456 Transactions op the 



A young or nervous ewe that has lambed, and — following the flock from 

 force of habit — has slipped through the gate without it, may now miss 

 it, and offer to come back for it, when she can be let into the corral. 

 But this is less apt to happen if the bad practice has been followed of 

 opening the corral gate the first thing in the morning, which some sheep 

 shepherds will do — even before looking through the flocks. Opening 

 the gate starts the sheep, and if the morning be at all cold or frosty, 

 instead of stopping to feed off, as they ought to do, they will start off 

 and keep moving. Thus before a ewe may miss her lamb, she will be 

 apt to be so far away from the corral, that instead of turning back she 

 keeps with the flock. The chance is thus lost, too, of parting out ewes 

 who may have got out with or without their lambs. But this is not the 

 chief evil of starting the sheep too early. That animal, like every 

 other, has its own way of taking rest, and part of that rest consists in 

 lying dowm and- chewing the cud — in the morning as well as at any 

 other time. So let them take their time, for whenever a part of the 

 flock is started by opening the gate others will follow sooner than they 

 would have done of their own motion. And now they will begin to 

 feed as soon as they are out of the corral, and move off slowly — which 

 they ought to do. 



REGULATING EWES AND LAMBS. 



"When satisfied that you have got out of the main flock all the ewes 

 that have lambed, the next work is to regulate matters in the corral, 

 and see that each ewe has her own lamb or lambs. This can be known 

 in various ways. The ewe will allow the lamb to suck her, will caress 

 it after her manner, and will, generally, try and take it off by itself. 

 If she have two lambs that appear to be twins, you, first thing of all, 

 count the ewes and lambs before you admit that any are twins, being 

 sure that you have all the ewes that have lambed the previous night; 

 you may next pick up one of the apparent twins and hold it awhile; 

 then take the other one in the same wa} r ; if the ewe is contented with 

 each singly, it is pretty safe to conclude that she owns both; but if she 

 disown either by itself, you infer it is not her lamb. If she own them 

 both, you are to take a simple precaution against her afterwards disown- 

 ing one, by simply putting a distinctive mark on the pair. A daub of 

 tar on the right side for one pair, on the left for another, or different 

 kinds of rags tied around the neck for others, will suffice. 



At this first stage of lambing, the ewe is controlled completely by her 

 sense of smell, and even when her lamb is a week old, bhe may run 

 about and smell fifty different lambs, passing within two feet of her own, 

 which may be the only black lamb in the flock. The marks above de- 

 scribed are not to assist the ewe in identifying her twins, but to assist 

 the shepherd, so that he can help each to find the other. The advan- 

 tages that can be taken of this peculiarity in inducing ewes to adopt 

 lambs will be seen. 



Next take in hand the manifest cases of mother and infant, as of a 

 ewe who owns a particular lamb but will not let it suck. Catch her and 

 examine her teats; if they be stopped up, " the teats and bag should first 

 be well worked as if to milk them; bits of scurf or dead skin that may 

 clog the orifices may be picked off. Usually the teats can be opened by 

 these means, nor should the effort be given up until it be quite apparent 

 that it is unavailing. When opened, they should be milked till the bag 

 has become softened in all its parts, and especially it must be looked to 

 that any hard lumps which may have formed in the bag, are dispersed. 



