“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 tempted to eat by giving them appetizing food, and care should be taken that they do not suffer from cold or heat.  When at last they have forgotten the taste of milk and no longer yearn for the dam, they may be driven out with the flock.

“A ram lamb should not be altered until he is five months old, nor yet in very hot or very cold weather.  Those which you wish to keep for rams should be chosen as far as possible from dams who are in the habit of having twin lambs.

“Most of these recommendations apply equally to those fine wool sheep which are called pellitae, because they are jacketed with skins, as is done at Tarentum and in Attica, to protect their wool from fouling, for by this precaution the fleece is kept in better plight for dyeing, washing or cleaning.  Greater diligence is required to keep clean the folds and stables of such sheep than is necessary for the ordinary breeds:  so they are paved with stone to the end that no urine may stand anywhere in the stable.

“Sheep eat whatever is put before them—­fig leaves, marc, even straw.  Bran should be fed to them in moderation, lest they eat either too much or too little of it, in either of which cases it is bad for the digestion, but clover and alfalfa agree with them best and make both fat and milk with the utmost facility.

“So far as concerns the health of the flock, there are many things I might add, but, as Scrofa has said, the flock master keeps his prescriptions written down in a book and carries with him what he needs in the way of physic.