lo Aug.. 1910.] Sheep Dippi)ig. 541 



better served by larger dips. More sheep can be put through per day, but 

 extremely large dips, 7 ft. in depth and in some cases with 60 ft. of a 

 swim, will never be built again. 



The small .sized dip similar to plan No. 6 on page 538 suits farmers, 

 with 200 to 1,500 sheep, when close to a supply of watei. Flocks of 1,500 

 to 5,000 can be served better by one a foot or 18 ins. deeper and 4 to 6 ft. 

 longer. One stoutly constructed and useful dip made to the order of Mr. 

 McCulloch. of Tooradin, works well. It is of stouter iron than shown in 

 plan, but it is without the " slide in " end. Xo. i (page 532) suits flocks 

 from 5,000 to 15,000 and upwards. 



Any dip built without a slide board and having a perpendicular end 

 over which the sheep are put in, causing them to fall suddenly, is very- 

 bad, especially for rams. 



What is known as the " walk in " principle has been much advocated 

 of late. It really means that the slide forms one end or side of the dip. 

 This plan is being followed in the latest stone or concrete dips. The slide 

 is built in, forming one end or part of the side and the sheep come in from 

 the ground level, not from 4 or 5 ft. above it. In the latter the sheep 

 have a fall of 4 to 5 ft., even when the bath is full, and 6 to 7 ft. when 

 the water is low. often falling one on the other. Some of these dips are 

 in use to-day, and when the last sheep are being put through there is a fall 

 of even 8 to 10 ft. Besides this, there is always a waste of at lea.st 1,500 

 gallons of wash. 



What concerns a sheep owner next to the size and shape of the bath 

 itself, is how to minimize the ill treatment necessary to get the sheep up 

 to the slide. In the latest method of constructing the slide board, as shown 

 in plan No. 7, this trouble is to a great extent done away with. This style 

 of approach slide and decoy pen is recommended, and can be seen at the 

 Inebriate Institution at Lara. 



In plan No. 6 the slide will be seen to be part of the dip itself and 

 is what is termed the "walk in" principle. The term sounds well, but 

 sheep never will be persuaded to walk in. Lambs go in readily in any 

 kind of approach and slide, so much so that there is danger of crowding 

 in the bath and drowning, and as a rule they have to be steadied — after 

 they have been in any kind of dip once they never forget it. and old ewes, 

 especially crossbreds, will not leave the furthest corner of the most distant 

 yard. The hardest work connected with sheep dipping is in getting the 

 aged sheep up to the slide board. The " slide in " end or side is neces- 

 sary to save injury and bruising and is in every way preferable to a per- 

 pendicular end. 



Small sized dips are less severe on sheep, and are easily cleaned out. 

 They should be built close to a good supply of water, not necessarily 

 fresh, for one of our prominent wool-growers near the coast uses sea water 

 successfully. 



Large wool-growers also now favour smaller dips for the same reasons. 

 Small dips allow of emptying out foul wash more often, for no matter 

 how carefully a dip may be constructed, with manure traps and cesspools, 

 the wash gets very foul. No filter has yet been a complete success ; the 

 greenish coating on the sheep droppings is washed off and only the larger 

 portions are collected in the cesspools. A filter to overcome this would 

 of necessity be far too slow. The sheep while draining on the battens 

 trample a good deal of manure into liquid. Even when yarded overnight, 

 which all sheep should be, manure is left on the drainer, but nothing 

 like the quantity if they are brought directly in from the pasture and 

 dipped. Whether the exertion in swimming, or the swallowing of the 



