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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



it was too large for a lamb not begun to wool — it 

 was quite as large as it ought to be with a full- 

 grown lamb up to its proper time ; and the fleshy 

 knots which were on it were swollen beyond their 

 natural size; and also the navel of the lamb was 

 much too large. From the general appearance it 

 immediately occurred to my mind that the ewe's 

 blood had been raised too high, as I also saw that a 

 considerable quantity came from the one which had 

 justslipped herlamb — more thanought to havebeen. 

 I then went and got my shepherd, a man of con- 

 siderable experience, who agreed in my opinion. I 

 thereupon opened the lamb, as I saw it looked too 

 large in the belly, and I found it to be full of loose 

 blood : I think quite half a pint at least of just such as 

 you would take from the veins of any animal, which 

 fully corroborated my former opinion. Although 

 I had taken them away from the swedes, I still had 

 one or two cases almost every day for some time, 

 and I still continued to open them, and found them 

 about the same as the first I had opened — full of 

 blood for a week or two, but after that the blood in 

 the belly began to turn to a greenish kind of water. 

 I still continued to examine the lambs in their dif- 

 ferent stages as slipped, until the ewes' time was out. 

 By that time I had about 40 slipped out of 260. I 

 then began to hope the dead lambs were all gone, 

 but I was much disappointed, for many of the ewes 

 which went to their full time brought dead or un- 

 healthy, water-bellied lambs. Many of the ewes 

 had twins ; and sometimes one appeared to have 

 been dead for days, and the other alive, but very 

 weakly, and would soon die. Although some of 

 the ewes carried their lambs to the full, I am per- 

 fectly satisfied the whole of the mischief was done 

 at the same time— it was whilst at the swedes. 

 Besides the loss of lambs a great many of the ewes 

 had about double the proper quantity of water in 

 them, of a nasty greenish unhealthy kind, the same 

 description as the blood had turned to in the lambs 

 which I had before opened. It caused these ewes 

 which were so affected to get so poor that they had 

 no milk to keep their lambs, and some died. I am 

 fully satisfied this was produced from blood which 

 had escaped from the valves in the womb, which 

 contains the knobs which you see on the ewe's 

 cleaning. This originated in the early part of the 

 disease, when the blood was too high, as I had par- 

 ticularly noticed at the commencement the great 

 quantity which flowed from the first ewes which 

 cast their lambs. Having had one or two similar 

 misfortunes within a few years previous, when I 

 came to look back as to how I had kept my young 

 age of ewes in those years, I found that every cir- 



cumstance was exactly similar in keep, and that 

 the ewes were in very high condition, which tended 

 to corroborate in my mind every opinion wliich I 

 had formed on the subject. I have found my two- 

 tooth ewes more liable to the causes of which I 

 have just been speaking than the other two ages ; 

 therefore I have abandoned the system of keeping 

 my two-tooth ewes very high at that particular 

 season ever since ; and from that time until now I 

 have not had anything to complain of, of that kind. 

 I have had occasionally now and then a ewe or two 

 slip their lambs from some cause which I could not 

 discover, but that is what I term casualties — some 

 from frights of dogs and trifling other causes 

 which a farmer has no control over. I think the 

 great secret is to know how to keep your sheep 

 well enough to get them good, and not in too high 

 condition to cause such great losses as I have been 

 just describing. "When I keep my ewes on a full 

 feed of turnips, or anything else which is highly 

 nutritious, and I find they seem to prove too fast 

 about that particular time of which I have spoken, 

 I now make a point to check them. I do not mean 

 to say that I shall never again be caught in the 

 same snare as heretofore, as I beheve I have been 

 very near it once or twice lately, and I find it a 

 great diflficulty to determine when to check them. 

 Nothing but the master's eye will determine, as the 

 shepherd who is with them so much can seldom 

 see the difference in proper time, as I have often 

 found them wrong in their opinion as to the prov- 

 ing of sheep. I once had a good shepherd who 

 thought his sheep were doing well, when they had 

 lost 9lbs. a sheep in a fortnight. There is one 

 more cause for ewes having dead lambs, which I 

 have not yet mentioned, and to which I must claim 

 your attention for a few minutes. When the lambs 

 get large in the ewes eating turnips, they some- 

 times are filled with too much gas, which often fills 

 the lamb with wind, and causes its death near to 

 lambing, more particularly so when the ewes 

 have twins in them. In some seasons I do not 

 find the turnips so gassy as in others ; but when 

 you find the ewes seem to blow much with turnips 

 or swedes, they should be pulled up a week or fort- 

 night before eaten ; and it is a good plan for the 

 forward ewes to be turned back when you think 

 they have eaten sufficient, and be shut out of the 

 fresh pitch for an hour or two before they are let in 

 again. These three causes on which I have spoken 

 are the whole that have come to my knowledge 

 during my experience, and by which I have been 

 several times affected. I have spoken on this sub- 

 ject at greater length than I intended when I began. 



