102 FITTING SHEEP FOR SHOW RING AND MARKET. 



Where one method fails to bring about the desired friend- 

 ship between a ewe and lamb, others should be tried. Some- 

 times where one method fails another succeeds. 



How to Suckle a Lamb. 



A healthy, vigorous lamb loses no time in hunting the 

 fountain of sustenance that Nature has provided for it, but 

 for various reasons young lambs do not, sometimes, readily 

 take to the teat, many even absolutely refusing it. This is 

 often taken for stubbornness on the part of the lamb by the 

 young shepherd, when in reality it is nothing more ojr less 

 than Nature dictating to it what is good, and what is not 

 good for its constitution. The real trouble lies in the fact 

 that its stomach is already full and to force it, under the 

 existing circumstances, to take milk or any other food into 

 this already over-loaded organ means death to it. Then, 

 again, in the endeavor to force its mouth open the lips are 

 liable to become so sore that the lamb fears to take the teat 

 at all. When a strong, robust, new-born lamb refuses to 

 suck it should be left alone for a while. Its appetite will 

 soon come, and it will then willingly partake of the neces- 

 sary nourishment. 



When a lamb is anxious to take the teat but for some rea- 

 son appears unable to take or hold it in' its mo'uth, exam- 

 ination will usually reveal the fact that the tongue is too 

 thick, or in other words, it is deformed. I have never yet 

 succeeded in saving a lamb thus afflicted, and further. I do 

 not think the time spent in trying to save such as these 

 is profitably spent any way. If, as often is the case, it is 

 difficult to get a weakly lamb to take hold of the teat, the 



