SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 177 



If a lamb becomes chilled, it sbould be wrapped up in a woolen blanket, 

 and placed in a warm room giving a little milk as soon as it will swal- 

 low. A trifle of pepper is sometimes placed in the milk, and 1 think with 

 good effect, to rouse the cold and torpid stomach into action. Some of the 

 Yankee old ladies, under such circumstances, " bake " the lamb, as it is 

 called i. e. t put it in a blanket in a moderately heated oven, until 

 warmth and animation are restored. Others immerse it in tepid water, 

 and subsequently rub it dry. This is said to be an excellent method 

 where the lamb is nearly frozen. I never have tried it. A good blanket, 

 a warm room, and sometimes, perhaps, a little gentle friction, have always 

 sufficed. 



If a strong ewe, with a good bag of milk, chances to lose her lamb, she 

 should be required to bring up one of some other ewe's pair of twins or 

 the lamb of some feeble or young ewe, having an inadequate supply of 

 milk. Her own lamb should be skinned, as soon as possible after death, 

 and the skin sowed over the lamb which she is required to foster. She 

 will sometimes be a little suspicious for a day or two, and if so, she should 

 be kept in a small pen with the lamb, being occasionally looked to. After 

 taking well to it, the false skin may be removed in three or four days. If 

 no lamb is placed on a ewe which has lost her lamb, and which has a 

 full bag of milk, the milk should be drawn from the bag once or twice, or 

 garget may ensue. If it does not, permanent indurations, or other re- 

 sults of inflammatory action will often take place, injuring the subsequent 

 nursing properties of the animal. When milked, it is well to wash the 

 bag for some time in cold water. It checks the subsequent secretions of 

 milk, as well as abates inflammation. Garget will be treated under the 

 nead of Diseases of Sheep. 



Sometimes a young^ ewe, though exhibiting sufficient fondness for he! 

 lamb, will not stand for it to suck ; and in this case, if the lamb is not very 

 strong and persevering, and especially if the weather is cold, it soon grows 

 weak and perishes. The conduct of the dam in such cases is occasioned 

 by inflammatory action abo^t the bag or teats and, perhaps somewhat by 

 the novelty of her position ! In this case the sheep should be caught and 

 held until the lamb has exhausted the bag, and there will not often be any 

 trouble afterward, though it may be well enough to keep them in a pen 

 together until the fact is determined. 



I have several times spoken of pens. They are necessary in the cases 1 

 have mentioned, and in a variety of others. It is therefore well for the 

 flock-master to be always provided with a few of them for emergencies. 

 They need not be to exceed eight or ten feet square, and should be built 

 of light materials, and fastened together at the corners, so they can be 

 readily moved by one, or, at the most, two men, from place to place, 

 where they are wanted. Their position should be daily shifted when 

 sheep are in them, for cleanliness and fresh feed. Light pine poles, laid 

 up fence fashion, and each nailed or pegged to the lower ones, at the cor- 

 ners, as laid on, would make excellent ones. Two or three sides of a few 

 of them should be wattled with twigs, and the tops partly covered to shel- 

 ter feeble lambs from cold rains, piercing winds, &c. 



Young lambs are subject to what is technically called " pinning," that 

 is, their first excrements are so adhesive and tenacious that the orifice of 

 the anus is closed, and subsequent evacuations prevented. The adhering 

 matter should be entirely removed, and the part rubbed with a little dry 

 clay to prevent subsequent adhesion. Lambs will frequently perish from 

 this cause if not looked to for the first few days. 



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