of ewes may be found most available, choosing rams of some pure breed and adding also a few pure bred ewes of the same breed. Thus there will be formed the nucleus of a new flock of pure bred sheep which with good management rapidly increases until in time the grades may be discarded, but in the meantime the grade flock will necessarily serve as the business end of the sheep farm. There are several sources from which serviceable ewes may be drawn. The hills of Pennsylvania contain already a good many ewes largely of Merino foundation, and these will form an excellent basis for a grade flock when crossed with desirable types of rams. A little to the south in West Virginia there are many ewes to be had, and a peculiar type of hill sheep. These ewes may be somewhat leggy and bare of wool, but they mostly prove very serviceable mothers for early lambs, and when mated with a good sire, the results will prove quite satisfactory. In Ohio there are great numbers of sheep of the Merino type (Ohio standing fifth in numbers of sheep, having over two millions, while Pennsylvania has about eight thousand five hundred, according to the National Association of Wool Manufacturers), and these Ohio sheep will form an admirable basis for a grade flock. Next, the western ranges may be called upon to contribute from their surplus. It is astonishing how good many of the sheep of the ranges are to-day, having greater size than eastern Merinos, shearing heavy fleeces, and having good vigorous constitutions, and no parasites when they leave the range. These range. ewes may often be bought very reasonably in Chicago in the fall. It requires some care to get the right class in Chicago, and a little honesty on the part of the commission man who executes the order. However, by careful selection after receiving the ewes they may be assorted so that any that are wrong in any way may be fattened and the suitable ones retained to breed. It is wise in buying these western ewes on the market to choose the type free from wrinkles or excessively greasy pelts, and sometimes they may be had with an infusion of Cotswold or Shropshire blood, which makes them all the more valuable for the farm purpose. The inexperienced shepherd should avoid lambs or yearlings, and no one should from choice, buy ewes past four years. The young ewes that have never lambed are certain to give more or less trouble at their first lambing, and while the man of experience will get along with them all right, and by buying them have a year longer use of them, yet the young shepherd will do well to begin with experienced ewes.

HOW MANY TO BUY.

The writer believes that the day will come when farms in Pennsylvania will be devoted to sheep, when as many as 400 or 500 ewes will be kept upon one rich farm as is done in England to-day, but he does not think that the time has come as yet, nor advise the young shepherd to begin with a flock of more than 40 to 100 ewes. Fewer than 40 gives not enough to deserve a man's time and attention, and more than 100 will overtax at first the resources of shepherd and farm alike. The reason for this we will see later when we consider summer care and the question of parasites. With 40 ewes the service of one ram will be all that is necessary. With 100, two or three may be used.

PUTTING THE FLOCK UPON THE FARM.

It is essential to begin right in this matter, and it must be remembered that any sheep that have been shipped on railway trains or yarded in railway corrals, or shipping pens is surely infected with germs of scab. (This does not apply to sheep sent boxed by express.) Scab when taken in hand at once is not to be dreaded, but when allowed to run its course for even a few months it becomes a terrible scourge, and may bring ruin to sheep and shepherd alike. Therefore as soon as the flock is home, and before it is put in the barns or pastures it should be carefully and thoroughly dipped. There is another reason beside the fear of scab infection why sheep should be dipped, and that is the sheep tick. Ticks do not exist upon western sheep because of the necessity there for frequent dipping to prevent scab, but on nearly all eastern farms the sheep tick is a great curse, and even though there may be no danger from scab, the flock should be dipped to eradicate the ticks. Most eastern shepherds seem to feel that the sheep tick is a necessity, something like the poor that is always with them, and must always be. This is not true. The sheep tick lives only upon the body of the sheep and, once rid of the pest they will stay free of them until other ticks are brought with strange sheep and introduced again into the flock. The writer, years ago, completely eradicated the tick from his farm, and did not see even one specimen upon his flock for a number of years until finally he brought a fresh supply in buying rams, which he carelessly neglected to dip, and thus found ticks again spreading through the flock. Ticks are usually overlooked because they do not actually destroy the sheep, but merely annoy them by their continual biting, although sometimes they become so numerous as to kill small lambs, but there is no question that they sufficiently drain the life blood of the sheep to cause the loss of many dollars in every flock where they exist. To entirely eradicate ticks from a flock requires two or three dippings, because of the very large eggs or pupæ that are not always destroyed by the dipping, but if two or three dippings can be given at the right time of the year when the wool is short and the expense is trifling there need never again be ticks upon that flock.

