CONSTIPATION OK COSTIVENESS. 149 



But, in emergency, any stimulus should be resorted to which 

 is not likely to be followed with directly injurious results. 

 One of the most skillful shepherds in the United States 

 administers strong tea in such cases in extreme ones, tea 

 laced with gin. 



All lambs which get an insufficient supply of milk from 

 their dams, or from other ewes, should regularly be fed cows' 

 milk from the sucking bottle two or three times a day, until 

 the amount given by the dam can be increased by better 

 keeping. They will learn to come for it as regularly as lambs 

 brought up entirely by hand. If the sheep are not yet let out 

 to grass, those deficient in milk should, with their lambs, be 

 separated from the flock and fed the choicest of hay and roots, 

 oatmeal, bran-slop or the like. Some persons partition off a 

 little place with slats which stop the sheep, but which allow 

 the free ingress and egress of the lambs ; and in this they put 

 a rack of hay for the lambs, and a trough into which is daily 

 sprinkled a little meal. The lambs soon learn to eat hay and 

 meal, and it benefits them as much in proportion as grown 

 sheep.* 



CONSTIPATION OB COSTIVENESS. Lambs fed on cows' 

 milk, or fed on any milk artificially, are quite subject to 

 constipation. The first milk of the mother, too, sometimes 

 produces this effect, f A lamb that gets strayed from its dam 

 for several hours and then surfeits itself on a full udder of 

 milk or one that is changed, after it is several days old, 

 from one ewe to another is subject to constipation. In all 

 these cases the evacuations cease, or they are hard and are 

 expelled with great difficulty. The lamb becomes dull, 

 drooping, disinclined to move about, and lies down most of 

 the time. Its belly or sides usually appear a little more 

 distended than usual. It becomes torpid sleeps most of the 



* Mr. Chamberlain's Silesian lambs, yeaned in early winter, are thus fed separately 

 all winter but they, according to the German custom, are caught out of the flock, 

 and confined in a separate place during most of each day. They eat at their racks and 

 troughs as regularly as the old sheep. This undoubtedly materially contributes to the 

 extraordinary size they obtain the flrst year. The poet Burns had a good idea of a 

 shepherd's duties! Among the "Dying words of Poor Mailie," to be borne to her 

 " Master dear," are the following, in respect to her " helpless lambs " left to his care : 

 " O bid him save their harmless lives 



Frae dogs, 'an tods, an' butchers' knives ! 



But gie them guid cow milk their fill, 



Till they be fit to fend themsel' ; 



An' tent them duly, e'en an' morn, 



Wi' teats o' hay an' rips o' corn." 



t While the ewes are in the yards and before they are let out to grass. After 

 being let out to grass, I think the milk of the mother very rarely produces this effect. 



