270 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



with the directions given by the makers of whatever dip is 

 used. These directions should be followed strictly, as they 

 are based on accurate experiments and long practical ex- 

 perience. 



After having passed through the dipping liquid the sheep 

 are kept in a pen adjacent to it and having a tight floor 

 sloping back to the dipping trough, into which the excess 

 of the dipping liquid drains. After sufficient draining, the 

 sheep are let into a lot where the fleece may dry. But ewes 

 with lambs are to be kept apart from the lambs until the 

 fleece is completely drained. 



It is no harm if some struggling sheep should take some 

 of the dip into its nostrils. Indeed some of it may reach 

 the hiding places of the annoying bot-fly, and in the violent 

 sneezing of the sheep from the effects of the dip, these pests 

 may be ejected to the great relief of the sheep. That the 

 sheep in this process may be subject to such accidents as this 

 is a good reason why injuriously caustic preparations, as the 

 exceedingly corrosive sulphur and lime mixture, should be 

 avoided. The regular dips in the market are all, not only 

 effective as a sanitary wash for the skin, but used after the 

 shearing they are healing in their effects on any cuts that 

 may be made in the shearing. Immediately after the shear- 

 ing is a good time for the dipping. There is no waste of the 

 dipping liquid, and the process is very much simplified and 

 eased as compared with the dipping previous to the shearing. 

 It is an indispensable precaution to be taken, not for the 

 cure of the scab disease only, but for its prevention; and 

 every reasonable flock owner we think would favor a na- 

 tional law by Congress making dipping obligatory as not 

 only a cure for diseased sheep, but as an effective means 

 of totally eradicating this pestilence. 



SWIMMING DIP TANK. 



The following plan is used with success: 



The swimming tank should be from fourteen to fifty feet 

 long and five feet deep, eighteen inches wide at the top and 

 not over six inches wide at the bottom. The tank should be 

 made of two inch tongued and grooved boards, closely fitted 

 together so as to avoid leakage. At one end the tank 

 should be tapped with holes for heating coil. This coil 



