Transcriber's note:
Changes to the text and known problems are listed at the end of the
book. Text bracketed by underscores was in italics in the original book,
i. e. _words in italics_. Words in the text (not the titles or cover
page) which are ALL CAPITALS were small capitals in the original book.
Total Per Cent
Lambing Rules
[Illustration]
COPYRIGHT 1915
BY
THOMAS BOYLAN
_Total Per Cent Lambing Rules_
_Copyright 1915 by Thomas Boylan_
_To Those Lambing Ewes_:
It is quite impossible to give rules that will cover each day all your
environs, as shelter, feed and water, help, etc. However, under ordinary
circumstances, the following will prove successful:
These pages being written for the one who would try, it is the object
and desire of the writer to explain to the inexperienced hand, in a
plain manner, the work of lambing sheep, especially under range
conditions. Having made a study of the work for years, we have seen the
utter impossibility of verbally explaining the many necessary details to
the "new men" each year. We admit lambing ewes in large numbers
successfully is somewhat of a fine art, still common sense, patience and
endurance will allow any one adapted to the care of live stock--which
means a person who appreciates the worth and meaning of life in any
form--to lamb sheep. Common sense will permit any one to readily have at
least some idea of the physical endurance, both as to temperature and
nutrition, of the animal in his care. The patience which enables you to
endure the inclemency of any surrounding for their welfare, is also
necessary, for it, too, prevents that hostile, or we might say hideous
mood of mind which causes so many people to abuse live stock when it is
absolutely uncalled for.
It should be self-evident to the ordinary person that life in its
beginning is easily overcome by death; that nature has endowed man with
a higher intellect that he may care for that life which in his esteem
has sufficient worth to justify that care. A providing nature has
endowed the sheep with many desires and inclinations, which, while quite
clear to the naturalist, to the casual observer and shepherd often
appear very contrary. That the sheep is the most contrary animal, other
than the hog, is an assertion which often comes from a lack of knowledge
of its nature.
True, when unintelligently selected surroundings compel you to howl,
whistle, and dog it out of its natural contentment, it often becomes
contrary, but this mood is forced upon it by its environs, of which the
barking dog and the unintelligent and noisy shepherd are generally the
greatest fault.
Allow sheep their natural contentment by leaving them to their own care
whenever possible. They will then hold themselves to the herd and very
seldom stray off. Tending sheep in this manner will permit them to show
you their wants and necessities. Provide them when you can, for it pays
the owner and always lightens your work.
Although sheep will soon become used to the whistling and holloing
shepherd, together with the barking dog, apparently paying little
attention to them, they do, nevertheless, fret, causing them to roughen
and lose in flesh. We have seen sheep become so thin by such treatment
that they were actually too weak to follow the herd longer. They will
always do their best to stray away from such surroundings. Sheep know
the intelligent shepherd never whistles, hollos, or rushes the dog at
them unless it is absolutely necessary, and they very readily mind such
a person.
Surely it is not the sheep that is at fault when the shepherd selects as
their pasture, during a stormy day, a bleak flat or mesa, where the
sheep in their discontent are compelled to run around seeking shelter or
to maintain their warmth, vexing the herder, causing him to dog them
severely.
BEGINNING.
Should you have plenty of pasture, put your dropping ewes upon the
lambing ground 143 days after the rams were first with them. This gives
them a little time to locate, their dropping time not being up until the
145th day. If lambing upon the open range, two or three good, live men
to each 1,000 ewes will be necessary, while for shed lambing there
should be four or five for that number of ewes. In each case the amount
of help necessary depends upon the range and method of lambing. The men
should have enough clothing and bedding to be out in all kinds of
weather without chilling. Inform them that abusing the sheep by using
the crook as a club, dogging, or otherwise, will not help you nor ease
their work in the least. Truly, the man worth while in a lambing camp is
"the man who can smile when everything goes dead wrong"--the man who
sees many things and can find the time, the way, and the will, to better
them.
Do not bed dropping ewes upon steep hillsides, where they will cast
themselves during or before lambing. It may often become necessary to
bed small bunches out by themselves; this gives the coyote a great
chance to do his work. To keep him and other predatory animals away
during the night, it is well to have firecrackers, fuse, or powder,
scare-crows and lanterns on hand. To catch and chain a live coyote out
upon the lambing ground has been the most effective scare-crow the
writer has ever used to keep coyotes from the lambing range. As a
disinfectant for bites, cuts, sores and maggots, have carbolic acid,
turpentine, or some good creosote sheep dip. Marking materials are also
very handy at times to mark certain ewes and lambs. The remedies given
here for the treatment of ailments generally found at lambing time are
not those found at a drug store twenty miles away, but, rather, those
camp necessities which are most always at hand. They have proven their
merit and can be relied upon.