MORTALITY AMONG EWES. 135 



case of "heaving" occurs, the shepherd should not handle 

 other ewes without careful disinfection, as, like milk-fever, the 

 malady is propagated by contagion. 



MORTALITY AMONG EWES. 



The mortality among ewes after lambing is, it must be 

 allowed, high, no one thinking that 5 per cent, of deaths is a 

 matter for serious complaint. Three deaths to the hundred 

 would, in most sheep districts, be considered as fairly good 

 luck, and a few deaths in a flock are almost inevitable. These 

 proportions are unquestionably high in comparison with the 

 proportion of losses among dairy cows, but it is doubtful if 

 they are to be reckoned as among our preventable losses. 

 Sheep are exposed to such acute changes of temperature and 

 of weather that the entire system of field management would 

 need to be revised in order to prevent " chills " from producing 

 their usual effects. In flocks which are proverbially " lucky " 

 at lambing time and there are such flocks in most localities 

 the immunity appears to be due to careful general manage- 

 ment throughout the year, and to a dry sound soil, rather than 

 to special skill on the part of the shepherd as to doctoring. 

 Seasons evidently affect mortality in a manner which cannot 

 be avoided, and in well-managed flocks, where the losses are 

 heavy, it is generally found that others are suffering in a 

 similar manner. On the other hand, there is, it would seem, 

 an element of capriciousness, bad luck sometimes following 

 good management, and bad luck suddenly giving place to a 

 better state of things, as though the cloud of evil fortune had 

 passed over. In sheep farming a bad beginning often is 

 followed by a good ending, and just as we have begun to fear 

 that things were going wrong altogether, the sun has seemed 

 to shine out upon us again. Without doubt these views are 

 unscientific, because there is always a cause, which it is our 

 duty to investigate. But, if unscientific, they are, we believe, 

 consistent with fact ; and until we know more of the treatment 



