214 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



peat and emphasize the fact that all sheep that 

 have been shipped on railway ears or penned 

 in railway yards are very apt to be infected 

 with germs of scab. If they have no scab germs 

 they almost snrely have ticks on them. Ticks 

 will fatten in the same shed with sheep but the 

 sheep will suffer. Ticks find slow sale in the 

 market place. Scab, if it breaks out during the 

 feeding season, is ruinous and will entail great 

 loss unless promptly suppressed. -The longer 

 dipping is delayed the more costly it is because 

 of the greater amount of material required, be- 

 cause of the greater degree of exposure when 

 the weather is colder, and because the animal 

 after being on feed suffers a greater shock 

 and has a worse set-back than when dipped on 

 its arrival at the feed yard. 



Lambs that are sent out from the larger cen- 

 ters of distribution, such as Cbicaaro, Omaha 

 and Kansas City, are dipped under Federal su- 

 pervision before they leave the yards. This 

 dipping should preclude the necessity of fur- 

 ther dipping at home unless in the case of 

 very well advanced cases of scab. Such in- 

 stances of diseased sheep are much less nu- 

 merous than they once were, thanks to a 

 rather determined scab campaign by flock- 

 owners on the ranges. The dipping at the 

 Chicago yards has for several years been so 

 thorough that the writer has ceased to again 

 dip the lambs received from these yards. He 

 feels, however, that he is running considerable 

 risk by this neglect, since it is only a question 

 of time when carelessness or "graft" will 



