.HANDLING SHEEP ON THE RANGE 151 



sorts of devices are used for this purpose. If a ewe re- 

 fuses to own the little one the herder takes it up in his 

 arms and carries it to the main corral or pens. There 

 very small pens just large enough for one ewe have been 

 built, and in these the ewe and little one are placed. 

 Sometimes a small pit or hole is dug into which the 

 ewe and lamb are put and an old sheepskin or gunny sack 

 placed over it. In the darkness the lamb will probably 

 find what is necessary to satisfy its hunger and in a few 

 hours they can be taken out and turned with the band. 

 As fast as the ewes claim their lambs and seem to be 

 content they are pushed carefully together^nd thrown 

 into a small band, called the "wet band," but for some 

 days they are handled very tenderly and moved as little 

 as possible. 



Sometimes the mother dies and there is an orphan 

 left on the herder's hands. If he has some old sedate 

 ewe he probably coaxes her to take the orphan in addi- 

 tion to her own. Again a ewe with twins will not be 

 giving milk enough for both. If a herder is looking after 

 his band he will have one eye on some ewe whose lamb 

 has died. By means of the dark pit or the small pen he 

 will force her to mother the weakling. Sometimes he 

 will skin the dead lamb and fasten its hide to the twin, 

 and the ewe, knowing her lamb wholly by the sense of 

 smell, noses the dead one's hide and accepts the stray 

 without further ado. Where cows' milk is available 

 many an orphan lamb is raised on the bottle or by other 

 artificial means. Metal barrels supplied with a line of 

 nipples set around the outside are rilled with milk and 

 the lambs taught to go) to it for food, which they 

 readily do. 



Marking, Castrating and Docking. This process is 



