In the county of Wicklow it is the practice to divide the twenty-four hours by four equal periods, and to feed the lambs with ewe's milk and cow's milk alternately. When commencing with cow's milk, a quarter of a pint is given, twice a-day, to each lamb, and this is gradually increased to a pint, exclusive of the milk from the ewe. This method of feeding has been cavilled at, but I think unjustly, as the ewe is thus saved from the bad effects of exhaustion, and the lambs are fit for the butcher when six weeks old, or sooner.
(98.) Lambing time. When the ewes begin to drop their lambs, a time which ordinarily happens in the first or second week of April, but which, in other modes of management, must be dated twenty-two weeks after the tupping season, the shepherd has many calls upon his skill and watchfulness. In bad seasons, sheep are apt to prove unkind to their offspring, and none more so than the Cheviots. In this event, the best pastures should be selected for them, or turnips may be carted to them; but as gimmer hogs are often quite incapable of furnishing the necessary quantity of milk, the shepherd ought always to be provided with a bottle of milk, which he should drop from his own mouth into that of any lambs which may require it. Such mothers as appear to suffer in bringing forth, should be relieved with the utmost gentleness; and when a miscarriage occurs, if the weather be at the same time unfavourable, the dam ought to receive the shelter of a roof. When the ewe is lost in yeaning, her lamb, if it survive her, must be reared by another dam. Some little artifice is always necessary to induce a ewe to adopt the offspring of another. Covering the lamb with the skin of her own dead one, is sometimes resorted to, but this is hardly required, as any dam will take to another's offspring if the parties be shut up for some time together. Ewes that are late in lambing should be collected together, so as to be more under the care of the shepherd, and ought to be well fed, for the sake of bringing forward their lambs. Those lambs which are very far behind the rest must be prepared for the butcher, as they would make but a poor figure at the Lammas sales.
(99.) Washing. The time for clipping varies much, being earlier in seasons which have been preceded by favourable weather and an unstinted allowance of food, than in such as have followed a rigorous winter, disease, or any other cause calculated to arrest the growth of wool. The season may be said to be limited by the middle of May and the middle of July; but this should not be taken as a rule of conduct, the best guide being the state of the new coat, which ought always to be well above the skin before shearing is attempted. The wool, unless among some mountain flocks, is always, in this country, washed prior to its removal from the sheep's back; but in Spain that operation is always deferred till the fleeces have been collected, when they are subjected to a thorough scouring, in public buildings appropriated to the purpose, and termed lavatories. This is a plan in many respects superior to ours. Its adoption by our farmers has been recommended by Dr Parry. There cannot be a doubt of its being the preferable mode as regards the saving it would effect in the lives of sheep; but as it is well known that shearing is much facilitated by washing, and that on the neatness with which the clipping is accomplished the quality of the succeeding crop in a great measure depends, some little time will be necessary to determine the comparative value of either mode. In New South Wales it is customary to make the sheep swim across a stream for two or three mornings before being washed, by which means the yolk is softened, and the removal of grease and dirt much promoted; but this, though a good plan in that mild and even climate, could not be looked upon as safe in a temperature so variable as that of Britain. In cases however, where great nicety is required, the plan in vogue in the former country, that of dipping each sheep, before washing, into a caldron of warm water, might be beneficially adopted.
Mountain sheep are cleaned by being forced to swim across a pool, but the finer or lowland breeds are washed entirely by the hand. The latter method alone demands a short explanation. Dry, and, if possible, sunny weather, is selected for the operation, on the morning of which the lambs are separated from the flock, and the latter is conveyed to the margin of some pebbly-bottomed pool. Here they are penned or otherwise kept together, while they are seized, one by one, by a man standing mid-thigh deep near the water-edge, and turned back downwards, the head alone being above the surface. Plate V. fig. 1.[ [20] It is then turned from side to side, and moved backwards and forwards, so as to make the wool catch upon the stream and wave about. When the first washer has held it for a few minutes, and partially cleansed the fleece, he passes it up the river to the next, who goes through the same routine, and, on being convinced that the skin is free from filth, compels the sheep to land by swimming in an oblique direction up the water. Three and even four men are sometimes employed in washing sheep, but two, as here described, will, under ordinary circumstances, be found sufficient. The bank on which the dripping sheep are collected, should have a clean and firm turf, and the flock should, till fairly dry and fit for shearing, be kept on heavy grass land, or, what is better, in straw-bedded folds.
