The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-04-04
Profit in Keeping Sheep.

An excellent farmer told me this year that
| for every sheep he kept he sold in lambs and
WOOL an average of five dollars worth per
head. He said also that his sheep paid him
better than anything else grown on the farm
| Five dollars are nearly ten cents per week,
and during the pasture season sheep can be
| kept at cost of two to four cents per week.
| In che winter the cost is little more but if
good straw and other coarse fodder are freely
| used, winter keep need not be very expensive,
| and the manure would be worth large part
| of the cost of feeding. / am not so clear
about the profit in summering sheep. Where
farmer has a large amount of rough land
| unsuited for cultivation, sheep will utilize it
| better than any other stock, provided the
land is not wet as well as rough. On low or
swampy lands sheep will not do well, and are
liable to foot-rot and other diseases. But if q
farmer has only clover pasture let him beware
of sheep. Either he must feed so light as to
get little benefit from his pasture, or he will
ruin the young clover-and he may do both.
Sheep and clover both improve the farm, but
| they will not do it together. One neutralizes
the other That 1.-THE foot ofthe sheep is gol-
| den," is a proverb only true when pastures
| are filled with natural grasses and the heritage
| is made sweeter and richer from being kept
| closely cropped
Five-dollars-p per- head sales from flock of
| sheep pre-supposc good many ewes, nearly
or quite as many lambs as sheep and q good
market for them. My friend this year sold
lambs at 1858 per head and wool at $780,
Not all the lambs were sold, the ewes being
saved for breeding and about as many old
sheep fattened in the winter as were saved of
eve lambs. To get such price for lambs
they must be good ones A full-blood Cots
void buck is used. AS the eve lambs are
saved, the second cross is three-quarter blood,
and the third is seven eighths. Lambs even of
the half cross are very strong, thrifty and
heavy for their age. They are commonly
dropped in February and March. This re-
quires close watching and warm quarters in
cold and stormy weather; but with these
there is usually little loss, often less than far
mers suffer who have ordinary lambs dropped
in April or May. The grade of the Cotswold
buck on the common native sheep, is harder
than the thoroughbred. They need better
feed than the common native lambs, but they
pay well for all they get. 1t will pay well to
have field of winter rye to turn on early in
the spring, after the weather becomes warm
better still if some grain is given to the eve
to stimulate her flow of milk, and as soon as
the lamb is old enough to eat, to increase its
size. Young lambs will begin to nibble at
oats when two or three weeks old and will
soon learn to eat greedily Only a very lit
tie is needed in addition to the dams milk
The larger the lamb, the higher the price per
pound. This is an unvarying rule, be the
price high or low | know no way in which
a little grain will pay SO surely and so well as
if fed to young lambs. Unless extra feed is
given to the mother at least, early dropped
Cotswold grade lambs are apt to become
stunted and will never fully recover.