CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 95 



this practice and it is always effective when 

 persisted in for a few days. 



Occasionally there will be a ewe whose lamb 

 will die and leave her with an udder filled 

 with milk. This gives opportunity to change 

 to her some twin lamb whose mother would 

 be better for the relief. To accomplish this 

 transference the best plan is to remove the 

 skin of the dead lamb soon after its death 

 and slip it over the living lamb. It may be 

 pulled off as a stocking is removed and rubbed 

 with a little salt to dry it and at once slipped 

 on to the twin lamb with the feet thrust 

 through the holes where the former lamb's 

 legs were. Introduced now to the mother of 

 the dead lamb, confined with her in a small 

 pen, it is not often that she will refuse to 

 own it at once. Ewes know their lambs en- 

 tirely by scent, and thus the odor of the skin 

 tells her that it is truly her own lamb that is 

 with her. This skin may be taken off after 

 a few days. 



It is not good shepherding to permit a ewe 

 to be without a lamb sucking her when there 

 are lambs enough to go around, and usually 

 there will be so many twins among ewes of 

 the mutton breeds that there are enough lambs 

 for all and perhaps 25 to the hundred over. 



Occasionally a ewe will be found of so per- 

 v,erse a disposition or so undeveloped in udder 

 or malformed that she will not raise a lamb 

 at all. The cure for her is to cut off half of 

 G>ne ear, which is the "brand of Cain," and 

 indicates that she is to go to the butcher as 

 soon as fat. 



