feet tied than when they are free. The proper way to shear sheep either by hand or with the shearer is to let it rest naturally upon its rump or side with the neck thrown across the shepherd's knee as he kneels upon the ground and all of the feet completely off of the ground. The animal soon submits when it finds it cannot touch the ground with its feet, and patiently permits the wool to be cut away. As has been mentioned, it is desirable, wherever possible, that the shepherd should shear his own flock. Where this is not possible he should at least stand by and see that the wool is cut evenly and closely without second cuttings to shorten the fiber and make a veritable shoddy of a part of this new fleece, and that the sheep itself is not hacked and cut in an unnecessary manner. The fleece should be rolled together with the loose ends and flying locks in the center with all the dirty tags and chunks of manure thrown out, so that nothing goes into the fleece but wool, then roll it so that the outer ends of the fibers shall be in the center of the fleece. Tie only moderately tight, on a long flat box or table, using proper wool twine, and never under any circumstance using binder twine which greatly diminishes the value of the fleece. Not too many wraps of twine should be made either, seeing that it is a waste product to the buyer, and the profit by using an excess of twine is hardly sufficient to counterbalance the loss of character to the man who thus indulges his instinct for dishonesty. The reason why binder twine so injures the fleece is that small fibers of it entering the fabric refuse to take the dye stuffs, and must afterward be picked out by hand, a most slow and laborious proceeding. Honesty in preparing the fleece pays right well, seeing that a whole region sooner or later attains a reputation for honest wool or for the other thing, and prices will be governed in that region thereby.

Very early born lambs should be shore in the spring if they are to be kept over and remain a permanent part of the flock, seeing that they will thrive better during summer for the removal of their fleeces. Use of the shearing machine in late spring or summer must be practiced with some care seeing that it may be made to cut so closely that the sheep is not protected against flies which readily bite the skin and cause great annoyance. It is not unlikely that ticks will be found upon the flock at shearing time, and if even a dozen are seen the shepherd may feel assured that there are more hidden upon the lambs, and as soon as the fleeces are removed, everything should go through the dip vat. This costs merely the labor and a trifle for dip, seeing that a very small quantity suffices after the fleeces are off the ewes will hardly require to drain at all at this time and they may be run through in a half day by the efforts of three or four men.

DOCKING AND CASTRATION.

Lambs that are surely to go to market in winter, fat from their mothers' sides, should be neither docked nor castrated. If there is any chance of their living for six months they should be both docked and castrated. Docking or cutting off the tail is a very simple operation and is usually performed after the lamb is a week old by a single stroke of the knife, or by the use of the chisel. It may bleed seriously, however, if cut close and the lamb is well bred and

full fed, in fact the writer has seen the best of lambs die from bleeding in this way.

There is a safer way, that is to cut off the tails with docking pinchers made of iron and heated to redness. These sever and sear the arteries at the same time and there is no bleeding at all. With the docking pinchers tails may be docked very close, which adds. to the attractiveness of the lamb. These docking pinchers may be bought of sheep supply houses or made by the country smith; they ought to open three inches wide and be made with plenty of iron in them to hold heat. They should be rather blunt, at least not sharp enough to cut when cold. In using docking pinchers a board with a hole through it about 1 inch in diameter, or larger, if the lambs are old, is needed through which the tail is thrust when there is no danger of burning the lamb in the wrong place. After docking, pine tar may be smeared liberally over the stump to repel flies.

Castration of young lambs is a simple operation performed with small danger of loss. It should not be deferred longer than when the lamb is strong enough to endure the shock, say at ten days. The end of the scrotum is cut away and the testicles squeezed out, one at a time, and pulled clear out, cords and all, with the fingers. A little lard with which turpentine has been mixed, inserted in the opening, helps to deter the invasion of germs and healing rapidly follows.

Should old rams need castration, however, the use of the knife is almost surely fatal. Here the writer has used the docking pinchers with good success, having them very hot and taking off the entire scrotum with its contents. Six year old rams thus castrated have not missed a feed and have fattened readily. There is rarely any death loss following this manner of castration.

WINTER FEEDING OF WESTERN LAMBS.

