The Cecil Whig., 1870-08-20
FAN IND HOUSEHOLD,
To Get Up Il Flock CT Sheep.

The first Object, to one not supplied with
Il good breed, will bc to provide himself
| with such as may suit his circumstances
! Ii he has the money vt command to do so,
he should purchase Of the breed he may
select 4 ram and Il few ewes. From these
he will raise all the young, and in a few
years le will have a flock of the best full
bred But i'll the meantime, from the
same run, and such ewes as he may already
| have, or may be able to buy he may raise
a flock Of half bred, which will serve his
purposes for the present.-Thcsc ewes he
may get wherever market presents, but
generally for considerable supply, we
must look to the tiocks which are brought
to the large markets to be sold to the feed
crs. The best selections should be made
from these, and where it is possible the
chosen ewes should be near the character
of the ram to which they are to be BRED
This matter it will bc found hard to control.
because these lean sheep are generally
Merino crosses, and we should not in Mary
land at least, select that breed for our pur-
poses. But to get Il supply Of ewes, we
must take the best that offer, and we NAV
be able to get none but these.
The ewes being obtained, let them lie
kept from the ram till the first of October,
and the lambs will then come the first of
March, and during that month. Coming
at this time they escape the rgors of a
severe winter, and by the time they need
it, the dam has a full flow of milk from the
springing grass. They grow rapidly, and
soon make up the loss of time, never hav-
ing their growth checked by deficiency of
their proper nouriShment.
The ram lambs should all be castrated
when few days old, and the tail cut off at
q hn 4.
operation little when performed at this
time, but great care should be taken in
handling, lest they be bruised and injured
in struggling. Let them be held firmly
and quietly They make better fat lambs |
il to be sold for such, for being castratcd, |
and If to be kept for weathers, there is |
much less risk in the operation when so |
young.
The eve lambs, we assume. are all to be |
kept for breeding. If not, select such as
most resemble the sire, and keep them
constantly growing. 1t is not uncommon |
with careless breeders to let these continue
to run with the flock, and most of them |
will breed in the fall, to their great injury. |
They should be taken away when weaned |
i'll August, and kept entirely apart from |
the ram until eighteen months old. They |
will then bring their first young at about |
two years of age. They should be put to |
a ram of the same breed as their sire. 1t |
might answer to put them to their sire, but |
1t is only i'll cases where an individual pos
sesscs certain cxcellencies in a higher
degree then they are usually met with, and |
is at the same time free from defects, that |
this kind of breeding would be advisable.
When the first set of eve lambs are bred,
the ewes which were first purchased have |
bred two years, and brought two sets of
lambs. If the flock is now as large as the
owner desires, the old ewes should be fat
tened and turned off. The lambs which
will now come from the first set of young
ewes will be three -fourths of the breed of |
the sire and grandsire. The ram lambs of
this stock should be castrated, and the
best OF the eve lambs selected for breeding
If, in the beginning, any ewes of the same
breed of the ram We're obtained, their pro-
duce has been preserved and in course of
time will constitute the whole flock. If no
ewes of the breed of the rams have been
obtained, the cross bred ewes will be bred
to such rams as were first adopted, till tho
progeny cannot be distinguished from the
full bloods. If the increase is too great
for the convenience of the owner it will
give so much the better chance to select
out the finest, turning the others over to
the butcher, or to some neighbor who may
want them to breed from.
AS to the breed of sheep to be selected,
there will be difference of opinion as to
which of those known as mutton sheep
should be preferred. There can be no
question in Maryland and the surrounding
States, convenient to great meat markets,
between these and the fine wool breeds
What is needed here first, is meat, and the
stock that will supply this, and give val
liable return in wool, too, will be preferred
Among the mutton sheep there are the
long woods and short woods. OF the long
wool breeds, the Leicester and Cotswold
are most prominent. The latter are the
largest most handy, and produce most
w0ol. They have in general less symn et y
than the Leicesters, and probably do not
mature quite SO early. Both of these
breeds make more fat in proportion to the
lean, than some of the short wool breeds
and the flesh is coarscr in texture and not
SO well favored. In England the price of
mutton is graduated according to the
breeds; so that although the long-wooled
breeds will make the nost pounds of meat
in proportion to expense, the superior price
of the meat of the short wool will make
them quite us profitable. In this country
the taste is not SO discriminating, and it is
only of late years that we have made the
distinction. Butchers now in their adyer-
tisements of good meat, appeal to the
taste of the consumer in announcing sup
ply of South Down mutton.
OF short wooled breed, the South Down
| Al.