SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 319 



DOt sunk so deeply in the short wool, will wear out during our winters — 

 but no man thinks of letting his sheep into pastures containing it, before 

 shearing in the spring. Indeed, sheep should be kept on the cleanest pas- 

 tures — those free fi'om these and all similar plants — during this period ; 

 and, in a region where they are pastured the year round, if such pests are 

 not eradicated — which /should consider indispensable — the sheep should 

 be kept from contact with them for some months prior to shearing. 



Lambixg. — Lambs are usually dropped, in the North, from the first to 

 the fifteenth of May. In the South, they might safely come earlier. It is 

 not expedient to have them dropped Avhen the weather is cold and boister- 

 ous, as they require too much care ; but the sooner the better, after the 

 weather has become mild, and the herbage has started sufficiently to give 

 the ewes that green food which is required to produce a plentiful secretion 

 of milk. It is customary in the North to have fields of clover, or the eai-li- 

 est grasses, reserved for the early spring feed of the breeding ewes; and, 

 if these can be contiguous to their shelters, it is a great convenience — for 

 the ewes should be confined in the latter, on cold and stormy nights, during 

 the lambing season. 



If warm and pleasant, and the nights are warmish, I prefer to have the 

 lambing take place in the pastures. I think sheep are more disposed to 

 own and take kindly to their lambs thus, than in the confusion of a small 

 inclosure. Unless particularly docile, sheep in a small inclosure crowd, 

 from one side to another when any one enters, running over young lambs, 

 pressing them severely, &c. Ewes get separated from their lambs, and 

 then run violently round from one to another, jostling and knocking them 

 about. Young and timid ewes get separated from their lambs, and fre- 

 quently will neglect them for an hour or more before they will again ap- 

 proach them. If the weather is severely cold, the lamb, if it has never 

 sucked, stands a chance to perish. Lambs, too, when just dropped, in a 

 dirty inclosure, in their first efforts to rise, tumble about, and the mem- 

 brane which adheres to them becomes smeared with dirt and dung — and. 

 the ewe refuses to lick them dry, which much increases the hazard of 

 freezing. 



Nevertheless, all this must be incurred in cold storms, and in sudden 

 and severe weather ; and, therefore, it should be the effort of every shep- 

 herd to teach his sheep docility. I have seen the late Mr. Grove walk 

 about a barn filled with his Saxons, not only without their crowding from 

 side to side, but many of them absolutely lying still while he stepped over 

 them ! I say it " must be incurred." I mean by this that it is the safest 

 course with all breeds, and a matter of necessitij with others. It takes but 

 a very moderately cold night to destroy the new-boi'n Saxon lamb, which 

 (the pure blood) is yeaned nearly as naked as a child ! During a severely 

 cold period, of several days' continuance, it is almost impossible to rear 

 them, even in the best shelter. The Merino, South-Down, and some other 

 breeds, will endure a greater degree of cold with impunity. 



Inclosures, when used for yeaning, should be kept clean by frequent lit- 

 lerings of straw — not enough, however, thrown on at one time, to embar- 

 rass the lamb about rising. 



The ewe does not often i-equirc mechanical assistance in parturition. — 

 Her labors will sometimes be prolonged for three or four hours, and her 

 loud meanings will evince the extent of her pain. Sometimes she will go 

 about several hours, and even resume her grazing, with the fore-feet and 

 nose of the lamb showing at the mouth of the vagina. But, if let alone, 

 Nature will generally finally relieve her. Tiiis might not do with the 



(G39) 



