226 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



these broken-mouthed ewes ; they will undo him 

 every time. 



There is danger that these ewes may part of 

 them be already with lamb to some inferior 

 range ram. These lambs will not usually fatten 

 off at an early age and may materially affect the 

 result. 



Let us digress here to consider for a moment 

 a proposition having in it great possibilities of 

 profit for the feeder and offering to the rancher 

 a ready means of disposing of his aging ewe 

 stuff without too much sacrifice. The rancher 

 may cull out his aged ewes before they have 

 reached too decrepit a condition, discarding any 

 that have Spoiled udders or defective teats, and 

 putting them on the best and tenderest grass he 

 can find. Put with them good blocky mutton 

 rams as early as possible in summer. He ought 

 to get a Down or Dorset ram for this purpose, 

 since the long-wools do not get lambs fattening 

 best at a very early age. 



Then he can sell the ewes, bred, to Hien who 

 make a business of making winter lambs, and 

 get a great deal more for them than it has cost 

 him to give them this treatment. The writer 

 several years ago called the attention of sheep 

 growers and feeders to the possibilities, of this 

 practice and it has already been begun in a 

 small way with the probability that the practice 

 will become more common as the advantage be- 

 comes known, and especially as Western sheep 

 ranching settles down to a state of settled prac- 

 tice of good methods. 



The age when a ewe should be discarded 



