THE LAMBING SEASON. 197 



of the sudden change from the warmth of the mother's womb to the 

 driving sleet, and the cold wet ground : he will not wonder that so 

 many of his lambs are palsied and starved to death. 



The lambs are not quite out of danger when a day or two has 

 passed after they have dropped. They live for the first week or fort- 

 night on the mother's milk, and then begin to imitate their parent 

 and graze a little ; indeed they have not their teeth up to enable them 

 to graze at first. They should not be put on too good pasture at this 

 early period, for the change of food is often dangerous. A lamb of a 

 fortnight old will often sicken suddenly, refuse the teat, cease to 

 rumiiiate, swell, heave, and die, in less than twenty-four hours. On 

 being examined, the stomach will sometimes be found enormously 

 diste^ided, at other times there will be little food in it, but there always 

 is a great deal of bile in the upper intestines, with inflammation there, 

 the e'\'ident cause of death, and produced by the change of food. Those 

 who die at this early period are often called gall-lambs, from the great 

 quantity of bile found in their intestines. When, at three or four 

 months old, the lamb is perfectly weaned, he is subject to a similar 

 complaint, and from a similar cause. The lamb should certainly have 

 better pasture when he is deprived of his mother's milk, but the 

 change should not be sudden and violent. 



Physic will evidently be required here, such as Epsom salts in 

 doses of half an ounce every second or third day; and if there is 

 much swelling, the stomach-pump will be used with advantage, both 

 in extricating the gas, and in injecting warm water into the stomach 

 with an intention either to cause vomiting or to wash out the contents 

 of the stomach. 



The operation of castration is a very simple one in the sheep, and 

 yet is often attended with danger, sometimes resulting from the un- 

 skilfulness of the operator, and at other times from some unfriendly 

 state of the atmosphere. I have known on the same farm, and the 

 same gelder being employed, that in one year not a lamb has been 

 lost, and in the following year several scores. Generally speaking, 

 however, the fatal result is to be attributed to bad management. The 

 younger the lambs are the better, provided they are not very weak. 

 From ten days to a fortnight seems to be the most proper time, or, I 

 may say, as soon as the testicles can be laid hold of. I would advise 

 the farmer never to set apart a day when the whole or the greater 

 part of his male lambs are to undergo the operation, for many of them 

 will then be too old, and he will assuredly lose some of them. He 

 should take them as soon as they are ready, although there may be 

 only a few at a time. 



The lamb being well secured, the scrotum or bag is to be grasped 

 in one hand high up, and the testicles pushed down as low as possi- 

 ble : two incisions are then to be made across the bag at the bottom 

 of it, and the testicles forced out. The gelder now oftentakes the 

 stones between his teeth, and bites the cord asunder. This is a nasty 

 and a cruel way of proceeding. The better way is to draw the testi- 

 ly* 



