668 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



sheep and change its nature to conform with its changed circum- 

 stances. It is easily done, but it must be done as it is required. 



The growth of the foot, being downward, the overgrowth must turn 

 under the foot, for the horn will naturally follow the line of its growth. 

 Then there is formed at once a receptable for all sorts of rubbish and 

 soft stuff, especially the manure of a shed, in which the sheep are con- 

 fined. This stuff is the worst possible for the place. It is soft and 

 soon ferments, thus softening the sole of the foot and the turned under 

 horn of the sides, and inevitable lameness follows in a few days. The 

 careless shepherd, or one not knowing the condition of the feet above 

 described, sees nothing wrong, and so these conditions become worse 

 day by day, until the sheep goes about on its knees, praying for help 

 from its keeper. 



It is useless to talk of treatment for a cure. The condition is to be 

 prevented by the simple remedy of clipping the growth horn on the sides 

 of the feet with a pair of shears or scissors, or a sharp knife, and by 

 destroying the unnatural conditions, restoring the natural ones. All 

 that is to be done is so simple that no directions are needed. Preven- 

 tion, as in all other cases, is the very best cure. 



THE WATER SUPPLY. 



An owner of a flock was once heard to boast that his sheep never 

 had a drop of water the whole winter, and did very well by eating 

 snow. Doubtless it might be true, for, a sheep is a long-suffering animal, 

 and will worry through a good deal of neglect and ill usage. This is 

 due to its natural hardiness; for by nature it was a mountain animal, 

 as is its relative, the present existing Rocky Mountain wild sheep. Thus 

 some flocks, kept on farms, to-day manage to pull through a good deal 

 of hardship and neglect, and it is an easy matter to find flocks which 

 have lived a through all winter, several of them in fact, without anj 

 water at all in a liquid form, eating snow to quench their thirst. This, 

 however, will be hard on the pregnant ewes, whose as yet unborn lambs 

 very visibly kick against this kind of coolness on the part of their 

 dams, and neglect on the part of their owners. 



Sheep should be watered twice a day through the winter, once in the 

 morning after eating, and again in the afternoon, and the water should 

 be drawn fresh from a well. The-troughs should always be turned 

 over to empty, and be left so for the night, so that they will never get 

 filled with snow. They are best made V-shaped, so that the last drop 

 of water may be soooped up by the sheep, and when turned over in the 

 evening will never be filled with snow. Sheep do not like to put their 

 noses in ice cold water, and thus a flat shallow trough a foot wide, 

 raised two feet by spreading legs will make the best shape for use, and 

 for the comfort and convenience of the flock. And the water for them 

 should always be given freshly pumped. 