DIPPING.

A dip vat is as essential upon a sheep farm as a shed for shelter. It need not be an elaborate arrangement nor costly. There is only required a narrow dip tank which may be built of galvanized iron, of wood, or preferably of concrete, dip enough so that the sheep may go clear in, head and all, and long enough so that it may walk out on an incline without being lifted out. and narrow enough so that it cannot turn around without going through. A width of 6 inches is ample for the bottom and 16 inches will suffice for the top, a length in the bottom of 4 feet with an incline extending up a gradual slope for 8 feet and a total depth of 4 feet will answer very well, although a little greater depth will prevent some splashing. This dipping tank should be set in the ground so that it will be nearly flush with the surface, and at the exit there must be constructed a small drain pen with a tight floor, whence the drippings will drain

back into the tank, thus ten or a dozen sheep may stand and drain, the drier ones being first allowed to depart. There must be two pens at the other end of the tank, one large enough, to pen quite a number of the sheep, and the other containing not more than ten or twelve, this small pen right at the entrance. There are several devices for getting the sheep easily into the tank, one of the best being a strip of smooth sheet iron upon which the sheep stand and slide downward into the dip. A little soft soap may be put on this to facilitate the descent where large numbers are to be dipped. They approach the dipping tank at a right angle in single file between high, tight board fences, so that they cannot see the tank or what awaits them, and across the tank on a little ledge a sheep stands while just below its feet is another ledge covered with sheet iron and sloping into the dip. With this arrangement the sheep hurry along through the narrow lane, and seeing one of their number standing beyond, spring across to the ledge just below him and are immeditaely slid into the liquid below. Such an elaborate arrangement is not necessary for dipping where but a hundred of two are to be put through, but serves well where two or three thousand are dipped in one day. The essentials of successful dipping for scab or ticks are, first, that the dip shall be strong enough. We use the carbolic dips, or those made from coal tar, and sold under the name of "Zenoleum," "Chloro Naptholeum," "Milk Oil" and similar cognomens. These preparations of coal tar have much to recommend them. Mixed with water they form a milky appearing fluid that is healing to cuts or wounds, is a perfect germicide and instantly destroys lice, ticks or scab germs. It is good for sore eyes or sore mouths, and even to swallow a trifle of it will help expel internal parasites, should any be present. The makers of these dips usually recommend that a 1 per cent. solution be used; that is that 100 parts of water be added to one part of dip, but the writer has practiced using about double that strength, finding the cost of the dip itself to be but trifling and much surer results following the use of the stronger solution. A standard and useful dip is the "Cooper,"-which is said to promote growth of wool-as it is arsenical care must be used not to permit sheep to drink it. Next, the dip must be used hot. And to ascertain whether it be sufficiently hot or no, the writer uses his own bare arm to test the degree of heat, finding thermometers unreliable. Then the water used should be softened by using concentrated lye in sufficient amount to thoroughly "break" it. Next, the sheep when they go in should be put clear in all over, head, ears and all. It is not necessary unless actual scabs are present to allow them to remain in the dip for any length of time, although the manufacturers advise that they be left in for two minutes. But in a farm practice of many years the writer has had never one failure from making the dip as strong as directed, throwing the sheep in once and clear under, and permitting them to come directly out. It must be remembered that in any case they will remain wet for a number of hours, and perhaps for a day or two, so that unless real scabs are present the two minutes' soaking is superfluous. It is well to choose good weather for this dipping, although as a matter of fact, one should dip whenever he takes his sheep home, whatever the season may be and the writer has dipped as many as 500

with the thermometer near zero, putting them at once in a fairly comfortable barn, with the loss of a single animal, and with but slight diminution of thrift. It is fatal to neglect the dipping. Once when the writer trusted to government dipping in the stock yards of Chicago, and failed to give the home dipping to a flock of lambs that he purchased, scab broke out in the middle of the winter, and all the sheep on the farm, nearly a thousand in number, were affected before he was aware of the trouble, which necessitated the dipping of all the sheep, and two or three dippings of some especially badly affected that could not be put after dipping into fresh quarters. It will cost for material about 2 cents a head to dip the sheep, and in labor about as much more. The tank, if built of concrete and set in the ground and covered with litter in very cold weather to prevent freezing, will last forever. So let the prospective shepherd begin his preparations for the home coming flock by getting the dip tank ready.

THE SCAB INSECT.

