618 BREEDING SHEEP. 



selected. Castration is a simple and safe process: clip off the end 

 of the pouch, free the testicle from the enclosing membrane, and 

 draw it out or clip the cord with a knife if it does not snap at the 

 proper place. If the weather is very warm a little salt may be dropped 

 into the pouch. An ointment of tar, lard and turpentine may be ap- 

 plied and also to the stump of the docked tail, but they will generally 

 do as well without any application. Cut the tail off with a chisel 

 on a block, an inch and a half from the body, drawing up the skin 

 so that it will cover the stump after it is severed. It may occur to 

 some, unused to keeping sheep, that it is unnecessary to cut off the 

 tail. If left on it is apt to collect tilth, and if the sheep purges, to 

 become an intolerable nuisance. 



Rams The period of gestation in the ewe averages five 

 months. Merino rams are frequently used from the first to the 

 tenth year and even longer. The lambs of very old rams are not 

 supposed to be as vigorous as those of younger stock, but where 

 the rams have not been overtasked and have been properly fed, 

 there will be really very little difference. A ram lamb should not 

 be used, as it retards his growth, injures his form and impairs his 

 vigor and courage. A yearling may run with thirty ewes; a two- 

 year-old with forty to fifty, and a three-year-old with fifty to sixty, 

 rowerful, mature rams will serve seventy or eighty, but it is to 

 be remembered that an impoverished or overtasked animal does not 

 transmit his individual properties so decidedly to his offspring as 

 one in full vigor. It is bad husbandry to have several rams run- 

 ning in the same flock, as they excite each other to unnatural and 

 unnecessary activity, besides injuring each other by blows. Besides, 

 it is destructive of -careful and judicious breeding, as the nice 

 adaptation of the male to the female, to counteract defects by points 

 of excellence, which has been described and is necessary to the best 

 results, cannot be "accomplished when there are half a dozen or more 

 rams running promiscuously with two or three hundred ewes. 

 Before the rams are let out, the flockmaster should have all the 

 breeding ewes brought together into one yard, and an examination 

 should oe made of the points of different lots, which should be 

 marked so as to show by what ram they have been served, and then 

 placed in separate enclosures. The rams should be selected, with 

 the view to perpetuate the excellences of fleece and carcass of the 

 ewes, and to counterbalance defects. In four weeks time the rams 

 may be withdrawn and the flocks then arranged as desired for the 

 winter. Rams will do better, accomplish more, and last two 01 

 three years longer if daily fed with grain when in service, and it in 

 well to follow it, gradually decreasing the quantity, for a short time 

 after withdrawn from the ewes. A ram, when worked hard, should 

 receive from half to a pint of oats daily, or its equivalent. They 

 may be taken out of the flocks at night and shut up in a barn or 

 stable by themselves, with saving to their strength. Rams should 

 not be suffered to run with the ewes over a month, at least at the 



