160 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



number is all that a well-grown ram should be allowed 

 to serve in a single season, and when the ram is with the 

 flock it should not comprise so large a number of ewes. 

 A ram lamb should not usually be allowed to serve more 

 than 20 ewes. One ram, though mature, should not be 

 allowed to serve more than say three ewes in a day and 

 at intervals of not less than three to four hours. 



The disposal of rams The breeders of stock rams 

 usually aim at the disposal of a large percentage of the 

 product for the season in the autumn of the year that 

 produced them. When sold as lambs, the prices obtained 

 are usually as good, and in some instances better, rela- 

 tively, than when they are sold as shearlings ; and when 

 thus sold the risk of loss is shifted to the purchaser, and 

 larger room is left for those unsold. But sales cannot 

 usually be made unless they are well developed. Pur- 

 chasers are but little inclined to buy small ram lambs to 

 be used as sires, and it is fortunate that they are. Some 

 breeders object to the use of lambs as sires on the ground 

 that older sires possessed of more maturity will transmit 

 more of vigor to the progeny. The laws of breeding give 

 considerable support to the view, but the idea must not 

 be pressed too far, as in small flocks, reasonably good 

 results have followed the use of the ram lambs as sires. 



All things taken into account, the purchase of shear- 

 ling rams is to be preferred to that of ram lambs to be 

 used in service, but it is more difficult to secure shearlings 

 possessed of all-round high quality than to secure lambs 

 possessed of the same, as the best of the lambs are very 

 frequently sold as lambs, leaving only those that have 

 been thus passed by to be sold as shearlings. But the in- 

 dividuality of the animal may more certainly be known 

 as a shearling, as growth is then more nearly completed. 

 Ranchmen prefer shearling rams to lambs, for reasons that 

 will be apparent. Should any of the shearlings remain un- 

 sold, the wisdom of carrying them over another year to sell 

 as breeders is questionable. The fact that they have re- 



