The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-04-12
FArrEN1NG LAMBS.
concluded from last week.

From the list to 18th of November, according
to weather and pasture, these lambs will go into
the sheep farm for winter feeding. Usually the
space is divided in pens, the length of a Il or Is
foot board determines the length of their feeding
rack, and this determining the number In a pen.
About 10 or IA in a pen, a pen each side of the
rack. These will be given a feed of grain morn
and eve, say 4 to 6 quarts of oats to a pen. As
they get accustomed to their grain, the ration Is
made an increasing per cent of corn until in the
last two or three weeks of feeding it may be 8 to
10 quarts of shelled corn to a pen. A ration of
hay, or bean straw, or shredded corn stalks, IS
given daily, all they will clean up fairly well.
Salt and water are always In reach of the lambs.
The utmost cleanliness in feed racks and drink
ing vessels is observed, and gentleness and quiet
ness is strictly maintained.
During the cold weather the windows and inte-
rior walls are often coated with frost for weeks
at a time. Such is the case this bitter winter.
The lambs will be graded when put In the barn,
the "tops" in pens by themselves, and fed better.
If the market warrants it, these may be sold in
January or February. The remaining ones may
be finished for market in March and April. The
best lambs may go into the barn averaging 70 to
IS pounds, the others taper off to SO pounds,
though these are not a very paying investment.
MANY HOW shear Ill, OF d pdFI, O1 IL dL1DS d GiI0
approach of warmer weather. Often it pays quite
well. The price of lambs in the fall has advanced
steadily for five years. last fall fair focks brought
right around So. The price of fat lambs has also
advanced. Right around a nickel a pound was
thought a good price five or six years ago. They
have touched s cents since that, and 612 and z
cents is thought just good pay for feed and care.
A 75-pound lamb will finish off at 100 to 10
pOuDdS ShiDninU dow tho farmer will ft hiS
shipping rack to his wagon box, load in a lot of
lambs and draw his team nearly exhausted get
ting the load through the April mud a few miles
to the railroad station. But it is a neat bit of
money at a season when cash doesn't usually come
to farmers. Twenty lambs averaging, say los
pounds, at Z cents, isn't half bad; 40 more averag-
ing 90 pounds, at 612 cents, helps out at the close
of a hard winter.
Now this, no doubt, looks like small deer to you
tobacco men getting $50 to 5000 worth of tobacco
to the acre. But don't you think you could grow
Bermuda grass on your hill sides, in gullies, and
on thin lands where tobacco, the luxurious pirate,
will not grow? And then "the golden hoofed
sheep" would do well there. How many months2
Six months of sheep pasture is extra good here.
Then the poor old ewes will have to eat grain
straw, bean straw, a little No. 2 hay, and a morsel
of grain at the finish, and drop one, or oftener
two, lambs in March or April, and their average
value 1885, while North Carolina sheep are but
$1.79!
Did you ever read the myth of Jason and the
Golden Fleece? North Carolina sadly needs a
Jason. You should own 100000 sheep and feed
100000 lambs each winter to bring you $4,000
600, or more, each spring. Then you'd have cash
and, furthermore, you would have some income
that would make your @fller" and wrapper stink
weed hum a rod!
Genesee Co., Mich. d.