56 



The Journal of Heredity 



room to the troughs in the ordinary 

 way of feeding, besides having the great 

 advantage of knowing that each animal, 

 gets the same amount of feed placed in 

 front of it; also if necessary, you know 

 the exact amount each consumes, which 

 might also be significant for various 

 reasons. The individual feeding pens 

 occupy the center of the building; on 

 one end is a storeroom for feed, and on 

 the other end is the weighing room ; the 

 latter also is an enormous time-saving 

 device in comparison with the old 

 method of having a weighing machine 

 in every pasture enclosure. 



FLOCK WEIGHED DAILY. 



"A description of the daily handling 

 of this experimental flock of multi- 

 nippled sheep for a period of from ten 

 to twelve weeks every fall may, to 

 those who know the disposition of 

 sheep. give some idea of the disadvantage 

 this flock has in being disturbed at a 

 time of the year when they would 

 naturally be replenishing the lost energy 

 they had sustained during the period 

 of suckling their lambs. 



"The sheep arc collected from the 

 pasture daily and taken to the barn- 

 yard enclosures, and are driven into the 

 weighing room, — or rather, if allowed, 

 they rush — as after a day or two they 

 know the performance as intelligently 

 as their masters know it and become 

 very anxious to get to this end of the 

 building. The feed having already 

 been ]jut in the troughs of the difi"erent 

 stalls, a man oi)ens the door of the 

 weighing box, and the sheep enter one 

 at a time. 



"Their car marks, one, two, or three 



small ])unch holes, as the case may be, 

 located in different j^ositions in the ear, 

 each hole at a given jjlace, represent a 

 figure from one to eight, which may 

 also count twelve to eighteen or so on 

 up into the hundreds. This is Dr. 

 Bell's own invention of marking and 

 does away with the use of collars or 

 ear tags; and is also a sure means, to 

 those familiar with the markings, of 

 picking from large flocks any sheep that 

 might get astray. 



"The ear mark being called out, I 

 examine same as a check. The ear 

 mark number refers us to a different 

 number which represents their register 

 number. The shec]) is weighed, weight 

 recorded, and condition of wool or any 

 irregularities noted. The door of the 

 feeding stall being open in advance, a 

 man opens the door on the side of 

 weighing box and the sheep goes from 

 weighing box to stall, door is closed and 

 another opened, and by this time 

 another sheep is weighed ready for next 

 stall, where feed is consumed without 

 disturbance and all share alike. 



" It is very interesting to sec how they 

 keep their turns in going through the 

 weighing machine, as after a few days 

 the sheep that is weighed last, with few 

 exceptions, will remain the last daily 

 throughout the season; the whole per- 

 formance passing off like clock-work. 

 After coming from the feeding pens 

 they are then visited by the male sex 

 and any matings noted, which enables 

 us to have an accurate record of father 

 and mother, in every case. Besides, as 

 the lambs come mostly in the cold 

 month of IMarch, we know when to 

 look for them." 



METHOD OF IDENTIFYING THE SHEEP 



As the value of any exi^erimcntal 

 breeding with animals de])ends on an 

 exact record of the individuals being 

 kept, it becomes a matter of first im- 

 portance to have a permanent and 

 inalterable tag on each sheejx The 

 ordinary tag fastened in the ear is easily 

 torn out on wire fences, nor are collars 

 wholly .satisfactory. 



After some ex])erimenting. Dr. Bell 

 devised a method of ])unch-marks in 



the lobes of the ears, which has ])roved 

 quite satisfactory. Each kmb is 

 marked before it is weaned, the ear 

 being ])laeed on a l:)lock of wood and an 

 ordinary punch about one-fourth inch 

 in diameter, with a hammer, used. 

 The o])eration is all over before the 

 lamb knows what is going on, and 

 little ])ain is caused. 



Dr. Bell descril)e(l the o])eration. in 

 a letter to a friend in 1^)10, as follows: 



