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winter and fattened and sold before June are safe but the late lambs 

 that must run with their mothers on grass are apt to become affect- 

 ed. The symptoms are a general lack of thrift, a sunken condition 

 of the fleece, a paleness of the skin, the eating of earth and rotten 

 wood, a slight cough, sometimes scours, at other times constipation, 

 emaciation and often death. 



One should never see a lamb die on his place without dissect- 

 ing it to learn the cause. If it is stomach-worms they may be easi- 

 ly found in the small fourth stomach, the place where the intestines 

 begin. Stomach-worms are small, hair-like worms, about three- 

 fourths of an inch long, twisted in the middle, from which they take 

 their name, Strongylus Contortus. They may be present in sheep 

 having apparent good health, they may even in small numbers dis- 

 tress the lambs, they may be found in immense multitudes, block- 

 ing the intestinal canal. They seem to greatly disturb the digestion 

 and assimilation and no lamb will thrive with these pests within 

 him. 



The infection is nearly always from the grass or from stagnant 

 water fouled by sheep's excrements. The ewes are apt to be 

 slightly affected, the worms discharge immense numbers of eggs, 

 perhaps at all seasons, certainly in spring and summer. The imma- 

 ture worms in some way cling to the grass and are taken in by the 

 lambs when grazing. In some mysterious way nature aids the old- 

 er and stronger sheep to throw off most of these pests, while the 

 smaller and weaker lambs become affected very easily. The lesson 

 is that all small, grassy yards, where sheep love to He and where 

 the grass is thick and tender, are unsafe, almost surely fatal to the 

 lambs. Unfortunately the short, sweet grasses, such as Kentucky 

 blue-grass and white clover are the very worst and most dangerous 

 from the point of infection, as the sheep bite them so close. Red 

 clover, alfalfa, orchard grass, bromus-inermis, timothy, oats and 

 barley and rape, are all bitten higher up and there is much less risk 

 of infection. Also in soiling sheep there is hardly any danger if the 

 racks are not soiled by the sheep's excrements. On Woodland 

 Farm there has been a notable decrease, almost a disappearance of 

 this pest since alfalfa pasture has been the main reliance. It is also 

 a good plan to let the sheep shade in the barn, as than their drop- 



