178 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



with the' name of the breeders or the farm, 

 as "Jones' 99" or "Woodland 174." 



Of course these permanent numbers must be 

 consecutive from year to year else the Secre- 

 tary would find duplicates in his records. 



After the" lambs have- been weaned and are 

 sufficiently developed to indicate which are 

 worth permanent record their records are sent 

 to the breed Secretary and he records them 

 and sends with their certificates the Associa- 

 tion number, which must be placed in the ear 

 left blank for that purpose. 



Care must be taken not to make confusion 

 by using occasionally the wrong ear, and it is 

 well to use numbers of different size for this 

 first marking. If they are a trifle larger than 

 the permanent numbers it is well, seeing that 

 the ear will grow, and if they were made a lit- 

 tle smaller they would in time become of the 

 same size as the ones later put in. 



The writer is of the opinion that shepherds 

 are usually very careless in assigning mothers 

 to lambs for record and guess more than they 

 should. 



The English system is to record the indi- 

 vidual rams and the ewes by flocks only. See- 

 ing that they have achieved glorios results in the 

 development of breeds by their course it would 

 seem presumptions for the American breeders 

 to claim superiority of method. The writer 

 unhesitatingly declares that the English system 

 should be adopted on this side of the water 

 and sees but one objection to it, that, perhaps, 

 a fatal one, that in recording by flocks mea are 



