Farm Sheep 187 
come on to the market with thinner flesh than wether 
lambs raised under the same conditions. They also annoy 
the ewes so they do not thrive. 
Castration is a simple operation involving little risk 
when conducted with ordinary care and cleanliness. It 
can best be performed when the lamb is from one to two 
weeks old. The operation consists in cutting off the lower 
end of the scrotum and drawing out the testicles, together 
with the adhering cords. A little disinfectant poured into 
the holes from which the testicles have been removed 
prevents infection. The morning of a nice bright day 
is the best time. 
Docking is also another operation commonly neglected 
by farmers. Failure to dock causes a loss of twenty-five 
to fifty cents a hundred pounds when the lambs are sold, 
depending on the amount of dirt collected. Tails are 
unnecessary appendages on sheep, and the blood nourish- 
ing the useless tail would add, no doubt, to the growth 
of the rest of the body. There are several ways of dock- 
ing lambs; namely, chopping off the tails with a mallet 
and chisel, cutting off with a sharp knife, or removing 
with hot pincers. Of these three methods the latter is 
the most preferred as there is very little loss of blood when 
it is practiced. In any case, the tail should be removed so 
as to leave a stub or dock, which is one to one-and-one- 
half inches long. This operation should be performed 
on ewe lambs at one or two weeks of age, and with ram 
lambs, it should follow from five to seven days after 
castration. On large ranches, to save time, both castra- 
tion and docking are performed at one time, but on smaller 
farms better results are obtained where they are done 
separately. The loss from castration and docking should 
not be more than one lamb in five hundred. Strange to 
