- 10 - 
Tlie range in eastern Colorado and in New Mexico is probably as 
poor as it ever will get and allow the sheep business to continue. 
But the western valleys of Colorado and a large part of Wyoming 
and Idaho still furnish o-ood range. 
Most lambs in range Hocks are dropped in May. The rams are 
turned into the Hock about the tenth of December and allowed to re¬ 
main until the middle of January. This insures that the lambs shall 
be dropped within a few days of the same time. Some shepherds 
allow the rams to remain with the flock all winter and until shearing 
time in the spring. This saves the labor of keeping the rams penned 
up or sending them to another range, and is, of course, the cheaper 
method. It also insures a larger percentage of lambs, but it makes 
the lambing period extend w T ell into the summer. If the ewes have 
been well cared for and fed through the summer and fall, as high as ninety 
per cent, will take the ram in the course of a single month. In 
a few cases this percentage is increased to ninety-five, though ten per 
cent, of barren ewes on the range is not far from the average. On 
poorer range these results will scarcely be reached even if the rams 
are allowed to run with the ewes all winter. One ram is used for 
every forty to flfty ewes. 
Whether the Hocks have been kept on the range or at the farm 
during the winter, about the flrst of May the ewes are moved to the 
lambing ground. This needs to be selected with much care. There 
should be plenty of fresh grass, running water within easy reach, and 
some timber for shelter. It is best, also, to have some permanent 
yards and sheds for an emergency. The weather during these few 
weeks determines in large measure the percentage of lambs that will 
be saved. The average of several years is about eighty lambs for 
each hundred ewes, that is, one hundred ewes drop ninety lambs and 
ten of those are lost. The variations are large, depending on the 
feed and care through the winter and the weather and care during 
lambing. During the spring of 1895, there was some severe cold 
storms at the most critical time, occasioning great mortality among 
the lambs, while hundreds of ewes also perished. Some saved only 
twenty per cent, of their lambs; others who saved fifty per cent, 
thought they were doing well. 
A month after lambing comes the shearing of the ewes. This 
usually occurs from the first to the fifteenth of June. The nearly 
pure-bred Merino range ewes of Colorado shear from six to nine 
pounds of wool, with eight pounds of wool as about the average. At 
the prices of wool this season, this would have a value of from forty- 
five to sixty cents per head and would go far toward paying all the 
expenses of the flock. The smaller, thin-fleeced ewes of southern Colo¬ 
rado shear but four pounds of wool. The average for all sheep for 
the State is about seven pounds per head. 
After shearing, the flock is turned out to the regular summer rano-e 
