How to Do Things

Sheep     |     Shearing

Shearing Sheep

     A sheep's fleece pays for its keep; the mutton is clear profit.  When each fleece represents several dollars, there is pretty good reason for care at shearing time.

     About the first of May is the time to shear sheep in most sections.  When the weather is warm enough that the shorn sheep will not suffer, the work can be safely done.  Sheep that carry their fleeces into the summer lose more in body weight than the slight increase in weight of fleece will repay.

     If a clean floor is not available on which to do the work, make one of some boards, so the fleeces will not be filled with dirt.

[Illustration: Fig. 1]

For most purposes it is advisable to have a shearing-machine, but where there are but a few head on the farm, and no neighbors to share the cost of buying a machine, hand shears may be used.  On quite a few farms the shearing is done with hand shears.  An expert can work about as rapidly with hand shears as with a shearing-machine, but an amateur can not do such good work with the hand shears.

     The fleece must not be torn apart when it is removed.  It should be rolled into a compact bundle and tied.  A handy board for tying is shown in Fig. 1; the boards are hinged.  The dotted lines are twine.  After a fleece is placed on the boards, they are closed as shown in Fig. 2, closing parts A first, then B, of Fig. 1.

[Illustration: Fig. 2]

A notched stick holds the boards together.  Then the fleece is tied.  Binder twine is objectionable for tying because the fibre from the twine gets into the wool and makes it bring a lower price.  Bags should be packed separately, else the fleece will sell for a lower price.

     It is a good plan for neighbors to go together to do their shearing.  Likewise they may sell all their wool together, and buy their supplies together.  Enough growers should unite so that several thousand pounds of each grade of wool can be marketed at a time.

     Dipping sheep for the control of ticks is usually done after they are sheared.  Any reliable stock dip is all right for this purpose.

95

How to Do Things

Feeding Rack     |     Sheep

A Rack for Feeding Sheep Will Prevent Waste of Hay

     Sheep need plenty of good alfalfa or clover hay.  If they have it, they require less grain.  That does not mean they should have access to the hayracks.  Neither does it endorse the practice of scattering hay about on the ground.  The plenty is best provided by feeding the ricks in racks where not a bit of the hay is wasted.  This rack shown here is easy to build.  It will save both time and feed.

     A hayrack like this, sixteen feet long, will have about $7 worth of lumber in it, if it is substantially put together.  Four by four inch timbers are used for posts.  It will take two at each end and two for the center.

     Nail cross supports to each post about ten inches from the ground; then nail on the floor boards which will form a bottom for the rack.  A 2 x 4 inch piece is nailed along the outside of the posts, making a fender for the trough.

     It pays to make everything solid.  The four-inch strips for the rack are spaced about three inches apart and supported at the top by a frame made of 2 x 6 material.  Board the end up solid for a brace.

     These materials are used:  Six 4 x 4 inch x 6 foot posts; three 2 x 4 inch x 3 foot cross supports; two 2 x 4 inch x 16 foot trough fenders; seventy 1 x 4 inch x 3 foot slats; five 1 x 8 inch x 16 foot floor boards.

96

How to Do Things

Sheep     |     Parasites

Treatment for Sheep Parasites

     Sheep raising must be made safe, for there is a serious shortage of wool.  Two arch enemies which cause great loss of life and vitality in sheep are the lung-worm and stomach-worm.

     Modern munitions have been developed for fighting these foes.  The old method of fighting lung-worms was to "gas" them by fumigating the animals with burning sulphur, or by sticking each animal's head into a sack containing a hot brick from which iodine was evaporated by the heat.  The new method is to inject chloroform directly into the sheep's nostrils.

     The injection may be made with a medicine dropper, fountain-pen filler or small syringe.  The dose is from thirty to sixty drops, but we scarcely can advise any one other than a trained veterinarian to give the treatment.  If it must be done by the layman, one lamb should be treated with a half dose and the effects watched; then others may be experimentally treated with increasing amounts until the safe dose is found.  The chloroform stupefies the threadlike worms in the windpipe and air-passages of the lungs, and they are coughed up and swallowed by the sheep.  this being true, it is well to give them a full dose of Epsom salts shortly after the chloroform has been administered.  The dose for an adult sheep is four ounces dissolved in warm water.  This is the best purgative for sheep.

Preventatives

     More important than medicinal treatment to keep lambs free from lung-worms is to pasture them upon new grass each spring, never allowing them to graze bare-bitten, sheep-tainted pastures.  It also is imperative to keep the lambs thriving at all times by supplying plenty of nutritious feed.  A mixture of oats and bran may be fed in addition to grass, if the pastures should become short; and other green feed should be supplied as a soiling crop.

     The old method of fighting stomach-worms was to give three doses of gasoline on three successive days, the gasoline being mixed with new milk and raw linseed-oil to make an emulsion.  This treatment did not always kill the worms, and sometimes killed the sheep.  The new plan recommended by Drs. Hall and Winthrop, zoologists of the Department of Agriculture, conserves time and man power, and those who have tried it say it is much more effective than the gasoline treatment.

     A one per cent. solution of pure sulphate of copper (bluestone) is made by adding one and one-quarter ounces of the bluest crystals to one gallon of hot water; of this the dose is one ounce for a lamb of comparatively small size and one and three-quarter ounces for a large, strong lamb or sheep.  Only one dose is needed and no physic need be given after this drug.  The solution may be measured in a glass graduate and administered by means of a small rubber tube and funnel inserted in the sheep's mouth, or it may be given from a long-necked bottle.

97

How to Do Things

Feed for Lambs     |     Sheep

Good Clover is Better for Lambs Than Poor Alfalfa

     When the same grain ration is fed, no matter whether the grain consists of corn alone or of clover and linseed-meal, the lambs fed clover or alfalfa make larger gains, require less feed per pound o fgain and produce gains at a lower cost for feed than do those given either oat straw or corn stover.

     The value of leguminous roughages is generally appreciated by lamb feeders; and most of them know that so far as efficiency is concerned clover and alfalfa hay are unsurpassed for finishing lambs.  On most farms, however, there are always such roughages as oat straw or corn stover that it is desirable to utilize in the feeding operations.  there are years when legumes are a partial or total failure, or not enough legumes may be raised to feed as many lambs as desired.  In such cases timothy hay, oat straw or corn stover are fed.

Protein Must Be Supplied

     These non-leguminous feeds, however, do not prove satisfactory as sole roughages for fattening lambs.  They may be used in the earlier part of a long feeding period, provided the lambs are finished on a more efficient roughage like clover or alfalfa, or they may be used as a part of the roughages.

     Such feeds as timothy hay, oat straw and corn stover are low in protein, and should be supplemented with a high-protein feed like linseed-meal.  The addition of linseed-meal to corn and either oat straw or corn stover results in larger and cheaper gains and higher finish on the lambs.  Still, the gains made by these lambs are more costly than those produced by clover or alfalfa.

     When both roughages are of equal quality, clover and alfalfa have about equal values for fattening lambs.  Alfalfa usually is harvested in better condition than clover, and commands a higher price on the market.  The results of these feeding tests justify a warning to feeders not to overvalue alfalfa to the extent of feeding an inferior grade of this hay when good clover may be had at a lower price.