we is pregnant for one hundred and
fifty days, this arrangement causes her to drop her lambs at the end
of autumn when the temperature is mild and the grass is renewed by the
first rains. During the breeding season the flock should drink only
the same kind of water, since a change not only makes spotted wool but
injures the offspring. When all the ewes have been stinted, the rams
should be separated from them again, because it injures ewes to be
teased while they are pregnant. Ewe lambs should never be bred before
they are two years old, as they cannot earlier produce strong lambs,
but will themselves degenerate: indeed, it is better to keep them
until the third year. To this end some shepherds protect their ewe
lambs from the ram by tying baskets made of rushes or something of
that kind over their rumps, but it is better to feed them apart from
the flock.

"I come now to the consideration of how lambs should be raised.

"When the ewes begin to yean they are driven into a stable which has
stalls set apart for the purpose, where the new born lambs can be
placed near a fire to strengthen them, and there the ewes are kept two
or there days until the lambs know their dams and are able to feed
themselves. Thereafter the lambs are still kept up but the ewes are
driven out to pasture with the flock, being brought back to them in
the evening to be suckled and then once more separated, lest the lambs
be trampled by the ewes at night. In the morning before the ewes go
out to pasture they are given access to their young again until the
lambs are satisfied with milk. After about ten days have elapsed the
lambs are picketed out of doors, being tethered with fibre or such
other light material, to stakes planted some distance apart so that
the little fellows may not injure themselves as they frisk together
all day.

"If a lamb will not suck, it should be held up to the teat and its lips
greased with butter or suet, and so made to smell at the milk. A few
days later some soft vetch or tender grass may be given them before
they go out to pasture and after they come in. And so they are nursed
until they are four months old.

"There are some shepherds who do not milk the ewes during the nursing
period, but those who do not milk them at all do better, as thus they
bear more wool and more lambs.

"When the lambs are weaned great attention is necessary to prevent them
from wasting away in their longing for the dam: they should be tempt