2o6 Journal of Agriculture. [8 April, 1908. 



fingers. If the cut is high up it is much harder to get it. The incision 

 must not be too large ; where the cut is made will be through double skin, 

 and half-an-inch through this double skin will mean an inch opening, wihich 

 is often too large. Cut both openings right away — no need to change 

 hands — the stone will be found close to the opening, and will come out 

 easily, and need no straining. Hold it with the thumb and fore-finger, 

 and, if it is an old lamb, take the stone out of the casing, and leave this 

 part in also. If young, say, under six weeks, take the testicle off with a 

 half-rubbing, half-cutting action, and leave in all the cord possible. Use 

 a clean knife ; a little Lysol is always handy for many things in sheep 

 work. 



Tailing. — Searing the tails has come into favour greatly, and rightly 

 so. The bulk of our lamb-marking is done in the cold months, 

 and searing has been proved beyond doubt to be better than 

 the old style. It should not be practised in warm weather, 

 as flies are attracted thereby. The maggots get in under the scab 

 and cause a lot of trouble and subsequent watching to get rid of them, 

 in the case of sheep, with long tails, left over a year, searing the 

 veins, after taking the tail off, is a very old custom. From this custom 

 the idea came to careful .stud sheep men to have, at lamb-marking time, 

 in a fire close by, some pieces of thick fencing wire about sixteen inches 

 long (the old No. 6 wire that came into the country in early days). With 

 these they would touch the veins after the tail was taken off, the object 

 being to save loss of blood. Very often these breeders were exhibitors of 

 sheep, and had been feeding their ewes and lambs liberally on fodder 

 crops, as many of our lamb-raisers do now. They found that their lambs, 

 especially on a fairly warm day, bled freely, and often showed the effects 

 of it for a fortnight or three weeks afterwards. A keen exhibitor regrets 

 this loss of time, as it means loss of growth and early development. 



From the practice mentioned the searing iron was evolved. The idea 

 was to do the operation with one instrument, and for the purpose, a sear- 

 ing iron, used in the old style of colt castration, was used. It stopped 

 the blood, but unless a joint was struck it was hard to get through. A 

 few lambs were treated by this method, and then a number one horse- 

 brand was thought of. This was used and worked well ; the handle 

 being upright, more weight could be brought on the tail. It was found 

 that, although a man could always strike the joint with the knife, he 

 needed to re-learn his work to get the joint with the iron ; but no ill after- 

 effects were noticed where the joint was not struck. With stud sheep it 

 is the custom, in order to leave a private mark, to draw the knife across 

 the tail, near the body, before taking it off. Under the new style of 

 tailing, this advantage was thought to be lost, but the iron was found to do 

 as well by touching the skin before taking the tail off. In Longwools a 

 variety of marks can be made, on the inside of the thigh, and in a very 

 little time. 



The branding iron was ju.st about the bluntness of the back of an 

 ordinary knife. It was thought that it should be sharper, but it was found, 

 that if it were put through with a jerk, as is done wdth the knife, that it 

 cut through too quickly, and did not sear the veins, which are met with 

 just after going through the skin. A rather blunt one was then adopted, 

 as it allowed an instant or two to sear. After a while it was found that 

 the action of the fire kept the iron at just about the right degree of blunt- 

 ness. This class of iron was in use a year or two, and worked well 

 enough, but it was recognised that heavier irons would hold tlie heat 



