sweet corn silage, providing it is at hand, and if available, roots of some form or another. Roots are not indispensable before lambing, and the feeding of too many turnips sometimes causes bad results. If clover or alfalfa hay is not available, and the forage must chiefly be of corn stover, timothy, wheat straw and the like, then more protein must be added to the ration, together with more bone material, to supply the nutrients needed by the growing lamb, as well as to nourish its mother during the period of her pregnancy. Oats or wheat bran will supply this protein and either one is rich in bone material.

There is danger, however, of feeding too much bone material to a pregnant ewe, the writer having had an experience once that taught him a costly lesson. Having some very beautiful Shropshire ewes from which he desired to get the best possible results, he allowed them an unlimited amount of wheat bran, together with clover, and timothy hay. The ewes presented a beautiful appearance up until lambing time, and were certainly the pictures of health and vigor. They dropped a large crop of lambs, many of which were of superb quality, but some of which were of such enormous size that they could scarcely be born at all. One ewe especially, the finest of the flock, distinguished herself by delivering a lamb that weighed 17 pounds at birth, whereas the normal weight of a lamb would be perhaps about 6 pounds. The unfortunate ewe died soon after, and the lamb, although at its birth very strong, was killed by the writer's unskillful attempts at feeding with cow's milk. Such lambs, however, as came safely into the world, developed well and every ewe proved full of milk, as might have been expected from such liberal supply of milk-producing food. The next winter, however, the writer remembering his mishap, and being told by some old-time hill shep herds that his methods were all wrong, put his ewes on so scanty fare as to give opportunity to "rustle," and radically changed his programme. And being short of barn room, and feed as well, he turned the ewe flock out into the wooded pasture, giving its room to fattening lambs, and kept the ewes during the winter upon corn stover and oat straw, mainly without any grain. When lambing time came the lambs were delivered easily enough, none of them being excessively large and many quite small ones indeed were very strong and active at birth. But then a curious phenomenon of sheep nature manifested itself, for the ewes being very poorly fleshed and lambing before grass had come, found themselves without milk in their udders, and thus without any maternal solicitude in their hearts. The writer learned then that curious truth that the nerve that goes from the udder of the ewe to the brain, reaches the particular region of the brain where is situated the instinct of mother love, so that unless there is a stimulation from a full udder, there is no development of mother love at all, and as a matter of fact, these ewes promptly disowned their newly born lambs, leaving them to the rueful attendance of their bewildered and dismayed shepherd. There never was a worse lambing, nor a more remorseful attendant than him during this season. However, later on he learned to strike the happy medium, and nourish the ewes well enough so that the lambs were born strong, their mothers full of milk for them, and yet not to overdo the thing so as to cause trouble at lambing time.

One of the most surely fatal systems of treatment for pregnant ewes is to overfeed them with corn. The writer often finds in his feeding barns, ewes that accidentally prove to be with lamb and that are being fed upon corn and alfalfa hay. If those lambs happen to be born soon enough after the mothers have gone upon feed, all may be well, but if the advent is delayed until their mothers are getting fat, and are inclined to be sluggish, lying about a great deal, the lambs are born into the world without strength enough to hold up their heads. They are large, fat, soft and flabby, with hardly any vitality at all, and not one in ten of them can be raised. In England the writer has seen some very remarkable examples of successful lambings. One in particular he remembers of a Dorset flock of 360 ewes that raised about 550 lambs. These ewes were out of doors every day, in that comparatively mild climate, and were fed as has been directed, with sufficient food to nourish them well without developing a degree of fat to make them sluggish. The anxious young shepherd may think it impossible to have his flock out of doors every day during winter, for fear that lambs may be born in the snow and lost, but it has been the experience of the writer that when the ewes were given free access to their snug quarters they would in nearly every instance come home. to drop their lambs. And by a little personal care, without which sheep will not succeed in any event, there will be small loss from this cause. Certainly the shepherd should see every sheep of his flock several times every day during the lambing period.

THE LAMBING SEASON.

