146 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



imate desire when the owner of a small flock of pure 

 breds is anxious to increase the number. It is important 

 that such ewes be maintained in reasonably good condi- 

 tion, or the lambs which they produce will not be prop- 

 erly maintained. The aim should be to provide food for 

 these easy of mastication, as, for instance, field roots 

 pulped or sliced, or ensilage, finely chaffed fodders and 

 ground grain. It is preferable to feed these mixed rather 

 than separate. Valuable ewes may be thus maintained 

 for even two winters after they would fail under ordinary 

 conditions of feeding. 



While some storms are, of course, more or less hurt- 

 ful to sheep at all seasons, they are specially harmful in 

 the autumn and the spring, hence every reasonable effort 

 should be made to protect them from such exposure. In 

 summer the rain is warm, but in autumn and spring it 

 sometimes falls with a temperature almost as cold as ice. 

 Long-continued exposure to such storms may prove a 

 source of great loss to the flock in the colds and inflam- 

 mations that may result and in the debility that fre- 

 quently follows. Exposure to snow in the absence of 

 driving wind may not be very harmful to the sheep, 

 though it is always injurious to young lambs, and long 

 exposure to cold rains is sure death to the latter. 



The amount of tagging and trimming called for will 

 vary much in flocks. Tagging is seldom necessary in 

 winter in a flock that is healthy, but may become neces- 

 sary in many instances when sheep are changed from dry 

 food to that possessed of much succulence. The accumu- 

 lation of filth around and under the tail head may be- 

 come very offensive. Underneath maggots may be bred, 

 which, unremoved, may soon make life burdensome to the 

 sheep. Much wool may also be rendered valueless in 

 this way. As soon as such indications appear, the clots 

 should be cut away with a sharp pair of shears, or if they 

 have been allowed to harden with a sharp knife. Trim- 

 ming the fleece is seldom necessary with grade flocks fur- 



