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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



THE TREATMENT OF EWES. 



WlNrRITH FARMERS CLUB. 



The usual monthly meeting of the members of 

 this club was held at the Black Bear Inn, Wool, on 

 Wednesday evening, the 16th February last, Mr, T. 

 H. Saunders having undertaken the introduction of 

 the following subject : — " On the treatment of ewes 

 during the time they are in lamb, and the cause of 

 many having dead lambs." The chair was filled by 

 Mr. Lilliugton. 



Mr. Saunders said : Mr. Cliairman and Gentle- 

 men, — As the members of this club, when choosing 

 the subjects for our monthly discussions of this year, 

 thought proper to place my name to the one on the 

 card for this evening, I shall offer no apology for 

 standing before you to state, to the best of my 

 ability, a few of the leading points connected with 

 the subject which have come within my own obser- 

 vation. But I feel myself very inadequate to do full 

 justice to such an important subject, as it is one, in 

 Bome respects, involved in great mystery~I mean 

 with regard to many ewes having dead lambs : for 

 although it is nearly 50 years ago that ray father 

 brought me up to be a shepherd within the bounds 

 of this parish, and from my youth up until now I 

 have been rather extensively engaged amongst 

 sheep, yet am I still at a loss to account, in some 

 respects, for their so doiug. But T always feel that 

 it is the duty of every member of this club, when 

 called upon, to come forward and state to his brother 

 members, to the best of his knowledge, the results 

 of. his experiences; and therefore, gentlemen, on 

 these grounds I shall endeavour to lay before you, 

 as briefly as I possibly can, some of the chief points 

 relative to the subject for this evening's discussion. 

 It is one which has particularly engaged my atten- 

 tion for many years ; and, probably, you will better 

 understand me if I state in what way I came in pos- 

 session of some of those facts which I shall relate to 

 you this evening. I think it is a very important 

 subject to be discussed at a Farmers' Club, and one 

 with which the flockmaster and shejjherd cannot be 

 too well acquainted. Of the value of purely physio- 

 logical knowledge, as assisting the practical breeder, 

 there can be no doubt, for in proportion as he is 

 possessed of that knowledge so will the mortality in 

 his flock decrease. I am of opinion that sheep 

 breeders owe their success or non-succes.s, in most 

 cases, to their own peculiar management, that man- 

 agement being in accordance, or at variance with the 



laws that govern nature, and the operations of the 

 organs of reproduction during the middle and latter 

 stages of the ewes' pregnancy. And I think every 

 farmer who wishes to be a successful breeder ought 

 to endeavour to make himself thoroughly acquainted 

 with those laws, and let the management of his flock 

 be in accordance therewith; then will he escape 

 many of those heavy losses we often hear of during 

 the lambing season, which some people say cannot 

 be accounted for, and put down to "bad luck," from 

 which assertion I very much differ. I do not believe 

 it is mere chance or bad luck. You may depend on 

 it, gentlemen, there must have been a predisposing 

 and existing cause, for 10 or 15 per cent, of a flock 

 of ewes to bring forth dead or unhealthy lambs, 

 what some people term water-bellied, and that soon 

 die. It is often existing in the ewe long before it 

 is thought of by many, and at other times only a few 

 days before it makes its appearance, according to 

 the nature of the circumstances. This I will pre- 

 sently endeavour to explain to you, in the order in 

 which I have found the different causes come to my 

 knowledge ; and I trust you will excuse me if I dif- 

 fer from many of you as to the production of some 

 of those causes. I have before now met with many 

 casualties, which people term bad luck, but I have 

 for many years past come to the conclusion that it 

 was not so, but that it was my mismanagement, 

 although I was not aware of it at the time ; and I 

 have been for many years past able to account for 

 every great loss which I sustained, though after it 

 was too late for me to remedy it for that season. 

 But I have found this cause of slip-lamb to which I 

 allude, to have been produced in a very different way 

 from what I have ever before heard it accounted for 

 by any flockmaster; therefore I shall not hesitate to 

 give you the result of my investigations. The one 

 which I now jjarticularly allude to is caused by too 

 high keeping, which raises the blood too high ; this 

 I mean to explain in the latter part of my subject 

 thi'5 evening. The causes of slip-lamb to me are 

 now easy to account for in my own flock, but hard 

 to remedy, unless I were always witli the ewes my- 

 self. A ewe flock ought to be thoroughly well- 

 watched in their treatment after they are nearly 

 half gone with lamb. Another cause of slip-lamb 

 is the ewes being chilled, or the lamb being chilled 

 in the ewe from exposure to wet. And a third cause 



