SELECTING EWES FOK THE BAM. 205 



which are of a dangerous description — are far more liable to 

 attack sheep when in low condition. And it is surprising 

 with what destructive effect ticks will work on very poor 

 sheep and lambs. The latter are sometimes literally depleted 

 and irritated to death by their blood sucking. 



I have specially and strenuously urged the point of 

 bringing sheep into the winter in good condition, because it 

 admits of no doubt that this, far more than any other one 

 item of management, constitutes the sheet anchor of all 

 successful sheep farming. 



There is a point of importance which I have overlooked 

 in the preceding statements. A flock of ewes which ar'e in 

 inferior condition, and especially if they are at the time 

 running down, will not take the ram as readily as a fleshy, 

 thriving flock. It will take six: or seven weeks to get the 

 bulk of them served, and then a number of them will " miss," 

 especially if the weather is very cold. A high-conditioned 

 flock is often served in about thirty days. The saving of 

 time and trouble at lambing, and the superior evenness and 

 value of a flock of lambs which is obtained by having them 

 all yeaned within a few days of each other, is well known to 

 all sheep farmers. Many flock-masters give their ewes extra 

 feed during the coupling season, to promote this object. A 

 little sharp exercise, like an occasional run across a field, is 

 thought by many to excite ewes to heat — but I have never 

 tried the experiment. 



SELBCTrsra Ewes foe the Ram. — Where there is an 

 opportunity to choose between several valuable rams, the 

 selection of the ewes to breed to each, requires judgment and 

 careful study. The flock of ewes should be examined, the 

 individual excellencies and faults of each, and her hereditary 

 predispositions and actual habits of breeding, so far as can be 

 ascertained, fully taken into account ; and then she should be 

 marked for the ram, which, in himself, and by his previous 

 get, appears, on the whole, best calculated to produce 

 improvement in their united progeny. Many of the Vermont 

 farmers thus divide their small flocks of ewes into parcels of 

 ten or twenty each, and take them to rams owned by a 

 number of different breeders : for, by a prevailing custom, the 

 liberality of which cannot be too highly commended, all the 

 most distinguished breeders of that State allow other persons 

 to send ewes to their best stock rams for a merely nominal 

 compensation, considering the advantages which are often 



