1018 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Merino ewes are rather proverbial for stricture of the womb, 

 and for false presentations. A healthy ewe may without injury 

 be left to herself twelve hours from the time she first goes apart 

 from the flock and gives evidence of approaching labor, but it is 

 best to make an examination sooner. A man is not fit for a 

 shepherd if he is squeamish ; he must address himself to these 

 disagreeable duties with a sympathetic human interest. If there 

 is stricture, or the womb is grown up, an aperture may some- 

 times be fretted with the finger-nail ; otherwise, a small knife- 

 blade should be pressed close against the forefinger, the point 

 not projecting beyond the end of the finger, which thus guides 

 it in carefully, making a puncture large enough for itself, after 

 which the knife should be used no longer. A false presentation 

 need not necessarily be corrected, and frequently can not be, by 

 a man's large hand. If the head is doubled back, or the side is 

 presented, delivery can not be accomplished. But one or both 

 of the fore-legs may be doubled back and delivery yet take place 

 safely, if assistance is rendered. The English books recommend 

 many different stimulants for a ewe in protracted labor, but none 

 of them is to be compared with a little mechanical assistance, 

 judiciously rendered. After a ewe has been two hours in actual 

 labor-pains she ought to be relieved ; it is cruelty to leave her 

 longer. If the pulling is distributed evenly between the two 

 legs and the head it may amount to fifteen or twenty pounds 

 without injury. 



As soon as the lamb has drawn a few breaths the umbilical 

 cord is severed, and the lamb is laid directly at the ewe's nose. 

 If she falls to licking it, all is well. If the pain of a tedious 

 parturition has rendered her insensible to the claims of natural 

 affection, she will have to be confined with it in a very small 

 pen. There, if she has a good supply of milk, she will proba- 

 bly own it in a few hours ; but if she is destitute of milk there 

 will be trouble. A Merino ewe had better have her first lamb 

 on grass. There is nothing else on earth equal to it for making 

 a flow of milk, and the consequent flow of natural affection. 



If it is possible to save the lamb's life without carrying it 

 into the house it ought to be done; the ewe is apt to disown it 



