Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-01-16
REARING SPRING LAMBS.
EXPERIENCE Jf A MAN WHO coins
THE WORD "LAMBERY.D

, with Spring Landslide Speaks Strong
ly in Favor of the vigor and Reliable
ity of the Horned Dorset Breed.
j. S. Woodward, of Niagara county.
N. Y, furnishes to The Rural New
Yorker the following useful information
in regard to rearing spring lambs:
If the place where we raise pigs is a
"piggery." why not call the place where
we raise early lambs a "lambery?" l am
in favor of it. Well, we have com.
menced operations in our lambery this
year, not earlier than ever before, but
on a more extensive scale for so early a
date. On Oct. 10 we had no young
lambs. but when | was home the day
before election-Nov. 3-we had sixty
six, which made an average of little
over four day, and they were then
coming lively. This is much better
success than we had ever had before
One early lamb is worth two late ones.
and we have given days to the investi-
CATION OF the best way to produce them.
trying to discover some sure way of OBJ
tanning success every time. Sometimes
we have thought we had solved the
problem, and then, the very next year,
have found we were as far off as ever
We used to think that it would not do TO
keep ewes for this purpose more than
one year; that the forcing process was
such strain upon the system that they
would play OUT" but we have changed
our minds.
a eve that raises an early lamb this
year is much more likely to have one
next, and will do better by it than a
fresh eve, and SO we have taken to sort
ing out all our best mother ewes and
keeping them ever. The idea that ewes
cannot stand the close housing and high
feeding necessary to produce the best re-
suits more than single year is hum
bug, and we now keep them three or
even four years at the business. We
look upon this as one cause for our great
''luck" this year.
The best breeds for sires is a matter of
very great Importance. We have tested
nearly all the breeds for this purpose.
and up to three years ago were fully
convinced that the Hampshire was su-
perior to all others, although we still
tried each year in a small way the other
black faced breeds. Four years ago we
imported a few Dorset Horned, but they
arrived too late to be used that year.
The next year we used one of the rams
to limited extent, and were much
pleased with the crosses produced. The
lambs came strong, were robust. lively
and grew very rapidly.
The rams have so much prepotency
that one can hardly tell half bloods from
Dorset sire from full bloods, and as a
matter of course the lambs all have
large horns. When the first were sent
to market our agent wrote, "Those ire
mendous horns are a very great obiec-
ton, and you had better put the lambs
into some other Market" but within an
hour of the time when the letter was re-
c''ved telegram came, saying, The
PARTIES who had the horned lambs want
more; send them right along" That
was the last objection that wa. ever
raised to them, and now the bigger the
horns the better do the lambs sell. They
are sort of trademark.
The next year-in 1SS9-we used sew
eral Dorsets. AS as an experiment. with
one flock Of little over 100 ewes. we put
one ram of each of the Shropshire, Hamp-
shire and Dorset breeds. When the
lambs came more than half were Dor
set crosses, and there were twice as
many Dorset twins as of both the others.
The Dorset crosses grew more rapidly
har hA ~
when from week to ten days younger
than either of the others, and sold for
better prices. More than this, all. or
nearly all, the very earliest lambs were
Dorset crosses. We then decided to use
this year nearly all Dorset sires, and
have done so, having only used Shrop-
shires and Hampshires in an experiment.
al way.
Although the rams of each of the three
breeds We're put with the ewes at the
same date, of all the lambs dropped up
to Nov. only three We're of the black
faced parentage. While it is doubtful
If the breed is the only factor in getting
very early lambs, there is no doubt it
has very much to do with the matter.
do not wish to boom the Dorsets, and
have not done so, as all must know, for
although we have had them now for
over four years, this is the first time
have ever written word in their praise,
and almost the first time have men
toned them, and all have to say now is
that, having tested them fully for four
years for early lamb getting, have not
found them wanting
Brood SOws.
The greater thriftiness of pigs from a
SOW that has borne one, two or three
previous filters is partly due doubtless
to the greater amount of milk she gives.
There is probably as much proportional
difference here as between a mature COW
and heifer with her first calf. Besides.