SHEEP, SWINE, AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 421 



"wool, and you will not be troubled with ticks. After sheep are 

 sheared the ticks go to the lambs, and there is no excuse for not 

 exterminating them. If you do not, they will exterminate 

 your sheep. At shearing time the horns will often be found 

 growing towards the eye or cheek ; they should be cut back 

 with a small fine saw. Maggots penetrate into sores on sheep 

 and cause death. The tar, turpentine, and butter, applied to all 

 cuts made at shearing or to any wounds made afterwards, will 

 prevent this. Dung about the vent generates maggots and 

 should be removed, and the above application made. 



Educating Rams should be begun early. They should be 

 visited and handled until they are perfectly docile. Two grown 

 rams should never be allowed to run together. A choice ram 

 can be mated with a couple of wethers in a good inclosure, 

 from which there is no possibility of escape. They should be 

 taught to lead before they are six months old. A ring put 

 through the horn is by far the best method of securing rams. 

 Fences around sheep pastures should be sound but need not be 

 high, until the sheep learn to jump, when no ordinary fence 

 will keep them. If the fence is sound and tight, and they are 

 always taught to go under the bars instead of going over them, 

 there will be no trouble. But only teach one sheep that it can 

 jump over or crawl through, and you soon have a flock of 

 jumping sheep. 



Salt, Tar, Sulphur, Alum, etc., are often given sheep iu 

 their summer pastures, but none of these except salt can be 

 necessary for a healthy sheep. Salt they must have ; once a 

 week is often enough to give them a taste. If lumps of rock 

 salt are kept in their troughs they will lick them whenever 

 they feel the need. If salt is thrown upon weeds, thistles, 

 clumps of coarse .grass and bushes the sheep will eat them to 

 get the salt. "Water and shade are both beneficial in the 



