SHEEP RAISING FOR BEGINNERS. 



21 



by the parasites is most easily shown in the white paperlike appear- 

 ance of the skin and membranes of the mouth and eyes, while watery 

 swellings often develop under the jaws. 



Treatment of infected lambs will bring about recovery if given in 

 time, although, as before indicated, the safest and cheapest way of 

 combating the trouble is by preventing it. Young lambs are very 

 unlikely to become seriously infected by larvre from eggs dropped by 

 older sheep in barns or yards bare of grass. On a noninfected 

 pasture the Iarva3 will not ordinarily develop in any considerable 

 numbers to the stage which Avill result in injury in less than 10 

 days or two weeks. If the flock is moved to fresh noninfected 

 ground by that time, the danger is avoided for a further period of 

 the same length. 



It is not known how long larvae of this parasite will continue to 

 be dangerous, but, since freezing commonly kills unhatched eggs, a 

 pasture in cold climates that was not used in summer and fall until 

 after frost will be practically safe for occupancy by lambs for a 

 limited time the following spring or summer, provided the old 

 sheep are removed from it before the winter is over. This fact, and 

 the desirability of obtaining the maximum amount of grazing from 

 small areas, thereby reducing the amount of fencing needed, makes 

 it advisable to adopt the plan of having a rotation of forage crops 

 for summer use. Land on which fall wheat or rye has been sown 

 will be safe for spring use and, if plowed and sown to rape or other 

 crops for later grazing, is then also free from serious stomach- worm 

 infection. 



On farms where sheep have not been previously kept trouble from 

 stomach worms is not likely to be serious until the second or third 

 summer. 



FIG. 6. A flock of lambs on the way to be loaded on cars for shipment to market. 

 These lambs are the combined lots of several members of a Tennessee shipping 

 club. 



