CAEE AND MANAGEMENT OF ANIMALS 855 



The artificial product thus obtained goes to the butcher 

 or is used for breeding purposes at eight months old ! 



Weaning generally takes place at about three or four 

 months old, the dams may be entirely separated from the 

 lambs, or a hurdle fold so arranged that they may see each 

 other without being in contact. It is the duty of the 

 shepherd to examine the udders of the ewes, to avoid the 

 risk of milk collecting and producing mammitis. 



In the ordinary fattening of sheep they should be kept in 

 small lots of about forty, each day if possible they should 

 be brought on to fresh ground, and the greatest regularity 

 in feeding must be observed. Sudden changes in feeding 

 must always be avoided no matter at what stage of fatten- 

 ing, but especially when the animals are being brought for 

 the first time on to a fattening diet. 



Eock salt should always be found in the feeding troughs ; 

 its value in the prevention of fluke disease has previously 

 been dealt with. 



Sheep Shelters. — Very little attention has been paid to 

 the question of shelters for sheep, and the matter has 

 received some notice at p. 348. Here, however, we would 

 remark on the advantage of obtaining on all farms where 

 little natural shelter exists some artificial protection for 

 sheep living in the open during wind and rain, and the 

 best artificial protection of this kind is that known in 

 Scotland as ' Stells.' Stells may be of various shapes, as in 

 Figs. 207, 208, and 209, which show the plan of three well- 

 known patterns; and, according to their arrangement, stells 

 may be either inside or outside. A stone wall six feet high 

 is erected, with an opening leading to the interior, as in 

 Fig. 207 ; or the protection is outside, as in Fig. 208, where 

 the space within the wall consists of a plantation, while the 

 recesses afford shelter no matter from which point the 

 wind is blowing. The inside shelter provided in Fig. 208 is 

 especially good, as these are not only the stone walls, but 

 a plantation exists between them. Fig. 209 is the simplest 

 form of outside stell, viz., four incurved walls. 



At these places hay should be ricked so as to be con- 



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