MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 259 



is from a quarter of a pound to one pound of tail on them that 

 goes in the weight, which would not have been there had they 

 been docked. The "dockers" will say that a sheep that has been 

 docked will put on the extra weight of the tail to his hind quar- 

 ters and will look more blocky and sell better. This sounds a 

 little "stuffish" to us. There is one thing we do know from ob- 

 servation and that is that when a wether lamb is docked he loses 

 more or less blood in the operation, and every bit of blood he loses 

 sets his growth back so much, so that in the end he doesn't make 

 nearly the growth in the same time that a like lamb under like 

 conditions will make if not docked. 



Of course we know that ewe lambs must be docked, and weth- 

 ers also, in a wet climate, where worms are bad, but we have seen 

 thousands of long-tailed wethers in New Mexico, but have never seen 

 or heard of a case of worms caused by long tails. 



But to return to our lambing methods. After the second lamb 

 herd has been built up to 200 or 250, moved away from the immed- 

 iate vicinity of the lambing camp, marked, docked and castrated, 

 they can safely be turned together with the first bunch -of a like 

 number. We, however, think it poor policy to put more than 500 or 

 600 head of ewes and lambs into one herd till they are all at least 

 a month old, after which 1,000 head of ewes and lambs (making 

 a herd of 2,000) is the limit that should be run together till the 

 lambs are several months old. 



SHEARING. 



Some men shear before lambing, but we think it a pooj* plan 

 in New Mexico, except it be in the extreme southern part, or unless 

 one is going to lamb in May when the weather is warm. We 

 neglected to state that the best time to turn the bucks into the herd, 

 in southern and middle New Mexico, is from the first to the 

 fifteenth of November, thereby ensuring lambing from the first 

 to the fifteenth of April. The earlier one commences lambing, 

 the greater the risk of loss from freezing, but the earlier the lambs 

 come, the better show there is for grass for them, if moisture 

 happens to be scarce in the ground, and the better growth they 

 will make before fall. If the ewes are shorn before lambing, and 

 cold weather is encountered during lambing, they will be much 

 harder to handle on account of being cold, and much more liable 

 to desert their lambs, than if they had their wool on and were 

 warm and comfortable. 



Sheep shearing in New Mexico is done almost altogether by 

 Mexican shearers. They make very good sheep shearers, and, in the 

 southern end of the territory, are paid from 2y% cents to 3 cents 



