(95.) Those who have attended to the subject are well aware, that the profitable management of livestock is the most difficult department in the business of a farm. So much depends on the nature of the locality where sheep are kept, and on its situation in regard to markets for the disposal of its produce, that little but what is of general application need be written on this head. Precise rules for agricultural conduct can seldom be laid down with any probability of their being followed, as it must necessarily vary less or more with the peculiar circumstances of the estate, and must, therefore, to a great extent, be trusted to the intelligence of the farmer. All, therefore, that I shall aim at in treating of this division, will be the giving an outline of the more important matters connected with sheep-husbandry, leaving the tyro to use it as circumstances may point out. For obvious reasons, a natural arrangement of the subject is the best; and to this, therefore, I shall, as much as possible, adhere.
(96.) Putting Tups to Ewes. The middle of November is the time at which this is usually done, but the season is anticipated or delayed according as the spring provender is expected to be early or late, plentiful or scarce. When the sheep are spread over a wide track, one ram is in general allotted to thirty ewes; but when the latter are on a limited range of pasture, the proportion of one to fifty may be reckoned ample. The rams ought not to be left with the ewes above four or five weeks, as it does not do to have lambs dropped after the middle of May; indeed much trouble will be saved to the shepherd if he can contrive to have all the lambs yeaned about the same time, as the flock will, from its numbers being of a similar standing, be healthier, and every way easier to manage, than one in which there is a great diversity of ages. Such ewes, therefore, as have not evinced an inclination for the male, ought, before the above period has elapsed, to be driven into a barn or small inclosure, and made to run about till they have become a little heated, after which, when the ram is introduced, the desired effect will doubtless follow. Delay will in many cases be unavoidable, owing to the ewes being in too high condition; but this the shepherd should try to obviate, by administering one or two doses of Epsom salts, which, by reducing the plethora, will increase the activity of the animal, and render it in many ways more prone to pregnancy.
As it is an object of some importance to retard the yeaning of gimmer hogs till the spring be well advanced, the rams are never sent to them till a fortnight after they have been put to the older ewes. Much nicety is always required in choosing the time at which rams mould be put to gimmers, as they are in general sorry nurses, and sure, in bad seasons, to lose many lambs.
When a farm is provided with suitable enclosures, careful selection of both ewes and rams should always be attended to, taking care to make the good points of the one remedy the defects of the other; but where a farm is destitute of such accommodation, the next best plan is to send the finest rams to the ewes for a few days before the rest of the males are admitted.
Great ewes ought always to be well looked after. The driest and best sheltered fields should be set apart for them, and turnips, when forming part of their food, should, when they are about to yean, always be carted to their pasture. When they roll awald, and cannot regain their feet, prompt assistance should be afforded them, else they will soon die. Death in this case occurs from suffocation, though the morbid appearances exhibited by the carcass are frequently mistaken for those of braxy. Udder locking ought never to be attempted, as it often leads to abortion, and is, besides, not of the slightest utility.
(97.) Early Lambs. Though in the greater number of our breeds the arrival of the rutting season is fixed and regular, yet there are several in which pregnancy may, by proper management, be induced at any period. Of these the Dorsetshire and Wicklow varieties are the most noted, and are on this account selected for the rearing of house-lambs in the vicinity of towns, the inhabitants of which are opulent enough to create a demand for so expensive an article.
The beginning of June is the time chosen for the admission of the rams, so that by the month of January the greater proportion of the ewes have yeaned. According to the plan pursued in Middlesex, "The sheep, which begin to lamb about Michaelmas, are kept in the close during the day, and in the house during the night, until they have produced twenty or thirty lambs. These lambs are then put into a lamb-house, which is kept constantly well littered with clean wheat straw; and chalk, both in lump and in powder, is provided for them to lick, in order to prevent looseness, and thereby preserve the lambs in health. As a prevention against gnawing the boards, or eating each other's wool, a little wheat straw is placed, with the ears downwards, in a rack within their reach, with which they amuse themselves, and of which they eat a small quantity. In this house they are kept with great care and attention until fit for the butcher.
"The mothers of the lambs are turned, every night at eight o'clock, into the lamb-house to their offspring. At six o'clock in the morning these mothers are separated from their lambs, and turned into the pastures; and, at eight o'clock, such ewes as have lost their own lambs, and those ewes whose lambs are sold, are brought in and held by the head till the lambs by turns suck them clean: they are then turned into the pasture; and at twelve o'clock, the mothers of the lambs are driven from the pasture into the lamb-house for an hour, in the course of which time each lamb is suckled by its mother. At four o'clock, all the ewes that have not lambs of their own are again brought to the lamb-house, and held for the lambs to suck; and at eight, the mothers of the lambs are brought to them for the night.
"This method of suckling is continued all the year. The breeders select such of the lambs as become fat enough, and of proper age (about eight weeks old) for slaughter, and send them to the market during December and three or four succeeding months, at prices which vary from one guinea to four, and the rest of the year at about two guineas each. This is severe work for the ewes, and some of them die from exhaustion. However, care is taken that they have plenty of food; for when green food (viz. turnips, cole, rye, tares, clover, &c.) begins to fail, brewers' grains are given them in troughs, and second-crop hay in racks, as well to support the ewes as to supply the lambs with plenty of milk; for if that should not be abundant, the lambs would become stunted, in which case no food would fatten them.
"A lamb-house to suckle from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty lambs at a time, should be seventy feet long and eighteen feet broad, with three coops of different sizes at each end, and so constructed as to divide the lambs according to their ages."[ [19]