SHEEP. 89 



than in the confusion of a small inclosure. Unless particularly 

 docile, sheep in a small inclosure crowd from one side to another 

 when any one enters, running over young lambs, and pressing 

 them severely, etc. Ewes get separated from their lambs, and 

 then run violently round from one to another, jostling and 

 knocking them about. Young and timid ewes get separated 

 from their lambs, and frequently will neglect them for an hour 

 or more before they will again approach them. If the weather 

 is severely cold, $he lamb, if it has never sucked, stands a 

 chance to perish. Lambs, too, when just dropped, in a dirty 

 inclosure, in their first efforts to rise, tumble about, and the 

 membrane which adheres to them becomes smeared with dirt 

 and dung and the ewe refuses to lick them dry, which much 

 increases the hazard of freezing. 



" Lambs should be weaned at four months old. It is better 

 for them and much better for their dams. The lambs when 

 taken away should be put for several days in a field distant 

 from the ewes, that they may not hear each other's bleatings. 

 The lambs when in hearing of their dams continue restless 

 much longer, and they make constant and frequently successful 

 efforts to crawl through the fences which separate them. One 

 or two tame old ewes are turned into the field with them, to 

 teach them to come at the call, find salt when thrown to them, 

 and eat grain, etc., out of troughs when winter approaches. 



"The lambs when weaned should be put on the freshest and 

 tenderest feed. I have usually reserved for mine the grass and 

 clover sown, the preceding spring, on the grain fields which 

 were seeded down. 



" The dams, on the contrary, should be put for a fortnight on 

 short, dry feed, to stop the flow of milk. They should be looked 

 to once or twice, and should the bags of any be found much 

 distended, the milk should be drawn and the bag washed for a 

 little time in cold water. But on short feed they rarely give 

 much trouble in this particular. When properly dried off they 

 should be put on good feed to recruit, and get in condition for 

 winter." 



