MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 221 



a great deal of skill attached to docking and castrating, especially 

 the latter operation, an idea that has no foundation in fact. A 

 barber or anyone else can successfully perform the operation if 

 he works with dexterity and in a cleanly manner. A bungling 

 operator is the cause of loss in castrating. The writer has cas- 

 trated lambs all day long, and kept two catchers busy, without the 

 loss of a single lamb. 



Lambs should be docked and castrated when about ten days 

 old. Little or no loss should attend these operations when prop- 

 erly performed on lambs of that age. 



A professor of animal husbandry has said J;hat lambs do not 

 develop so strong when castrated at a few days old as at three or 

 four weeks old, a statement which cannot be taken with any degree 

 of seriousness. Different shepherds have different methods of 

 docking and castrating. In some parts of England professional 

 castrators travel the country performing these operations, generally 

 using the clam and searing iron, instruments that have no place 

 in sheep husbandry except it be in castrating aged rams. If our 

 English cousins would castrate their lambs at the age of ten days 

 there would be little demand for the professional castrator, and any 

 good shepherd could castrate a dozen lambs while he was fixing 

 one with the clams. The suffering and loss in castrating lambs by 

 the professional castrator in England is entirely unnecessary, since 

 he does not usually perform the operation until the lambs have 

 attained considerable size. It is surprising what strange things 

 some publications contain on the subject of castration of lambs. 

 The following is from a so-called sheep journal: "Sometimes it 

 is necessary to pull out the testicle and scrape the cord with the 

 edge of a knife until it breaks off." No reason or excuse is given 

 for this cruel operation. 



Drawing the testicles is the best and safest method of cas- 

 trating to the writer's mind. I have performed this operation 

 on thousands of lambs single handed by laying the lamb on its 

 left side, cutting off the top of the scrotum with a keen sharp 

 knife and drawing the testicles with my teeth. I have drawn the 

 testicles both with teeth and fingers.. When castrating alone, 

 drawing with the teeth is easier than drawing with the finger and 

 thumb, as the operator has full freedom of the hands in holding 

 his subject in drawing the testicles. It would seem that the draw- 

 ing of the testicles- must have been originated by some shepherd 

 who was of necessity compelled to perform the operation without 

 assistance. I have tried both teeth and fingers, but unhesitatingly 

 must say that the teeth are better for the work than the finger 

 and thumb for the reason that danger of bursting the testicle is 

 less when a grip is got on it with the teeth than with the finger 

 and thumb. It has been said that drawing with the teeth is filthy 

 and wrong from a sanitary standpoint, inasmuch as germs from 



