SHEEP. 89 
than in the confusion of a small inclosure. Unless particularly 
docile, sheep in a small inclosure crowd from one side to another 
when any one enters, running over young lambs, and pressing 
them severely, etc. Ewes get separated from their lambs, and 
then run violently round from one to another, jostling and 
knocking them about. Young and timid ewes get separated 
from their lambs, and frequently will neglect them for an hour 
or more before they will again approach them. If the weather 
is severely cold, the lamb, if it has never sucked, stands a 
chance to perish. Lambs, too, when just dropped, in a dirty 
inclosure, in their first efforts to rise, tumble about, and the 
membrane which adheres to them becomes smeared with dirt 
and dung—and the ewe refuses to lick them dry, which much 
increases the hazard of freezing. 
“Lambs should. be weaned. at four months old. It is better 
for them and much better for their dams. The lambs when 
taken away should be put for several days in a field distant 
from the ewes, that they may not hear each other’s bleatings. 
The lambs when in hearing of their dams continue restless 
much longer, and they make constant and frequently successful 
efforts to crawl through the fences which separate them. One 
or two tame old ewes are turned into the field with them, to 
teach them to come at the call, find salt when thrown to them, 
and eat grain, etc., out of troughs when winter approaches. 
“The lambs when weaned should be put on the freshest and 
tenderest feed. I have usually reserved for mine the grass and 
clover sown, the preceding spring, on the grain fields which 
were seeded down. 
“The dams, on the contrary, should be put for a fortnight on 
short, dry feed, to stop the flow of milk. They should be looked 
to once or twice, and should the bags of any be found much 
distended, the milk should be drawn and the bag washed for a 
little time in cold water. But on short feed they rarely give 
much trocble in this particular. When properly dried off they 
should be put on good feed to recruit, and get in condition for 
winter.” 
