232 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



are liable to partake too much of it at a time, and sometimes 

 dropsical conditions are the result. 



The ash of the blood of a sheep contains nearly 60 per cent 

 of salt ; the ash of the urine contains fully 33 per cent. The effect 

 of salt on sheep is to give tone to the organism. Its scarcity in 

 the blood means a relaxation of vital energy and an opportunity 

 for the development of parasitic organisms. It is said that in 

 Spain where sheep are kept in the neighborhood of salt hills or 

 sea salt they thrive better than in any other situations. In France 

 in the neighborhood of the sea coast and the salt regions of the 

 north the sheep give more and better wool and the mutton is more 

 highly esteemed than that from other localities. Where sheep 

 are pastured near the sea they naturally do not require so much 

 salt as in more interior regions. 



MARKETING SHEEP AND LAMBS. 



There is a good deal more in how sheep and lambs are mar- 

 keted than .many may think. It does not pay to rush sheep to 

 market in a half-fat condition because there happens to be a fall- 

 ing off in shipments at any particular time and record prices have 

 resulted from such conditions. Sheep and lambs should be mar- 

 keted either fat or as feeders. In marketing in a half -fat condition 

 the chances are you will be losing money and giving the buyer, 

 which, likely, will be a feeder, the benefit of 'your misjudgment.> 

 Eushing stock to market because high prices rule for a day or so 

 is not wise because a glut almost always follows. It is important 

 that sheep and lambs be properly graded before being shipped, 

 as they make a better and more uniform appearance. Lambs of 

 moderate quality when properly graded make a much better show- 

 ing than those of superior quality when marketed in one bunch. 

 When shipping the car should be well bedded and everything 

 possible- done for the comfort of the shipment. It is better to ship 

 to well known commission firms than to be changing around 

 from one house to another and falling into the hands of those 

 of whom you know nothing. The following are the stockyard 

 commission rules as applied to sheep in most stockyard markets: 

 Single-deck cars containing thirty head or more, $8. Double-deck 

 carloads of sheep, $12. Sheep originating in double-deck cars, 

 but for any reason arriving in single-deck cars, where double-deck 

 freight rates are applied, may be sold at the double-deck rate of 

 commission, viz., $12. Less than thirty head of sheep in a single- 

 deck car, with no other stock in the car, shall be charged for at 

 the rate of 15 cents per head. Sheep driven or hauled in, 15 cents 

 per head. 



