74 Sheep Management, Breeds and Judging. 



when young because of the time saved in doing 

 so, and above all because of the assurance of keep- 

 ing the record of breeding straight. 



When inserting the label into the lamb's ear be 

 careful to cut the hole between the veins so as to 

 prevent bleeding. The Dana Ear Label has given 

 very good satisfaction for marking lambs at this 

 Station. The preceding illustration shows the 

 manner in which the lamb is held when the mark- 

 ing is done. Another way to mark lambs is to 

 tatoo their ears, but the writer does not consider 

 this method nearly as good as using the ear label. 



CASTRATING LAMBS. 



No intelligent sheep breeder will allow his buck 

 lambs to run without having them castrated. Only 

 pure-bred buck lambs intended for breeding pur- 

 poses are exempt from castration. The writer 

 wishes he could use words strong enough to make 

 those who have not operated on their lambs in 

 the past appreciate the good results obtained from 

 castrating them, and the evil results sure to fol- 

 low when this is neglected. As a rule, at about 

 the age of three to four months buck lambs begin 

 to know that they are males, get restless, lose flesh, 

 and as fall approaches become worse, jumping and 

 riding each other, and hence getting in a thin con- 

 dition, while castrated lambs get fat. When these 