The writer has for fourteen years practiced feeding lambs in winter that had been born the previous spring. It was originally his practice to buy native lambs, born in his own state or in some adjoining state, although for the last eight or ten years he has fed only lambs from western ranges. This lamb feeding is a trade of itself, and belongs especially to a country rich in grain and hay, having little pasture land. It has proved a profitable business with the writer, following it thus through a long term of years, although many men who have taken it up for one year or two and happened to strike seasons of low prices, have failed to make it pay. Like keeping sheep upon the farm, one must practice it steadily to get the most satisfactory results, seeing that experience costs money and once had, one should not throw it away. There is not the same degree of profit as a rule in fattening these lambs that there is in growing lambs and fattering them by their mother's side upon the farm, the one advantage being that all the crops and farm may be devoted to the lambs, whereas we have not yet learned to successfully keep in summer great numbers of ewes and lambs upon our rich arable soils without running across some of the stumbling blocks that have been indicated in previous pages. For instance, the writer has kept about 100 ewes upon his farm (sometimes nearly double this number) without diffi

culty in keeping them healthy. But the farm itself, consisting of 320 acres, has been so enriched by a course of sheep farming and sheep feeding that it now provides food enough for 1,500 lambs during the winter months, in addition to the regular farm flock.

The feeding of lambs in winter time is a subject broad enough to deserve a special bulletin itself, but we will here briefly set down. some of the rules, the following of which have brought success to us on Woodland Farm. First, we provide dry, well-aired barns where the lambs may shelter, and yet where they breathe air practically as pure as that out of doors. Next, we provide racks in which every lamb may find a place to eat at the same time so that no one has to wait for another. Third, we provide water pure enough for human consumption and in unlimited supply. Then we buy the small range lambs, getting them to weigh between 40 to 50 pounds in the Chicago market. We choose, where possible, those that have evidence of a mutton cross in them. Naturally these small lambs are born late in summer, else they would have been heavier and are therefore young when we begin to feed them—a point in their favor, seeing that the younger the baby the more food sticks to its ribs. We bring them home in October or November, and after they have rested a day or two on pasture and filled up somewhat and taken water, we dip them (unless they are already dipped at the stock yards before shipment to us) and place them at once in the barn, and give them from this time on, only dry forage with corn silage.

The next feeding of thirty days is of early cut alfalfa hay only, after which time they have sufficiently recovered their strength and tone so that their digestion is capable of taking care of other food. We then open the silo and begin the feeding of corn silage. This corn silage is made from well matured corn of varieties naturally ripening in our climate, planted no closer together than for the ordinary field crop and having on it an abundance of well ripened ears at the time it is cut. Corn silage and alfalfa hay continue to be without other grain until some time in January when they are gradually introduced to ear corn, broken at first into short lengths so as to be more easily shelled. This ear corn is slowly and steadily increased in volume until after thirty days they are consuming almost as much of it as they desire, it being our rule, however, never to feed quite as much as they would eat. Attached to the barns are small yards in which the lambs may run, the yards being dry and sheltered and at feeding times the lambs are all driven into the yards to be out of the way in the barn. They are thereafter permitted to run in and out as they please, although the writer feels that he is thus sacrificing quite a little of the fertility that they would accumulate if kept more constantly in the barn. In March they are shorn and in April or May they are sent to market weighing 85 to 90 pounds. It is notable that under the treatment indicated, which has from long practice become a habit with the writer's brothers and men upon the farm, the lambs ripen so uniformly that out of 1,000 sent to market in 1905, there were but seven that were sold at a different price from the rest, and but two that could in any way he termed "culls."

A few principles of management occurring to the writer as being important are, first, never to attempt to build up these small, half

famished lambs with grain until they have become strong and hearty through consuming clover or alfalfa hay. Next, to make all changes in grain food very gradual, and never to reach quite the limit of their appetites. Then to feed with great regularity as to time of day, and lastly, to disturb the lambs as little as possible, for instance in the afternoons when they lie down to sleep, never to waken them under any pretext, treating them as you would any babies, with thoughtful and loving-kindness. The writer has not found it profitable to attempt to fatten these lambs with any other forage than clover or alfalfa hay, having found timothy hay, corn fodder and oat straw very unsuitable parts of the ration, and only useful where goodly quantities of wheat bran were fed in connection to provide the required protein.

DISEASES OF SHEEP.

