State Agricultural Society. 455 



tumble work or frightening the sheep, which is always liable to bring 

 disaster on lamb or ewe, or both. 



"Parting out" a band of sheep is best effected by means of a "chute." 

 This chute may be advantageously set along one side of the lane by 

 which the sheep leave the corral, and they may be allowed to pass out 

 through it for several days before parting. This may save a good deal 

 of trouble in inducing them to go through the chute when you wish to 

 part. The lane itself may thus serve as a pen to part into. The chute 

 saves much work to shepherds and injury to ewes. With small bands, 

 and proper pens, all chasing of the sheep about can be avoided even 

 without a chute, but the work is greater. When proceeding to part out, 

 there should bo no one in the corral but those to whom the sheep are 

 accustomed, for they fret with strangers about them. They should have 

 been accustomed to come out of the corral in the morning of their own 

 motion, never being driven out, when they will have learned to do so at 

 an easy walk; thus you have no crowding and jamming. Keep every- 

 thing away from the corral gate that may flurry the sheep after they 

 come out, or start them into a run. A band with these habits will 

 quietly take up their single file through the chute when it comes to be 

 set for them, and so each one comes to the gate; this is closed or opened, 

 turning the sheep out at the side or allowing it to pass through, as the 

 case may be. Having thus separated out the ewe flock by itself, the 

 other sheep are to be kept off on separate range, so that the bands can- 

 not mix again, till lambing be over. 



LAMBING. 



We now suppose lambing to begin. Always be "on hand" in the early 

 morning, when most of the ewes will be found lying down. Now try 

 and get the run of things, before the ewes get up. Some of the ewes 

 that have lambed during the night will have got their lambs cleaned off, 

 suckled, and lying quietly down by their sides; others will be cleaning 

 off their lambs by licking them; others will be in the act of lambing. 

 Some will have two, three, and may be more lambs about them, and will 

 apparently own them all. Another, perhaps, a yearling, with her first 

 lamb, may be backing off from it, though at times apparently quite fond 

 of it; it is likely her teats are stopped up, though sometimes from "the 

 novelty of the thing," she does not allow it to suck. Yet others will 

 be seen with blood about the breach, or part of the after-birth hanging 

 to them, but with no lamb that they appear to own. All of which you 

 must keep the run of — or at least try to; and it will keep two "old 

 hands" busy to do so with a flock of one thousand ewes; the novice, 

 with a good shepherd to help, will find his hands particularly full with 

 five hundred. 



The gate may now be opened, when, as I have said, the flock ought to 

 pass quietly out — those with lambs staying, generally, behind, when 

 close the gate on the ewes and lambs. Should you stop some who have 

 not yet lambed, no harm is done, as you can let them run by you when 

 chance offers. But keep a sharp lookout for any having signs of lambs 

 but none with them. Some of this sort are very apt to offer to start 

 out along with the flock, and some are particularly apt to get by you in 

 spite of care. Among these, too, will commonly be your hardest cases 

 to deal with, and once in a while one that will baffle all your efforts to 

 make her take a lamb and own it. In a large band, a ewe with a lamb 

 that is strong enough to walk may slip out along with the main flock. 



