254 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



asleep and the herd just on the eve of mixing with some other 

 herd nearby, and so on all day long he will find just such cases. 



Ee verting to the help proposition, we find it almost impossible 

 to get along with less than seven men for 1,000 ewes, or twelve to 

 fifteen for 2,000 while lambing. Of course, if a man has his 

 lambing camp situated in the heart of an excellent range, with 

 plenty of green grass, several different water holes nearby and no 

 rough places where lambs are so hard to hold he can get along 

 with fewer men than if his lambing camp was situated in a rough 

 range, with poor feed and but one water hole, where all of the 

 sheep have to be watered. In this estimate we are referring to 

 Mexican labor. 



About two weeks before the ewes commence dropping lambs 

 all of the dry sheep should be cut out and put in a separate flock, 

 as they are a great deal of bother if let run with the ewes during 

 lambing, and besides, will lose a great deal of flesh, as the ewes 

 must be held rather close at this season. 



CORRAL PROBLEMS. 



The next largest problem, after the help problem is solved, 

 is the corral problem; having sufficient corrals and small pens 

 erected before the lambing commences. A great many New 

 Mexico flock owners lamb their ewes right out in the open with- 

 out the use of any corrals at all; but we have no sympathy for 

 such slipshod methods. They may claim that their sheep are too 

 wild to work in a corral and that they get better results without 

 the use of corrals, etc., but this is all moonshine. If their sheep 

 are too wild to work in a corral they had better begin taming 

 them by working them in a corral for a few seasons, and if they 

 get better results without the use of corrals it is because they 

 don't know how to work sheep in a corral at lambing time. 



The ewes, with everything cut out that isn't with lamb, should 

 be moved onto the lambing ground about four or five days be- 

 fore the time is up for them to commence dropping lambs. There- 

 after this flock of ewes is known as the dropping herd. Some let 

 their ewes run on their lambing ground for a month before lamb- 

 ing commences and then wonder what makes their ewes so mean 

 to herd on the lambing ground, when if they would stop to think 

 and observe they would see that the cream of the grass was eaten 

 off before lambing commenced. 



THE "BUMMING" SYSTEM. 



We have very successfully used for several years a system 

 known as the "bumming" system in lambing. The name is derived 

 from the purpose the system is used for; that is, the raising of 



