132 Western Live-stock Management 
and is effected without disturbing lambs to any great 
extent. After the newly born lambs and their mothers 
have been separated out, those lambs which do not seem 
to be properly owned are put with their mothers in the 
lambing pen, while the others are worked out on to the 
range to graze. This system requires much less work 
than where the ewes are corralled at night, but is probably 
not quite so effective. 
During the daytime an extra herder follows the lambing 
band and the young lambs and their mothers are sepa- 
rated from the main band, generally known as the 
“drop” band, and are gathered together in small bunches 
of ten to thirty head. As soon as a small bunch of ewes 
with their newly born lambs are gathered together, they 
are left behind and a tall stake with a flag erected in or- 
der to show their jocation. The ewes and their lambs will 
not stray far from this place for the first twenty-four 
hours. During the course of the day several of these 
bands are separated out. They are not usually moved 
the first night but left out on the range where they are 
and the herder camps with them. Special precautions 
are sometimes necessary to keep off wild animals. A 
lantern may be hung on a stake to keep away the coyotes, 
or the herder may fire off guns or fire crackers from time 
to time. The next morning these small bunches of newly 
born lambs are brought together and put with other 
ewes and young lambs to form what is known as the 
infant herd. 
A simple piece of equipment that has not yet been used 
to a great extent on the range but which is growing in 
popularity is a lambing blanket. This blanket is simply 
a piece of canvas lined with soft cotton cloth. The 
canvas is fifteen inches wide and sixteen inches long with 
