140 USE OF CROOK — HANDLING SHEEP. 



crook. Care must be taken not to hook the crook to a sheep 

 when it is so deep in a huddle with others that they are liable 

 to spring against the caught one, or against the handle of the 

 crook, either of which may occasion a severe lateral strain on 

 the leg. When the sheep is drawn within reach, the leg 

 held by the crook should at once be seized by the hand, and 

 the crook removed. 



A sheep should be lifted either by placing both arms 

 aroimd its body, immediately back of the fore-legs; or by 

 standing sideways to it and placing one arm before the fore- 

 legs and the other behind the hind-legs ; or by throwing one 

 arm round the fore parts and taldng up the sheep between the 

 arm and the hip ; or by lifting it with the left arm under the 

 brisket, the right hand graspmg the thigh on the other side, 

 so that the sheep lays on the left arm with its back against the 

 catcher's body. The two first modes are handiest and safest 

 with large sheep ; the third mode is very convenient with small 

 sheep or lambs ; and a change between them all operates as a 

 relief to the catcher who has a large number to handle. 



Under no circumstances whatever should a sheep be 

 seized, and much less lifted, by the wool. The skin is thus 

 sometimes literally torn from, the flesh, and even where this 

 extent of injury is not inflicted, killing and skinning would 

 invariably disclose more or less congestion occasioned by 

 lacerating the cellular tissue between the skin and flesh, and 

 thus prove how much purely unnecessary pain and injury has 

 been inflicted on an unofiending and valuable animal, by the 

 ignorance or brutality of its attendant.* 



It cannot be too strongly enforced that gentleness in 

 every manipulation and movement connected with sheep is the 

 first and one of the main conditions of success in managing 

 them. 'J'hey should be taught to fear no injury from man. 

 They should be made tame and even afiectionate — so that 

 they will follow their keeper about the field — and so that, 

 in the stable, they wUl scarcely rise to get out of his way. 

 Wild sheep are constantly suffering some loss or deprivation 

 themselves, and constantly occasioning some annoyance or 

 damage to their owner; and under the modem system of 

 winter stable-management, it is difiicult to get them through 

 the yeaning season with safety to their lambs. 



* Let Wm who donbts the impropriety of lifting a sheep by the wool, have himself 

 lifted a few times by his hair 1 And let him who falls into a passion and kicks and 

 thnmps sheep because they crowd about him and impede his movements when feeding, 

 or because they attempt to get away when he has occasion to hold them, &c., &c., test 

 the comfort and utility of these processes in the same way — by having them tried on 

 himself I Such a person ought not to lack this convincing kind of experience. 



