LAMBING — FOLDS — STABLES. 253 



if new dropped and not well filled with milk, the latter are 

 liable to perish before morning in cold weather ; and when 

 morning comes some of the ewes, particularly young ones, 

 never again recognize their lambs. The small portable pens 

 recommended at page 159, would not be available here, 

 because they would not keep out the wolf All folding pens 

 on the prairies require to be five or six feet high for that 

 purpose. I am not aware that it has been tried, but I am 

 well satisfied that three or four, or half a dozen temporary 

 pens, according to the size of the flock, put up on- different 

 parts of the range, each of which would conveniently hold 

 half a dozen sheep, and into which the shepherd should be 

 getting the youngest lambs and their dams some time before 

 nightfall, would amply pay for themselves in one stormy 

 lambing season — while they might be made to last through 

 a man's life. * 



Folds and Dogs. — A permanent fold for the night, unless 

 a good sheltered one, affords so few advantages and produces 

 so many disadvantages, that it is highly desirable to dispense 

 with it at all times, and particularly in lambing time, if any 

 other way can be found to guard the flock from wolves and 

 dogs. This is effectually done in other countries by means of 

 suitable breeds of sheep dogs. The immense utility of 

 introducing some of these varieties into om* prairie States, and 

 changing the system of folding, would seem to be obvious. 

 Some information on this subject will be offered in the 

 Chapter on Dogs. 



Stables. — But by far the best place for lambing, in 

 northern prairie climates, is an inclosed field of domestic 

 grass, immediately about sheltered close sheds or stables, 

 which can be used as occasion requires. A large flock ought, 

 for obvious reasons, if it is rendered practicable by the 

 number of the fields, to be divided into smaller flocks — or 



* It would be best to make them •with materials prepared and kept for that 

 express purpose. I should think it would be very convenient to construct them of 

 four lengths, or panels of light, strong fence, capable of being put together without 

 nails. Ten or twelve feet boards might be inserted in mortices or grooves in corner 

 posts, the upper and lower boards being fastened in them by movable pins. The 

 corner posts of these lengths might be fastened together by hooks and staples. Thus 

 four lengths would form a pen of 10 or 12 feet square. This could be covered as far as 

 desirable — a great improvement for inclement weather — by boards two feet longer 

 than the side iooards. This would form a pen which could be set up, or taken in 

 pieces and loaded in a cart, by two men in less than half an hourt without any injury 

 to the materials. The materials should of course be piled away under cover when 

 not in use. 



