rattle cans. This noise will not only keep them on their feet, but will scare them along much faster than a barking dog that always turns your leaders back on you. Rattle cans will always startle young lambs out of the brush much quicker than any dog when it is necessary to move them. It sometimes takes two or three hours for all the ewes in a large band to find their lambs after being trailed. Until these ewes have all found their lambs there is danger of a "runback" should you leave them. Ewes will invariably become excited and run back to where they saw their lambs last whenever they miss them. Avoid this extra work, and the hardship on the ewes and lambs, by watching them until all the ewes have found their lambs whenever you have moved them. Losing lambs while trailing will generally cause the ewe to become sick with spoiled udder or "blue bag."

ACCIDENTAL MIXING.

We have seen men try to separate ewes and lambs that have become mixed through their carelessness, or by accident, before the boss got around, causing heavy loss. Warn the men never to try this; they never, or very seldom, can part them straight. In a mix of this kind—we trust there will not be any—by all means try to leave the ewes quiet; hold them still a few hours, not too close, so each ewe can single out her lamb and become contented. This gives other ewes a chance to find their lambs without running from one part of the range to another. When these mixed bunches are not rushed and pushed around they will likely straighten themselves out with as few "bums" as possible under such conditions. Should a mix of this kind make more than a full band, the owner or foreman should put a light slat corral around the bunch (this can be done quicker than moving them to a distant corral), then counting out the number of ewes over and above a normal herd. He should spend considerable time watching these ewes call their lambs out through "lamb holes" made in all parts of the corral.

MIXING, SHELTER, COYOTES, BADGER HOLES.

To keep each bunch of ewes and lambs from mixing with another bunch; to have them in good shelter during any storm; to milk out ewes with large teats and suckle their lambs until they are able to take the teat themselves, are respectively the most important work for lambing hands. It will be well to keep the men reminded that they will do much, indeed, for you and the sheep by being "on the job" at all times. The sheep may need their attention any moment; they may mix at any time; coyotes are never all asleep; there may be a lamb in a hole that should be pulled out before the ewe loses it; a lamb may have become clogged behind and need cleaning; an oncoming storm may make it necessary to place and hold them in shelter until it has passed. A live, watchful person is worth much indeed at lambing time. A sleepy-head has little value around sheep at any time.

FORETELLING WEATHER—ALMANACS, BAROMETERS.

Although general storms are expected by everyone, they are considered an abnormal condition. Severity is seldom guarded against, which has often brought much loss at lambing time. Such storms may compel you to make many changes, depending upon their duration and severity. They will test the quality of your endurance. Stay with the ship and save the lambs. The necessary changing of position may make much extra work for everyone. Necessity is the origin of achievement. With your persistent patience, together with your best mental effort, you will come out of the storm with most of the lambs, giving you the baa! baa! as their thanks. As an illustration, perhaps the reader may pardon the following true story: Some years ago while trailing two bands of ewes upon the desert, we, by mishap, became short of camp water. However, necessity strengthened our observing power, causing us to find a ledge of rock at the side of which grew a few wild rose bushes. Here with no little perseverance we dug until we found sufficient water for camp, making a watering place for others where it was always thought impossible for water to be. Who can say, had it been absolutely necessary to water the sheep, also, that we might not have made a pump out of the stove pipe, a handle out of the wagon tongue, a trough out of the wagon box, and with this invention watered the two bands of ewes also? After many years of close observation of weather conditions, during all seasons of the year, we are able to give you valuable information upon the weather you may expect SOME TIME during the seven days following any of the moon's changes. We cannot say upon what exact date certain weather changes will take place, but do state the weather that is most likely to predominate during any of the moon's phases. When the new moon in any month comes in upon his back, these storms will be more severe than when it comes in standing up. The Indian had no powder horn. When the moon is moving from south to north it seldom fails to bring warmth, while it hardly ever fails to bring cold weather upon its return from the north. You should have a reliable almanac, giving the exact time of each of the moon's changes in the standard time of your locality. A storm-glass or barometer will keep you posted 24 to 36 hours before any weather change. This may save you lambs. This table can be used any part of the year, allowing for snow in winter where the calculations foretell rain in summer. If the new moon, first quarter, full moon, or last quarter come in during the time given, the weather most likely to follow SOME TIME during the next seven days will be as follows:

12 midnight to 2 a. m.—Fair days, cold nights.

2 a. m. to 8 a. m.—Cold and rainy.

8 a. m. to 2:30 p. m.—Windy or heavy rains.

2:30 p. m. to 6 p. m.—Fair and warm.

6 p. m. to 12 p. m.—Fair days, cold nights.

We have found the new moon most likely to bring an exception to this rule, still we assure you this table is worth your consideration during all seasons of the year. Keep your lambs in shelter during severe storms by reading a good almanac and watching this table.

HERDING, DOGS AND FEED.

The good shepherd is not born every day. A quiet, unexcitable mental characteristic is the utmost necessity. Nervous, excitable people become too easily angered; they will wear themselves and the sheep out with over-work and abuse, while the overly sentimental person becomes too easily disheartened; others have to do his work while he stands around telling you in a sorrowful tone how it broke his heart to see that poor twin lamb die, during which time other lambs in his care are dying from his neglect. He is the first to give up the ship when "everything goes dead wrong." Most ewes, and especially two-year-olds, are very timid and easily frightened from their lambs when left out by themselves or in small bunches. For this and other reasons it is best to have few dogs upon a lambing ground, especially around the dropping ewes. If any, they should be in care of experienced men only, for whom they may head off a bad mix or find a lamb in a hole, etc. Inexperienced men never watch their dogs close enough, when the very best of dogs will scare many ewes from their lambs, even though they are not very near