Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/429

Rh SHEEP.] AGRICULTURE 395 able food. Lambs are castrated, docked, and ear-marked, with least risk when about ten days old. Ewes with lambs must have good and clean pasturage throughout the sum mer. For this purpose they must either be run thinly among cattle or have two or more enclosures, one of which may always be getting clean and fresh for their reception as the other gets bare and soiled. We have not found any advantage in allowing lambs yeaned in March to run with their dams beyond 20th July. A clover eddish or other perfectly clean pasture is the most suitable for newly- weaned lambs. Such as abound in tath, as it is called in Scotland that is, rank herbage growing above the drop pings of sheep or other animals are peculiarly noxious to them. Folding upon rape or vetches suits them admirably, so that fresh supplies are given regularly as required. Sheep, when folded on green rye or vetches, require a good deal of water, and will not thrive unless this is supplied to them. All sheep are liable to be infested with certain vermin, especially &quot; fags &quot; or &quot; kaids &quot; (MelopJuigus ovinus) and lice. To rid them of these parasites various means are resorted to. Some farmers use mercurial ointment, which is applied by parting the wool, and then with the finger rubbing the ointment on the skin, in three or four longitudinal seams on each side, and a few shorter ones on the neck, belly, legs, &c. Those who use this salve dress their lambs with it immediately after shearing their ewes, and again just before putting them on turnips. More frequently the sheep are immersed, all but their heads, in a bath in which arsenic and other ingredients are dissolved. On being lifted out of the bath, the animal is laid on spars, over a shallow vessel so placed that the superfluous liquor, as it is wrung out of the fleece, flows back into the bath. If this is done when the ewes are newly shorn, the liquor goes farther than when the process is deferred until the lambs are larger and their wool longer. It is a good practice to souse the newly-shorn ewes, and indeed the whole flock at the same time, in a similar bath, so as to rid them all of vermin. 1 As turnips constitute the staple winter fare of sheep, it is necessary to have a portion of these sown in time to be fit for use in September. Young sheep always show & reluctance to take to this very succulent food, and should therefore be put upon it so early in autumn that they may get thoroughly reconciled to it while the weather is yet temperate. Rape or cabbage suits admirably as tran- sitionary food from grass to turnips. When this trans ference from summer to winter fare is well managed, they usually make rapid progress during October and November. Some farmers recommend giving the hoggets, as they are now called, a daily run off from the turnip-fold to a neigh bouring pasture for the first few weeks after their being put to this diet. We have found it decidedly better to keep them steadily in the turnip-fold from the very first. When they are once taiight to look for this daily enlarge ment, they become impatient for it, and do not settle quietly to their food. If possible, not more than 200 should be kept in one lot. The youngest and weakest sheep should also have a separate berth and more generous treatment. Turnips being a more watery food than sheep naturally feed upon, there is great advantage in giving them from the first, along with turnips, a liberal allowance of clover hay cut into half-inch chaff. When given in this form, in suitable troughs and in regular feeds, they will eat up the whole without waste, and be greatly the better for it. To 1 The mercurial and arsenical salves and washes commonly in use are believed often to have a hurtful effect on the health of the flocks to which they are applied, and have sometimes caused very serious losses. Having used Macdougall s dip (a preparation of carbolic acid) for many years, we can testify to its efficacy and safety. economise the hay, equal parts of good oat straw may be cut up with it, and will be readily eaten by the flock. A liberal supply of this dry food corrects the injurious effects which are so often produced by feeding sheep on turnips alone, and at the same time lessens the consumption of tho green food. We believe also that there is true economy in early beginning to give them a small daily allowance, say Bb each, of cake or corn. This is more especially desir able when sheep are folded on poor soil. The extraneous food both supplies the lack of nutrition in the turnips and fertilises the soil for bearing succeeding crops. An im mense improvement has been effected in the winter feeding of sheep by the introduction of machines for slicing turnips. Some careful farmers slice the whole of the turnips used by their fattening sheep, of whatever age ; but usually the practice is restricted to hoggets, and only resorted to for them when their milk-teeth begin to fail. In the latter case the economy of the practice does not admit of debate. When Mr Pusey states the difference in value between hoggets that have had their turnips sliced and others that have not, at 8s. per head in favour of the former from this cause alone, we do not think that he over-estimates the benefit. Those who slice turnips for older sheep, and for hoggets also as soon as ever they have taken to them, are, we suspect, acting upon a sound principle, and their ex ample is therefore likely to be generally followed. There is no doubt of this at least, that hoggets frequently lose part of the flesh which they had already gained from the slicing of the turnips being unduly delayed. By 1st December their first teeth, although not actually gone, have become so inefficient that they require longer time and greater exertion to feed their fill than before ; and this, concurring with shorter days and colder weather, operates much to their prejudice. When the slicing is begun, it is well to leave a portion of growing turnips in each day s fold, as there are always some timid sheep in a lot that never come freely to the troughs ; and they serve, moreover, to occupy the lot during moonlight nights, and at other times when the troughs cannot be instantly re plenished. As the sheep have access to both sides of the troughs, each will accommodate nearly as many as it is feet in length. There should therefore be provided at least as many foot-lengths of trough as there are sheep in the fold. The troughs should be perpendicular at their outer edges, as the sheep are less apt to scatter the sliced turnips on the ground with this form than when they slope out wards. It is expedient to have a separate set of similar troughs for the cake or grain and chopped fodder, which it is best to use mixed together. As the season when frost and snow may be expected approaches it is necessary to provide in time for the flock having clean unfrozen turnips to eat in the hardest weather. To secure this, care must be taken to have always several weeks supply put together in heaps and covered with earth to a sufficient thickness to exclude frost. The covering with earth is the only extra cost incurred from using this precaution, for if slicing the roots is practised at all, it necessarily implies that the roots must be pulled, trimmed, and thrown together, and this again should be done in such a way as to insure that the dung and urine of the sheep shall be equally distributed over the whole field. This is secured by throwing together the produce of 18 or 20 drills into small heaps, of about a ton each, in a straight row and at equal distances apart. For a time it will suffice to cover these heaps with a few of the turnip leaves and a spadeful of earth here and there to prevent the leaves from being blown off. This arrangement necessitates the regular moving of the troughs over the whole ground. As the heaps are stript of their covering special care must be taken to scatter the tops well about, otherwise thera