Of all external parasites the scab mite is by far the most dangerous and troublesome, once permitted to effect lodgment upon the sheep. It is not a common ailment upon farms in the Eastern states, but is sufficiently prevalent upon the ranges of the West to make the danger of infection from that source great, as has already been stated. In fact upon the ranges, scab and starvation are the two principal diseases among the flocks, and it is the province of the eastern farmer to cure both of these troubles. The scab mite is an insect so small that it is not quite visible to the naked eye, lives upon the skin, and by irritating the surface, it causes a flow of the fluid upon which it lives, and finally by continuing this irritation, scabs or crusts are formed beneath which the insect deposits its eggs. In a course of two or three days these eggs hatch. The newly born parasite becomes adult in fifteen days. Each female parasite will lay about fifteen eggs, ten of which will bring forth females and the other five males. The new parasites, as soon as they are hatched, migrate and infect the adjacent territory, which makes the scab patch spread, by the constant advance of its circumference, and the eggs of new parasites are deposited upon posts or boards upon which the sheep rub themselves, and thus are ready to seize any advantage to again locate themselves upon another sheep, when they in turn become centers of affection. Gerlach, a German authority, computes that in three months a single female scab insect may become responsible for the existence of 1,500,000 progeny. Thus in forty-five days after infection the increase from one parasite might be 1,500; in seventy-five days, 150,000, and in ninety days, 1,500,000. As a matter of fact it requires about ninety days for the scab disease to become well spread and very troublesome after introduction into a clean flock. The symptoms of scab are first, the great uneasiness and itching of the sheep as evidenced by their rubbing themselves against posts or fences, biting their wool or reaching to scratch the parts with their feet, and sometimes they will be seen to roll upon the ground. If the wool be parted there will be seen first a whitened and thickened condition of the skin at the infected spot. Later on the wool will be pulled from the place, if the sheep

can reach it, and the genuine scab will be in evidence. The disease, if unchecked, does not run its course and cure itself, but continues to work torment upon its unfortunate host until it is nearly denuded of wool and a mass of mangy sores, a dreadful object to contemplate. The writer has thought best to enter thus fully into a description of sheep scab because one ignorant of its evils may very easily underrate its danger, and thus fall into great trouble, whereas a stitch in time will save all trouble. The writer has never in one instance failed to prevent the development of the disease by one thorough dipping given as soon as the sheep reach the farm, as previously described. Should there be an actual existence of well developed scabs, however, he would prefer more thorough treatment, including the breaking up of the crusts and two dippings at intervals of ten days. The writer likes to turn the freshly dipped sheep at once into the quarters in which they are to remain, so that they will then by rubbing against hay racks and posts, thoroughly wet the entire wood work with their dip soaked fleeces.

ASSORTING THE FLOCK.

When first the flock comes home the young shepherd may be dismayed by their gauntness and appearance of hunger, and inclined through the kindness of his heart to at once relieve them of this distress by generous feeding. This he will not dare do. No grain at all should be given the hungry sheep, nor should they be turned at once into a field of rich clover, but preferably upon a rather dry pasture or else given what good hay they will consume, and not until they have completely recovered from their semi-starvation should they be given any grain. After they have dried from their dipping, comes the assorting, and this interesting task should be superintended by the owner himself, and by the way, in our land it is hardly possible to hire any shepherd who can relieve the owner of personal responsibility in many details of management. In England such professional shepherds are to be found, and right interesting it is to note how they not only assume responsibility, but take upon themselvs to direct the management according to their own ideas, even laughing sometimes at their masters wishes when they do not coincide with him in judgment as to the correct way to do. But in America we will hardly develop soon such a class, as they are the result of long established traditions and customs. In assorting the flock each sheep should be caught separately, examined as to the condition of her teeth to see whether she has a good mouth, or through age be losing part of her teeth, and thus approaching the limit of profitableness. If through defective teeth or any other cause it is thought not best to retain her in the flock, some mark should be put upon her so that she may be readily known, and may be separated and put with others like her in the fattening pen, or perhaps permitted to bear one lamb, and then be fattened off together with her lamb, as even old and broken mouthed ewes will do this very nicely, provided they are fed suitable food and given a little more comfort than younger ewes demand. Next, the feet should be looked after and carefully trimmed, cutting away only the superficial horn and not drawing blood. Should there be any foot lameness when the flock comes home the lame sheep should at once be treated thoroughly for foot rot, no matter whether the