(100.) Shearing. After allowing eight days, off or on, to elapse from the time of washing, so as to permit the wool to gain a fresh supply of yolk, and along with it lustre and elasticity, the sheep may be stripped of its fleece. As there is no saving in employing an unskilful clipper, every encouragement should be given to induce servants to cut close, smoothly and evenly, and to avoid injuring the skin, or going twice over the same part. There are two ways in this country of depriving sheep of their wool. In the first, or coarser method, which is only adopted in the case of Cheviot and heath sheep, the operator sits upon the ground, and placing the animal on its back between his knees, shears the wool first from the belly and legs, and then, after tying the latter, proceeds to clear the back. In the second method, the legs are never tied, as the disposition of the sheep is such as to render it unnecessary. The animal is placed as in Fig. 2, Plate V., and the shearer clips first one side, cutting from the middle of the belly to that of the back, down to the loins. It is then placed on its side, as in Fig, 3, Plate V., the knee of the operator pressing on its neck, and the wool is removed from the legs and buttocks. The fleece is next rolled up, with the cut side outwards, commencing at the tail, and using the wool of the other extremity as a fastening for the bundle.
A cool dry apartment should be selected in which to store the wool, always remembering that heat and damp are equally injurious to it, and that the greater the perfection in which it retains its natural oily moisture, the more valuable will it prove both to the grower and the manufacturer.
(101.) Weaning, where milking is not practised, ought to be set about in the end of July or beginning of August. In some places the ewe lambs are never speaned, but allowed to go at large with their mothers; and though by this plan the dam is apt to be kept in poor condition, yet is this counterbalanced by the comparative freedom of the hogs from braxy. As an improvement, however, the gimmer lambs may be withheld for a fortnight from their mothers, and at the end of that time may be permitted to pasture with them. In the few places where the farmer continues to manufacture ewe-milk cheese and butter, speaning is carried into effect somewhat earlier, and is of course attended, in the long run, with no little detriment to the stock and its proprietor. The sooner that the practice be laid aside the better; for though ewe-milk cheese is pretty universally relished and admired, yet those who are acquainted with the scenes which happen at the bughts, know well that the cheese itself cannot but contain much, the mere mention of which would pall at once the appetite even of the least fastidious. In addition to this, a great waste of grass is occasioned by the sheep going to and from the bught, while the inconveniences they are on every hand exposed to, at a season when they are peculiarly liable to disease and accident, ought of themselves to lead to the abolition of the practice.
When the udders of the ewes appear, after their separation from the lambs, to be much distended, they may be once or twice milked, to prevent bad consequences; but it is much better to obviate the necessity for this, by reducing their allowance of food for a few days. When the animal seems to suffer much irritation about the udder, it will always be safe to give a brisk dose of any of the common saline purgatives.
The store lambs are at this period sent to good pasture, or, where the farm cannot afford it, are summered at a distance; that is to say, the farmer pays so much a head for permission to feed his flock, during a couple of months, on another person's ground, at the end of which period they are turned upon the pasture which has just been vacated by the gimmers, they having been sent to join the older ewes.
(102.) Smearing, in those places where it is still carried on, is performed in two ways, according to the quality of the wool. Slipping, as the one method is termed, is only employed in high, wet districts, where the sheep are covered with long wool; while rolling, as the other is usually called, is only required for such as, in dry situations, are surrounded by a short close pile. In pursuing the former plan, the smearer takes up the mixture on the forefinger of his right hand, and while holding the locks of wool apart with his arms and left hand, allows the salve to drop into the groove or shed, along which it is spread by the other fingers.