Technical Training of Stochmen. 
375 
to operate in parturition cases, especially under the different aspects of 
false presentations. Explain to them how detrimental are all causes 
of excitement at this time. We shall then find fewer cases of 
neglect of precautions against disease, the observance of which 
precautions denotes a valuable shepherd and tends to ensure, with 
little loss of ewes, a good crop of lambs. 
Perhaps I may be told that the master should instruct his man. 
We have heard, however, of what happens when “ the blind lead the 
blind,” and I confess that there are still masters who have not given 
this subject the attention it deserves. I am of opinion that fiock- 
masters ought to meet together at least once a year to compare 
notes on the management of their flocks, especially as the manage- 
ment varies so greatly with the seasons. 
It is true that there are both ignorance and prejudice to be over 
come. As a rule, shepherds think that, if they do not know their 
own business, it is known by no one else. Can we wonder at this ? 
Have shepherds not been much neglected 1 How seldom is any 
professional man, qualified by education and experience, called im 
to their assistance ! They have been left to grope along in the way 
their predecessors trod for ages, when the value of a sheep was so 
small that it was considered not worth much trouble to save its life. 
They have never had the lamp of scientific and veterinary research 
lit up to guide them ; but let us hold it forth and see if they will 
read by its light. The gulf between master and man is not wide 
nowadays, and the master who does try to instruct needs someone 
behind him to back him up, or, as likely as not, if he talks about 
chemicals and blood-poisoning he is thought crazy by his shepherd 
and not worthy of attention. 
Turning for a moment to local considerations, Mr. Ernest 
Prentice, the indefatigable Secretary of the Suflblk Sheep Society, 
informs me that of the 460,000 sheep carried by the county of 
Suflblk, probably about 200,000 are breeding ewes. He estimates 
our loss at 6 per cent. Now, if by a more extended knowledge of 
shepherding we could reduce this loss even 1 per cent., the amount 
saved would be 6,000/. a year, estimating each ewe as worth 00s. 
But when we take into account the grazing sheep in the county 
as well, and reflect how many of these are lost during the winter on 
turnip-feeding, I am confident we might look for much greater results. 
This brings me to the question of how best to impart the needed 
instruction to our agricultural stockmen. The benefits to accrue 
from a better education in relation to the various callings on a farm 
might be set forth in a cheap pamphlet .and distributed in country 
parishes. Let it be known that a man with such knowledge is worth 
higher wages, that he will command more money wherewith to pur- 
chase comforts for the wife and little ones at home, and that a man 
with a certificate of technical knowledge, especially a shepherd, will 
obtain a better post than he otherwise would. I myself would give 
considerably higher wages. If there is a lecturer, let him visit the 
p.arish, not in the midst of winter, but perhaps in May, when masters 
and men can sit out of doors, with our pipes if you like, and talk the 
