The Shepherm^ Guide* 61 



mixed with train-oil, or kitchen grease^ which 

 will not dry ; he will mark every ewe which 

 comes in heat. These being taken to the ram, 

 and again taken away as soon as covered, he will 

 not exhaust himself by needless repetition. 



This is unquestionably the best mode, but it is 

 likewise the most troublesome. My method has 

 been, to keep up my ram with a few full-blood 

 ewes during the day, upon a small, but very good 

 pasture, that he may feed without disturbance ; 

 and to put the flock of ewes to him every night, in. 

 a confined fold, his belly having been previously 

 coloured, and every morning to separate and put 

 into a pasture by themselves the ewes which have 

 been marked. 



By all these attentions, selecting the best rams 

 and ewes, such as are in the vigour of their age, 

 and never suffering the rams to be weakened and 

 exhausted by numbers, we shall arrive at our ob- 

 ject, to acquire a numerous flock of the most 

 perfect sheep, with sufficient rapidity ; whilst at 

 the same time, we shall preserve the vigour of 

 both ewes and rams to the latest period of their 

 lives. We have known in this country rams to 

 be successfully employed after eight and ten 

 years of age: and Mr. Laysterie mentions one 

 at Rambouillet, which, at the age of eighteen, pro- 

 duced good lambs. 



It is an old opinion, that by frequently chang- 

 ing the ram, and by procuring another of the 



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