SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 529 



danger of infection is over. And all the lambs will weigh 125 pounds 

 before that time and sell for 6 or 7 cents per pound. You can not afford 

 to keep them longer and you will have the best looking, most even 

 flock you ever saw. And the ewes will feel fine as crickets. 



The difficulties? Two — water and shade. Water is easy. You can 

 haul it as they do in England in a round or square galvanized iron tank 

 and water in a trough. It does not take much water. Shade you will 

 have to manage for yourself. Meantime let me tell you that in the 

 San Joaquin Valley of California I saw some of the fattest sheep that I 

 ever saw, part of them Shropshires, that had no shade except their ears! 

 And that is a hot climate. We have too much shade and too little safe, 

 healthful grass in our land. There may be temporary sheds or movable 

 sheds or canvas shades, or no shade at all, or the sheep may come to 

 the barn basement for shade every day. Either plan will work I know. 

 How many ewes in this manner? I am not afraid to try 400. That is 

 about as many as I would care to put together on a farm in the cornbelt. 

 It may be that twice that number would do as well. But try it on that 

 100 that you now have. 



And the profit? Better than cattle, better than pigs; sheep shear 

 more. The range can not supply us any longer, it seems, with mutton. 

 The farms can not, under any other tried system. What to do with the 

 grass after the ewes have eaten it down and left it? In the fall let the 

 flock, without their lambs now, range over it again, or let colts or calves 

 follow. It is nonsense to say ewes poison grass. This past summer I 

 purposely had ewes gnaw to the ground some small horse lota. They 

 ate rank grass that horses had left. They were forced to it. After 

 the ewes were taken away the grass sprang up and the horses ate It 

 better than ever. 



What kinds of grass? What you have. We may learn better sorts, 

 but begin first to use rightly what you have. B'rome-grass, clover, alfalfa, 

 all are good in their place, and brome-grass may prove the best pasture 

 grass for us, but at present learn to use your bluegrass safely. And 

 what of this grass the second year? Dr. Ransom tells us that stomach- 

 worm germs will (some of them) live over winter. His laboratory work 

 shows that. However, not very many are being scattered from these 

 treated ewes. Then I have some striking evidence that here in central 

 Ohio these germs do not always live over. One year on a rich blue- 

 grass pasture nearly all of the lambs died. I never saw a worse infesta- 

 tion, nor did we treat any of them or their mothers. We did not know 

 how. Next year we dared not use this pasture at all. It was a rented 

 field. A neighbor rented it and used it, lambed on it, kept the ewes and 

 lambs all summer on it and had no evidence of damage from worms. 

 So I believe we are §afe to go ahead on these lines, to diminish as much 

 as possible the number of worms laying eggs, to prevent by frequent 

 change the re-entrance of worms into the ewes, to prevent any infection 

 at all of the lambs. I simply know it will work and the result will be 

 joy to the shepherd, health and beauty and profit to the flock. 



Now who will try this and try it intelligently and thoroughly? I 

 call for volunteers. 



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