134 Sheep Management. 



at the Iowa Experiment Station have shown this 

 to be true. The writer in his earlier years, not 

 having had as much experience as he should have 

 had, learned costly lessons by feeding these roots 

 to rams and wethers and consequently losing a 

 number of good, high-priced animals. Mangels 

 and sugar beets contain some substances which af- 

 fect the kidneys and form gravel stones in the kid- 

 neys and bladder, stopping up the passage of the 

 urinary canal. When this passage is blocked, 

 rams and wethers suffer terribly and die within 

 forty-eight hours, at most, on account of the hurst- 

 ing of the bladder. 



While these roots have proven so fatal to rams 

 and wethers the writer 1ms fed mangels and sugar 

 beets extensively during many seasons to breed- 

 ing ewes and has never experienced any trouble 

 therefrom. This is probably due to the fact that 

 in rams and wethers the urinary canal is no more 

 than about one-sixteenth inch in diameter, and the 

 small stones forming in the bladder cannot pass 

 through the canal. The ewes, however, have a 

 much larger urinary canal, permitting the escape 

 of the stones. 



FLUSHING THI: i:\vi:s. 



A breeding ewe, if expected to uphold her vital- 

 ity and vigor, needs a vacation once a year. She 

 may have been a good mother, a heavy milker, and 



