300 SUMMER MANAGEMENT 



diversified farming or livestock farming is practiced, this much rota- 

 tion is perhaps possible without involving too much expenditure in 

 fencing. The number of grazing places can be increased by the 

 use of temporary fencing if there is a field which is to be used by 

 sheep only. A fence three feet high and made of No. 11 wire serves 

 admirably for temporary use and with it the flock can be placed on 

 fresh grazing every few days. In this method of handling, shade 

 and water often have to be provided. Light, movable shades can be 

 made at moderate cost, and since sheep 'are not heavy consumers of 

 water, the problem of drink is seldom serious. 



Plowing the land and sowing to forage crops upon which sheep 

 can graze helps a great deal in keeping down infestation. For 

 example, a pasture in which there are many stomach worms may be 

 thoroughly plowed and sown to rye which will furnish pasture in 

 late autumn, through the winter, and in early spring. Then the 

 rye may be turned under and the land sown to rape, which will 

 furnish a great deal of green feed in summer and early autumn. 

 But there is danger of over-estimating the protection these growths 

 give against stomach worms. Evidently some have assumed that 

 the ensheathed larvse do not crawl up rape and rye stems and blades, 

 but they do. One of the worst infestations the writer has ever seen 

 in lambs came from grazing continuously on a small rape lot for 

 several weeks, and the veteran Shropshire breeder, George Allen, 

 states that he had a similar experience. In case animals are infested 

 when they go on such a growth, it is obvious that they will become 

 reinfested just as soon as the worm eggs they cast in their feces 

 hatch out, attain the ensheathed stage, and crawl up on the plants 

 upon which the sheep or lambs feed. Nevertheless the man who 

 uses forage crops rationally will have in his flock fewer stomach 

 worms than the man who depends on old permanent pastures. 



Keeping Host Animals Off Pastures. Is there a way of ridding 

 an old pasture of a bad infestation of stomach worms? There is. 

 It consists of keeping sheep and other animals which serve as host 

 to the worm entirely off the pasture for practically one year's time. 

 Stomach worms also infest cattle, goats, deer, American bison, etc., 

 and therefore none of these animals should graze on the pasture, but 

 horses and hogs could be allowed upon it. 



Drenches. Infestation of stomach worm can also be held in 

 check by drenching, and there are a number of proprietary remedies 