We have now brought the flocks successfully to the beginning of the lambing season, always the most interesting time to the shepherd, although if he has done his part well, it need not be a season of anxiety. Before the lambs begin to appear, the shepherd should provide himself with a few useful conveniences. It will be remembered that we have planned to have these lambs born in the late fall or winter season. If they are born early enough so that they may come upon the grass, there is little preparation necessary, but when lambing in sheds, some carpentering is necessary to make the thing go off well. There should be provided some little panels like small doors, each one about 3 feet high and 4 feet long, two of these panels being hinged together at the ends. They may be of light wood and made of boards set close enough together so the lambs cannot crawl through; better still, be made of inch boards put solidly together so that the ewes cannot even look through them. Upon the edges not provided with hinges should be large wire hooks that can be fastened into staples driven into the side of the barn. The purpose of these panels is to provide small pens against the side of the barn in which ewes with their new born lambs may be confined for a day or two until they have become well acquainted with each other. Beginning at the corner of the barn a pair of these panels, opened out at right angles like an "L," make one square pen 4 feet by 4 feet, and then when it becomes necessary to provide another, it is set up at the side of this one and so on until a row is established across one side of the barn. If there be need, another row may follow, and so on indefinitely as may be

required. The shepherd will keep careful watch as the time approaches when lambs may be expected, and noting that the ewe is about to be delivered, he may at once place her in one of these pens where she may remain undisturbed; and supposing she be delivered of twins, neither of them can stray away from her while she is giving her attention to the other. There is serious danger when twins are born in a crowded sheepfold that one of them may wander away before the mother can give it her attention, and naturally the little things cannot at first distinguish their own mothers, and may perish before the shepherd appears to set things right. A very much larger per cent. of lambs will be saved by the use of these small pens than if they are not at hand. The shepherd should learn to distinguish the symptoms of approaching labor in the ewe. If he is observant, he will often notice an uneasiness in her, and sometime that she will even go about looking for her lamb, as though she thought it was already born, instinct apparently telling her that there should be one about somewhere. There are other symptoms that an observant shepherd will notice, and that is the time to place her by herself, or failing that, to keep good watch until she is delivered.

It is not very often that the shepherd will be called upon to assist the ewe in delivering her lamb. He should be watchful, however, and not permit her to carry her labor too far without going to her aid. Oftentimes the lamb will have too large a head for ready delivery, and the shepherd can gently but forcibly push back the parts past the head till it is delivered. After this he may, when next her pains cause her to struggle to expel, take the head and feet and gently pull till the shoulders are delivered. The expulsion of the rest of the body is easy and the shepherd should retire and leave her to accomplish that unaided. The natural position for delivery is head first, with the front feet one on each side of the nose. Sometimes the presentation is wrong and delivery cannot take place. without aid being given. In that case the shepherd is fortunate if he has a small, strong hand. He should lubricate his hand and wrist well with lard, which may be disinfected with a little turpentine mixed with it, and carefully introducing the hand feel slowly and thoughtfully about to see what is wrong. There must be no long or rough finger nails on his hand to wound and cause irritation. A front leg bent backward can be straightened out, the head turned back must be brought forward. If a presentation of the hind feet first is had delivery may take place. As soon as the lamb is delivered, if the ewe is weak, the shepherd should in her place clear the mucus from the nostrils of the lamb so that it may breathe and rub it dry, then get it to take some of its mother's milk.

In case of a dead lamb within the ewe, it must be taken away and her womb washed out well with warm water, then disinfected with a 1 per cent. solution of disinfectant like "Zenoleum." If the lamb has been long dead before being removed, it is doubtful if she wil recover, owing to absorption of poisonous matter from the decaying tissues.

Should the lambs be born in very severe weather, especially if there be twins, it may be necessary for the shepherd to assist a little in the way of keeping them warm until their mother's milk has given them a store of internal heat. An old barrel sawn in