The writer can almost say as was said in the famous essay upon snakes in Ireland, "There are no diseases of sheep," aside from infection from parasites. Tuberculosis among sheep is almost unknown. They will occasionally suffer from rheumatism, probably, and rams may be afflicted with gravel where overfed, upon sugar beets or mangels. There is an occasional instance of brain trouble aside from the parasites that encyst within the brain, but all of these things are of too difficult treatment and too infrequent occurrence to be given consideration here. As a matter of fact, a sick sheep, unless it have parasites that can be removed by treatment, is beyond human aid practically, at least, seeing that the cost of an expert veterinary would be greater than the value of the animal, and indeed the writer has found sickness aside from parasitic infection, the least of his troubles with the flock. There will always be a few that unaccountably die, and the probable cause in the writer's experience, has been overfeeding with grain. In the barns where lambs are fattening there will be a death loss of from two to four per cent. every winter, and this is most certainly due to indigestion, caused sometimes by the carelessness of attendants and sometimes is unavoidable. The shepherd must expect some disaster, but plan to keep it as low as possible. There is one misfortune that is worth some attention here and that is

SUMMER BLOATING UPON RAPE, CLOVER OR ALFALFA.

The inquiring reader may wonder why the sheep has so large a first stomach or paunch, and why it troubles to burden itself with so much hastily gathered forage, which later it regurgitates, raises again to the mouth and chews at its leisure, sending it onward to the lower stomachs where digestion mainly takes place. The reason of this must be sought in the nature of the sheep. It is a timid and helpless animal, forced to a life of caution, and compelled by instinct of self-preservation to hide itself upon inaccessible crags during the day, whence at evening it would emerge to the verdant slopes below and hastily snatch forage with which it could retreat. This food it would chew at its leisure in the safety of its retreat. In a state of nature the sheep found little very rich food, and ate mainly bulky food of only moderate nutrition. When introduced then to very rich pastures such as clover, alfalfa or rape, its instinct

does not teach it to eat with moderation, but it greedily packs the large paunch with the succulent stems and leaves which oftentimes soon set up a fermentation there causing an evolution of gases which may cause great inconvenience and distress to the sheep, or even result in death. Not every case of bloating kills the animal, since if the paunch is not too full the gas is belched up and no great harm ensues. Should it be overburdened, however, the pressure may throw a mass of food against the inlet, so that it is closed, and relief by belching is difficult or impossible and the continued creation of this gas may so distend the paunch as to rupture it or to prevent breathing by pressure upon the lungs. There are several simple remedies for mild cases that will prove availing; to hold up the head and keep the mouth open will assist the sheep to belch up gas, so that a stick or a cob thrust between the jaws and held there with the head elevated will be of service, and the shepherd should stand astride the ewe and press firmly but not violently against its distended sides with his knees, holding up the head, which will often give relief in a very few minutes. To administer by the mouth, lime water is helpful and a half pint of raw linseed oil in which is a teaspoonful of turpentine has proved efficient with some experimenters. Since heat causes the evolving of these gases, to pour on cold water upon the left side where the paunch reaches the surface will often relieve the suffering, if at the same time attention is given to cause as much gas to be belched up as possible. The writer has often treated cows upon a ranch in Utah, by standing them with their heads up hill, clubs tied in their mouths and placing ice upon their distended sides, having never lost one. Sometimes, however, all of these expedients prove insufficient and recourse must be had to surgery. There is a spot on the left side about five inches from the spine where the paunch very closely approaches the skin, and here if a small incision be made the gas will escape. There must, however, be a small tube inserted and this kept clear of obstruction at the lower end else the pressure of food against it will cause the cessation of flow. If no trochar is at hand (one should always be upon a grazing farm, seeing that cattle as well as sheep may need it) a penknife will serve to make the incision, and a piece of reed fishing pole or any hollow stick inserted will permit the escape of gas. The operator must keep hold of the tube, however, else it will be drawn into the paunch where it will be impossible of extraction, the writer having thus imposed upon one ewe which curiously enough survived the barbarous operation, although just what she ever did with the pipe stem has been a mystery ever since, seeing that she could not raise it by regurgitation and neither could it pass on.

PASTURING OF CLOVER, ALFALFA AND RAPE.

There is a right and a wrong way of pasturing these bloating crops. The right way is to first permit them to reach a degree of maturity so that the clover or alfalfa are not far short of bloom before the sheep are turned in. There should also be sown among them brome grass, timothy or some other non- leguminous plant seeing that where a mixture of clover and grasses exists sheep will eat alternately one with the other and thus be much less subject