^08 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doe. 



instinctively. Well, the lambs came, and they looked all right; 

 there was nothing wrong to be seen but they did not live. That ewe 

 did not have that Iamb at the physiological moment; there are forces 

 at work in her beyond the care of man, and I learned then that 

 this wonderful thing, that if the ewe did not have milk in her udder, 

 she did not love her lamb either. I have had ah old ewe look at me, 

 and then at the lamb, and say as plainly as she could talk, "Joe, 

 here is that lamb; I have no use for it; you had better take care of 

 it." And I have tried it many times, and have nursed those lambs 

 and fed them, and done my best to raise them, but rarely with 

 success. And I learned 'this then, that if a ewe does not have milk 

 in her udder she does not have any love in her heart, either, and 

 these ewes did not have milk in their udders because they did not 

 have these lambs at the physiological moment. 



Then I thought if I was careful to get a good sire, my lambs would 

 be all right; so I exercised great care to get good sires. Then, one 

 day I had a lamb born, and the moment it was born it looked around 

 very lively, and found its dinner, and enjoj^ed it, and I said "That 

 lamb has strength, and it is going to live," but it died. Its father 

 lived, and its mother lived, and all its kindred. It would take a 

 special story to tell how' too much strength is not good — how it is 

 almost as bad as too little. 



Now, we have learned how the lambs should be born, and w^e 

 will go back to our ewe. We keep that ewe carefully housed and 

 protected from the wet weather, and we feed her up with alfalfa 

 and wheat, and yet not one of those lambs will live. Why? She 

 gets no exercise; she stands too much, and not one of those lambs 

 will live. Keep her out of doors, and give hor exercise and feed her 

 well, but not too well, and see if those lambs will not live. Our 

 sheep must not be exposed to the weather, but they must not be 

 kept too warm. You can't raise sheep in this way. I have a neigh- 

 bor who has a barn worth |3.000, and he has never raised a single 

 sheep in it. He keeps it closed too tight, and his sheep get no air.. 

 You need the air. 



Now^, a man who has sheep should have a lot of little panels made, 

 about 3^ feet long, and fitted with two little doors to keep the lambs 

 together. You can fold these panels up and put them away when 

 you don't want them. 



When the first sheep are born. I tell you it is a busy time for 

 the shepherd. The ewe may have twins — she probably will — and all 

 the better. Take her into the barn, and put her into this little panel 

 pen, so that she will have room to move about with her lambs, 

 and then you can take care of her. It is very nice to turn her over, 

 and start milking her, so that the lambs can get their first milk, 

 but we have not time to talk about that. You put her into this 

 pen, with her lambs, so that they will not be able to get out and 

 run around among others. Never allow them to get out among the 

 sheep that have not yet born their lambs. 



Never give the ewe any change in her feed, and no increase. It 

 may cause a great many troubles, and give her indigestion to give 

 her anything different, but gradually decrease it while seeing that 

 she still has enough to eat. It is a common mistake to give her' 

 some protein, and some wheat bran, and some alfalfa, thinking, 

 that will make milk. 



