1906.] ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 57 



sheep dips that are put upon the market simply have the effect, 

 when the solution is applied, of choking the tick and lice to 

 death. When you examine these insects with a microscope it 

 is fovmd that they have no lungs, but that air enters their 

 bodies through holes in their sides, and if we put these 

 carbolic solutions upon them it simply puckers up those breath- 

 ing holes and they choke to death. When it comes to the use 

 of the others they simply make a coating over the animal. 

 They do not kill by contact but they make a coating over the 

 animal, and the louse or tick is poisoned by simply taking a bite 

 of it, just as the potato beetle is poisoned with paris green when 

 you spread it on your potato vines. When a bug takes a little 

 bite of the potato leaf he takes the poison with it. 



Now here comes the other thing that I want to speak of. 

 Presuming that you have a flock of lambs, or that you will, 

 if you save your best ewes, then what is the next step in 

 properly taking care of the flock? Suppose that you are just 

 starting now, and that you have got a flock of old sheep to 

 start with ; that you have an old flock of ewes such as I have 

 described. Now those old sheep may harbor a number of 

 different kinds of worms. The small stomach worm, a little 

 worm which will perhaps average from three-quarters to an 

 inch and a half in length, and no larger in diameter than a 

 common thread, number eight or twelve. That little Avorm is 

 doing more harm today than any other worm. The nodular 

 worm will come next in order. Now these are undoubtedly 

 today inhabiting the intestines of practically five out of every 

 six sheep in the whole United States. They have spread 

 pretty well over the whole country. These small worms are 

 today inhabiting the intestines of about five out of every six 

 sheep of the age of the old sheep in the United States, and if 

 they are there in large numbers they will cause the death of 

 the old sheep between now and the first day of May unless 

 taken care of. If they are not there in large numbers they 

 will still do damage. They are undoubtedly present to some 

 extent. While the sheep are off the pasture they are passing 

 from the old sheep and are doing little damage. They are 

 doing practically no harm, but next spring when the sheep 

 are turned out to pasture there will be a passage of the eggs 

 of the worm, or the embryo, on to the pasture fields, and then 

 is the time that the lambs will become infected. Now here 



