THE UDDER. 125 



to go out of the flock at the comparatively early age of five or 

 six years. 



MOUTHING. 



One of the first preliminaries is to " mouth " the flock by 

 running them through a narrow passage between hurdles, and 

 examining each ewe as she passes. Broken-mouthed ewes 

 should not be kept unless for special reasons, but as long as a 

 sheep has a good set of teeth she may be depended upon. A 

 full-mouthed sheep is four years old. She is a two-tooth at 

 fourteen months ; a four-tooth at two years old ; a six-tooth at 

 three, and a full-mouthed sheep at four. At the usual time of 

 drafting she will, therefore, have the full set of eight incisor 

 teeth. At five years old her teeth may be a little wide, and at 

 six she may have lost her corners, or the central and middle 

 teeth may show signs of wear, and when this is the case it is 

 time that she went along. 



THE UDDER. 



Just as it is important that a breeding ewe should be able 

 to break her turnips and eat her hay, so is it of equal import- 

 ance that she should properly support her lambs, and hence a 

 healthy and perfect udder is of first-rate importance. Ewes 

 should be turned in order to see that they are sound in the 

 bag as well as on the tooth, and the inspection will probably 

 decide the question as to whether she is to be maintained 

 another season or to be sold off as a cull. 



The udder is variously affected. Sometimes a teat is 

 corded, that is, the canal through which the milk flows is 

 obliterated and one or both halves of the bag is rendered use- 

 less. In other cases the bag is found to be ruined by inflam- 

 mation and suppuration, and to be unfit for its natural 

 function. The ewes so affected are not fit to stand among a 

 hundred good cull ewes, and should be fattened off for the 

 butcher. 



