254 PRAIRIE MANAGEMENT IIEUDING, ETC. 



else the ewes having the older lambs ought to be frequently 

 taken out and put by themselves. In other respects, the 

 general management should substantially comport with that 

 practiced in the Eastern States. 



HERDING. From the period of lambing to that of 

 washing and shearing, there are no peculiarities in prairie 

 management except in herding. The great art of doing this 

 well, is to get out the sheep as soon as it is light in the 

 morning ; to conduct them to the best pasturage ; to follow 

 them about patiently, never losing sight of them, and allowing 

 them to spread as far as is prudent over the face of the 

 prairie ; to avoid all unnecessary dogging ; to avoid huddling 

 them together with the dogs to enable the shepherd to take a 

 siesta or attend to something else ; to keep them out until 

 there is barely enough time to fold them before dark ; and, 

 finally, to fold them at night carefully, gently and securely. 



WASHING. Some prairie flocks are necessarily driven 

 from five to ten miles to reach running streams or "branches," 

 as they are termed in the West, in which they can be 

 conveniently washed ; and owing to the level surfaces of most 

 prairie regions, they generally have to be washed without any 

 dams, and frequently in quite sluggish water. But washing 

 is considered particularly necessary on account of the stained 

 condition of the wool. The wild grasses on prairies grow up 

 in separate stools or tufts, and do not sod over the ground 

 like domestic grasses. Consequently the hoofs of the sheep 

 detach the dirt in hot, dry weather, and it adheres to the 

 wool as they lie down on it, or as it rises in clouds of dust 

 under their feet. The sheep are usually washed at intervals, 

 in parcels of 800 or 1,000 each, so they can all be sheared at 

 about the same periods after washing, before the wool again 

 becomes dirt -stained. 



SHEARING. Shearing is performed from a week to two 

 weeks after washing. It is, or at least ought to be, con- 

 ducted in the same general way as in the older States. The 

 present practice is to pay hands five cents a head for 

 shearing, and they shear from thirty to sixty sheep per day. 



STORING AND SELLING WOOL. Few prairie AVOO! growers 

 have yet constructed wool houses; and like growers every- 

 where else, most of them wish to obtain the avails of their 



