54 FITTING SHEEP 



breeds where care has been duly exercised in keeping them 

 clean. 



Dipping. 



Dipping should be resorted to, even only as a precaution 

 against disease that may be lurking around the cars on 

 which our sheep are transported from show to show. Us- 

 ually ticks do not bother very fat sheep. Dipping should be 

 attended to not later than six weeks previous to the opening 

 of the show season. With all the good that attends ulti- 

 mately the dipping of our animals it must be admitted that 

 dipping does detract from the beauty of the fleece for some 

 little time after the operation, has been performed. 



Coloring. 



It is asserted by many authorities that the real object of 

 coloring show sheep is hidden in obscurity. In "Culley on 

 Live Stock," we glean that: "The practice of rubbing into 

 the wool red or yellow ochre in the month of September was 

 intended to qualify the perspiration which would otherwise 

 give an asperity to the wool, and to form a coat inpenetrable 

 to rain or cold. This cannot apply to the use of coloring 

 among our show flocks of today. Just why show sheep are 

 colored great diversity of opinion exists even in the present 

 day. One authority claims that when first adopted in the 

 preparation of show stock it was used with the intention of 

 being a guide to the judge in knowing whose sheep he was 

 passing judgment upon; whilst others claim it was first in- 

 troduced into England by Spanish shepherds, but for what 

 purpose they do not say. Coloring is condemned by many 



