74 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



will often make as good lambs as the other 

 ewes and be themselves ready to follow their 

 offspring to market a few weeks after the 

 lambs have left them. A suitable mark for 

 these culled ewes is to clip off the end of one 

 ear. 



Yet another thing for which to search is a 

 spoiled udder or a ewe without perfect teats. 

 Quite often -such ewes are found, and to have 

 them drop lambs without ability to suckle 

 them is to entail great disappointment and 

 trouble on the shepherd. 



There is a temptation to breed the young, 

 immature ewes, particularly if they are well 

 grown, but it is wiser not to do this, as it leads 

 to the steady decrease in size of your sheep, 

 and by weakening the ewe's constitution be- 

 cause of the heavy drain upon her, you make 

 her the more liable to • attacks of parasites, 

 those foes of the sheep and shepherd that 

 never may be forgotten with safety. 



PUTTING IN THE BAM. 



The ewe carries her lamb from 142 to 150 

 days, or, rouglily, fiA^e months. It is well to 

 so time the putting in of the ram as to bring 

 the lambs at the season when they will best 

 fit in with your scheme of management. Much 

 depends here upon the breed under considera- 

 tion, for it is natural for the Dorset and the 

 Merino to drop their lambs very early, so that 

 they may be mated with the ram in September, 

 when the lambs will come early in February, 

 or if in August they will come in January, or 