two is a convenient thing to have at hand. In this may be placed a jug of hot water about which the new born lamb may be curled, with a blanket thrown across the top, and there he will keep as warm as toast until such time as his mother can give him her attention. A slightly chilled lamb may be revived in this manner, although if through neglect one should become almost chilled to death, more energetic measures are necessary. In that case immerse the lamb in bot water, as hot as the shepherd can bear his hand within, immersing it bodily except the nose, the water being reenforced occasionally to maintain the heat, until finally the natural heat is restored. The writer has almost resurrected dead lambs by this method, and as soon as they have regained their strength enough to desire to suck one's finger, they may be given a teaspoonful of cream with a little hot water added, and occasionally, if still weak, a drop of whiskey. It is better not to give much cow's milk to a chilled lamb, but take it as soon as practicable to its mother, helping it to nurse and get a store of her own specially prepared milk, which seems to have in it a wonderful capacity for imparting warmth to the new born offspring. In fact the writer has never known a lamb to chill to death after once being safely delivered and filled naturally with its mother's milk, and he has seen the most astonishing instances of little lambs a day or two old as warm as need be when the thermometer was far down in the tube. When many twins are being born, as will happen during some seasons, the grateful shepherd will find his cares not a little increased, although very happily so, and another useful convenience is a box or half-barrel full of dry wheat bran, in which the newly born lamb may be buried all but his nose, until his mother is delivered of her other lamb; when she may give them both her attention. This bran keeps the animal heat in the little lamb's body, and as much of it as may stick to him will be licked off by the ewe when she has time to give him her attention. Occasionally a ewe will fail in maternal instinct and give her lambs either no attention at all, or such slight attention as to impair their chances of life. It is more apt to happen with young ewes that have never yeaned, or with those that have been improperly nourished, so that they have no milk in their udders. In the case of the young ewe, a little patience on the part of the shepherd is all that is necessary. It may be required to hold her for a few times while the lamb sucks, after which she will generally be good, and her mother love will grow. Always the shepherd should turn the ewe gently upon her rump when first the lamb is born, and if it has not already been done, clip away loose tags of wool that may be upon her udder and which the inexperienced lamb may seize instead of the teat. Then start the milk, which may require a little effort, and holding the lamb to the teat, see to it that it takes in a few mouthfuls of milk. This little attention will save the lives of many lambs, and requires but a minute of time. The writer has found it most practical to kneel down by the side of the ewe, supporting her body with his left arm while she sits upon her rump, then taking the lamb by the head with his right hand, gently lay it down upon its side and draw it forward until, still reclining upon the ground, it reaches her teat. By putting his little finger in the lamb's mouth, he readily gets it hold of the right place, when

instinct does the rest and the milk begins to be transferred from the mother to the lamb. Should the ewe prove very refractory toward her lamb, it may be necessary to confine her head in a small stanchion, which may be simple stakes driven into the earthen floor of the sheep shed and fastened at the top with a cord. Thus confined she cannot injure the lamb, and after it has learned the way, it will draw its nourishment whether she will or no. This, however, is very seldom required when a ewe has her own lamb by her side. Occasionally a lamb will die, or be born dead, and its mother have sufficient milk so that it is desirable that she should take another lamb to raise. If there should be a supply of twins at hand this is easy of accomplishment. The best plan is to carefully remove the skin of the dead lamb as soon as possible after its death, taking the off nearly whole, as one would strip a stocking from his foot, sprinkling salt over the flesh side of the skin, so that it may not become offensive, and at once draw it on over the lamb that is to be adopted, putting the little legs through the holes where the other lamb's legs were, and fitting it on as neatly as a glove. Then by placing this skin-clad lamb in the pen with the bereaved ewe, she will nearly always adopt it at once as her own.

There is reason for this phenomenon, that, well understood, helps a shepherd through a number of perplexities. The reason is, that the ewe knows her lamb only by its scent, and putting her nose down upon the skin of the lamb she has lost, she at once concludes that it is her own, and that she has been mistaken about its death. Should she be at first a little doubtful, to gently hold her a few times while the lamb sucks, will tend to reassure her until she will accept the new charge as her own. The writer has practiced this transferring for many years, and never so far as he can remember, has it failed to effect the desired end, although sometimes when the dead lamb was very large and the new one much smaller, the ewe has been rather skeptical as to her responsibility for the new infant, and recourse to the stanchion has been had for a day or two. The philosophy of the stanchion is similar to that of the lamb's skin. If the lamb can partake of the ewe's milk for a few days, it will then have an odor such as instinct tells her it should have to be her own, and she will accept it. Whereas the ewe knows her lamb by smell, the lamb knows its mother only by her voice, and the writer has seen a very pretty sight oftentimes in the flock when a mother, feeling by her swelling udder that there is in it nourishment for her lamb, has begun to call it, when it would at once recognize her tones and forsaking its comrades go with a rush to attend to the dinner call. Very wonderful is the faculty of a lamb to distinguish from more than a thousand ewes its own mother's tones, and the writer has seen upon his own western ranch oftentimes a bunch of 500 or 600 lambs playing upon a sunny hillside, the ewes on an opposite side of the gulch, when all at once some ewe coming out from among the throng would call to her absent offspring and in a few moments one would disengage himself from his comrades and rush across the hillside, approach his mother, who, although she had seen him many thousands of times before, refused to acknowledge his kinship until she had bestowed the familiar salutation of touching her nose upon his rump. Then re