314 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



pens, which may be readily overturned, to free them from 

 water in freezing weather, after the sheep have been sup- 

 plied for the day. The water thus needed may be re- 

 plenished from pails for small lots of sheep and from a 

 hose for a larger lot. For sheep that are being fattened 

 in a wholesale way, water may be furnished in a trough 

 or tub provided with a float. 



Water and good health in sheep — The relation be- 

 tween good health and the character of the water given to 

 them is of the most intimate nature. No class of animals 

 kept upon the farm is so much subject to parasitical dis- 

 eases as sheep, and water is the medium through which 

 some of these reach them. The importance, therefore, of 

 furnishing pure water for sheep cannot be easily overesti- 

 mated. Cattle and swine may be able in some instances 

 to drink water without apparent injury that would be 

 baneful to sheep. 



Water furnished by ponds is objectionable. It is ob- 

 jectionable because it is stagnant, and stagnant water is 

 more favorable to the breeding of harmful forms of para- 

 sitic life than water from running streams or wells. It 

 is further objectionable because when long stagnant it 

 loses something of its sweetness. Sheep are peculiarly 

 sensitive to such changes. They will not drink water 

 affected with any form of taint unless compelled to do so 

 from thirst that must be partially relieved. In cool 

 climates and under elevated conditions, water from ponds 

 is much less objectionable than water furnished under 

 conditions the opposite. 



Water furnished from marshy lands is much more 

 objectionable even than water obtained from ponds. The 

 relation between access to such water on the part of the 

 sheep and parasitical diseases, such as tapeworm and 

 stomach worm, has been forced upon flockmasters in too 

 many instances to leave any doubt as to the reality and 

 potency of such a relation. How far the parasites come 

 from such waters directly or from the grasses eaten by 



