21 



to-morrow what should be done to-day, and this is 

 worse in stock feeding than in any other business. 

 I hold that the noses of the sheep should be 

 smeared with tar, at least four times through the 

 feeding season; first, when they are brought 

 home in the fall; second, when they go into 

 their winter quarters, and then twice during the 

 winter. By doing this, we prevent all trouble 

 with colds and foul noses. The old method of 

 catching and holding the sheep to perform this 

 operation made it a laborious task, and I now 

 practice a new and easier way of doing it. 

 We simply take two or three of the sheep- 

 boxes which I have already described, which 

 are loose and can be set anywhere, and make a 

 small yard under the shed, and drive the sheep 

 in, and pack them closely; one man holds the 

 bucket of tar, and two or three, each with a 

 wooden tar ladle, jump right in among the sheep, 

 and without catching or holding the sheep, 

 put the tar on, commencing at one end and 

 coming out at the other ; and this job, for six or 

 eight hundred sheep that used the old way to 

 take us almost all day, can now be done in less 

 than two hours, besides being so much less inju- 

 rious to the sheep. 



