190 DOMESTIC ANDktALS. 



of tetanus, or loclved-jaw. The village operator pretends to tell when 

 this will or will not supervene. The usual struggles of the animal, or 

 the usual expressions of pain, he does not regard ; but when, as he is 

 gnawing the cord asunder with his teeth, he feels a deep and universal 

 shudder of the animal, he says at once that that lamb will die. He is 

 often right about this, and when he is, it can be easily explained. By 

 the fearful torture he has intlicted, he has caused a shock of the whole 

 of the nervous system, from which the poor sufferer can never perfectly 

 recover. 



Occasionally, when the lamb that was selected as a breeder does not 

 turn out well, it is necessary, in order to fatten him and to make his 

 flesh salable, to castrate him. There are various ways of performing 

 this operation on tlie young or fully adult sheep. Some proceed pre- 

 cisely as with the horse. An incision is made into the scrotum; the 

 testicle is forced out, the iron clamps are put on the cord, which is then 

 divided between the clamp and the testicle, and the cautery is had re- 

 course to in order to sear the part and prevent bleeding. This opera- 

 tion usually succeeds well, but it is not every operator on sheep that has 

 the clamps or the tiring-iron. 



The preferable way of operating is, to tie a waxed cord as tightly as 

 possible round the scrotum above, and quite clear of the testicles. The 

 circulation will here also be completely stopped, and usually in two or 

 three days the scrotum and the testicles will drop off. Accidents have 

 occurred, but which are attributable to the operator; he has included 

 a portion of the testicle in the ligature, and thus laid the foundation for 

 very great and fatal inflammation ; or he has used too large a cord, and 

 which could not be drawn sufficiently tight; or the knot has slackened 

 and the ligature has pressed sufficiently to produce excessive inflamma- 

 tion and torture, but not completely to cut off the supply of blood. 

 Care being taken in the application of the cord to the exact part, and 

 the tightening of the ligature, the animal seems scarcely to suftVr any 

 pain ; indeed, the nerves are evidently deadened by the compression of 

 the cord, and no accident occurs. 



Docking. — There is much variety of opinion among sheep- masters as 

 to the time when this operation should be performed. Some, like Mr. 

 Parkinson, think that it should be done within a very few days after 

 the birth ; the ewes on the first, second, or third day, and the male 

 lambs when they are castrated. The author of the "Complete Gra- 

 zier" would defer it until the lambs are three or four months old. This 

 must depend on the state of the weather, and the health of the animals. 

 No one should dock his lambs when the weather is very cold, because 

 the bushy tail's of the animals afford a great deal of warmth. On this 

 account, in particularly exposed situations, it is deferred until the warm 

 weather sets thorouglily in, and by some, and particularly with their 

 ewes, not practiced at all. The tail certainly aflfords both protection 

 and warmth to the udder, and likewise defense against the dreadful 

 annoyance of the flics in hot weather; but, on the other hand, it per- 

 mits the accumulation of a great deal of filth, and, if the lamb or the 

 sheep should labor under diarrhoea, and the shepherd should be some- 

 what negligent, the tail may cling to the haunches, and that so closely 



