning pastures, as a rule, is to be dis- 
couraged, as this gradually depletes the 
soil of organic matter, and makes the 
grasses sour; the sweeter and shallower 
rooted grasses will also have their roots 
destroyed, and the grass seeds that would 
have renewed them will be lost; it will 
also be found in wheat paddocks that con- 
tinuous burning of stubble will gradually 
lessen the nitrogenous contents. 
Cuange of food is very valuable to 
ewes and lambs, and keeps them in 
health. The point is to keep them 
improving from their birth until they are 
weaned, for then both the weight and 
the quality will be there at an early date. 
For stock grazing on succulent growths, 
like rape, lucerne, turnips, &c., access to 
a convenient paddock with ury grasses is 
advisable. The drier foods help to make 
a better balanced ration, and to a great 
extent helps to prevent hoven and 
scours. 
Lambs must be young and prime to 
fetch good prices, and be fit for freezers. 
Merino lambs and wethers do not make 
good sheep for oversea ; they have neither 
the shape nor the colour liked, and, as a 
tule, they mature but slowly: The 
British-Merino half-breds generally have 
mutton of very good quality—probably 
the best liked of all—but it is the experi- 
ence here that those that have the largest 
proportion of British blood attain the 
weights’ required much earlier. These 
might be termed seconp crosses, and the 
mothers of them—to pay the farmer best 
as he shears them —should be of the long 
woolled breeds; the Lincoln-Merino so 
far has proved the best wool cutter of’ all 
that have been tried here, with the 
Romney Marsh and Suffolk Down close 
together next ; both the Border Leicester 
and English Leicester are shaping well in 
the wool line, but have not been tried 
long enough here for comparisons. Th® 
point is, the breeding ewes should have 
their wool taken into consideration, but 
not at the expense altogether of their 
carcases. 
December 1, 1908 
$e, 
Miscellaneous Items. 
Lucerne will not grow on land poorly 
drained, 
Angora goats generally live twice as 
long as sheep. 
The carrot is by far the best root for 
horse feeding that is grown. 
Potatoes cannot be successfully fed to 
pigs unless they are first cooked. 
The pig prefers a dry location, as it 
suffers severely on damp, cold days. 
With unproductive 
animal is always an unprofitable one. 
live stock an 
A slight blemish or odd colour does not 
lessen the value of a horse for service on 
the farm. 
With good care and judgment eighty 
per cent, of all pigs born should live and 
develop. 
A quarter of a century ago farming in 
France was a dying industry, while to-day 
it is in a highly flo urishing condition. 
The tax upon a sow sucking a litter of 
pigs is so great that it is poor economy 
to practise anything but a liberal and 
judicious system of feeding. 
The ensilage stack or pit is a surety at 
all times, and in the near future will be 
considered a necessity of every farm, 
whilst the old-fashioned, haystack is a 
valuable adjunct. 
There is immense waste in the dis- 
regarding of intelligent rotation of crops, 
This is the worst sort of waste, for it 
means devastation of soils that require 
years of prudent tillage to replace. 
A good ram forms the basis of sheep- 
breeding; the ewes are almost a 
secondary consideration. One faulty ewe 
only influences her own progeny, whereas 
the influence of a ram is felt throughout. 
the flock. 
‘The feeding value of silage is, in a 
y2rge measure, due to its comparative 
richness in nutrients especially suited to 
the nourishment of cattle, its ease of 
digestion, as compared with dry feeds, its 
palatability, due to its aroma and succu- 
Jence, and the fact that it aids in cooling 
the system and keeping it free of effete 
material and keeping the circulation 
active. 
