278 FARM ANIMALS 



the cut surface may then be treated with a proper 

 antiseptic and the lamb watched to guard against 

 inflammation or irritation by flies. On the west- 

 ern sheep ranch, however, such a process would 

 occupy altogether too much time. The ordinary 

 foreman of a sheep ranch is capable of docking 

 the tails of about two thousand lambs and cas- 

 trating the ram lambs, which average one-half 

 of them, in the space of two and one-half to three 

 hours, whereas, by the process of using a hot 

 pinching instrument the same number of lambs 

 would require several days work. The ordinary 

 practice on the western ranches is to have several 

 men catch the lambs and place them before the 

 operator in the proper position. The tail is cut off 

 by one stroke of a sharp knife and the ram lambs 

 castrated without any attempt to use antiseptics 

 or other precautions to prevent accidents. As a 

 matter of fact the loss as a result of this process 

 is very slight and need hardly be consideredf. 



Shearing. On small farms where only a few 

 sheep are maintained shearing does not consti- 

 tute a serious proposition and the time occupied 

 in shearing each sheep is naturally much longer 

 than is the case on a large ranch. The common 

 practice is to tie the legs and place the sheep on 

 a table or in a trough in order to assist the operator 

 in holding the sheep. As a rule, the old-fashioned 

 sheep shears are still used although hand machine 

 clippers are gradually being introduced and are 

 favorably reported on by a considerable percentage 

 of those who have tried them. On the western 

 sheep ranges the shearing is done by men who 

 follow this business as a profession and work at 

 it the year round. These men shear in Australia 

 and Argentine Republic during our winter season 



