156 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



During the breeding season the bucks are worked in 

 relays, one lot being turned in with the ewes while the 

 other is kept in a pen and fed corn and sometimes hay 

 to keep them in the best of condition. 



Shipping the Sheep. Sheep are shipped in double- 

 decked cars and require great attention from the ship- 

 pers during the time they are on the cars. The main 

 thing to be watched is smothering when they are 

 crowded into one end of the deck by the sudden move- 

 ment of the train. 



Sheep are undoubtedly the least intelligent of all 

 domestic animals. For this reason the work of loading a 

 train of sheep is frequently a "very tedious operation. 

 At most of the large shipping points where many sheep 

 are handled trained goats are kept for loading sheep. 

 The goat gravely walks to the entrance of the chute 

 and at the command of the shipper starts slowly up 

 the chute to the car door. The foolish sheep follow him 

 and, once inside, the goat hurries around the side of the 

 car and coming to the door stands there while the 

 sheep pour in a stream after something, they know 

 not what. When the load is all in, the man calls the 

 goat and he slips out the door and down the chute to 

 reoeat the operation with the next load. 



Sheep are subject to the same laws for unloading and 

 feeding as are cattle, although there is grave doubt as to 

 the wisdom of the law. the frequent loading and un- 

 loading" beine more injurious to the stock than the 

 longf hours without feed and water. This is especially 

 true of lambs, which will not feed much on the road, 

 being- cut off from their mothers so recently that they 

 must be starved into trying other feed. 



Size of Bands. In handling sheep on the ranges they 



