FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES 253 



their constant portion. They are miserably thin and 

 weak and were ill-bred at the beginning. Their one 

 redeeming feature is that they weigh little and will 

 be sold for a very small price per pound. Shall we 

 venture to buy them? That also depends upon the 

 furnishings at home. Many of them may die before 

 they gain enough strength to enable them to go on 

 and gain. They will require a long feeding period. 

 But when they are fat they will sell for nearly as 

 much as the best-bred lambs in the market. There 

 is that peculiar side to the lamb trade: the light 

 lambs of part Mexican type when rightly fed sell 

 well. So if we have the feed, the kindness and com- 

 forts at home, we may venture to take even these 

 weaklings. But let us beware of them if we propose 

 to " rough them" or try to hasten them along by a 

 short period of heavy feeding. 



Here is yet another opportunity. In these small- 

 er pens are a lot of thin natives, from some near- 

 by state. They are big enough, but their lack-luster 

 eyes and sunken wool and general air of discourage- 

 ment speak surely of an internal revenue depart- 

 ment held under the rule of predatory parasite 

 worms. If these lambs had been in health they 

 would have been fat in nine cases out of ten, and 

 the killers would have taken them in. Avoid them 

 unless you understand treating them and eradicat- 

 ing the worms. Thin western lambs do not often 

 have these parasites because on their drier ranges 

 the diseases do not lodge nor spread. And yet 

 lambs from some of the more eastern ranges, in the 



