Total Per Cent Lambing Rules — Context and Discussion

The Shepherd's Temperament

Boylan devotes considerable attention to the mental qualities of a good shepherd. He warns against 'nervous, excitable people' who 'wear themselves and the sheep out with over-work and abuse,' as well as the 'overly sentimental person' who becomes disheartened and neglects duties. The ideal shepherd possesses a 'quiet, unexcitable mental characteristic.' This psychological profile is not abstract: Boylan ties it directly to lamb survival, noting that a shepherd who stands around lamenting a dead twin lamb lets other lambs die from neglect. The language is blunt and practical, reflecting a working environment where emotional control directly affects livestock outcomes.

Improvised Solutions and Resourcefulness

Boylan recounts a striking anecdote of necessity-driven invention: when water was needed for sheep, his crew improvised a pump from a stovepipe, a handle from a wagon tongue, and a trough from a wagon box. This story illustrates the resourcefulness expected on a lambing ground. The manual repeatedly emphasizes adapting to circumstances rather than following rigid procedures. Boylan's tone suggests that such ingenuity is routine, not exceptional. The passage also reveals his observational method: he draws lessons from specific incidents, grounding his advice in lived experience rather than textbook theory.

Weather Lore and the Moon's Phases

A substantial portion of the text is devoted to predicting weather using the moon's phases. Boylan provides a detailed table correlating the time of moon changes (new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter) with expected weather patterns over the following seven days. For example, a change occurring between '12 midnight to 2 a.m.' predicts 'fair days, cold nights.' He also notes that when the new moon 'comes in upon his back,' storms will be more severe. Boylan advises keeping lambs in shelter during severe storms by 'reading a good almanac and watching this table.' This blend of folk observation and systematic record-keeping characterizes his approach to managing uncertainty.

Dogs, Dogs, and More Dogs

Boylan is notably cautious about the use of dogs on the lambing ground. He recommends having 'few dogs' around dropping ewes, as even well-trained dogs can scare ewes from their lambs. If dogs are used, they should be handled only by experienced men. He recounts an episode where a 'new man' ignored instructions and 'dogged his sheep from one part of the range to another,' wasting energy and stressing the flock. The manual's advice is consistently pragmatic: control bunches without dogs if possible, and remind help that 'they are on a lambing ground, where it takes much cool temper and many hard knocks to make things go right.'

Boylan's manual resists easy categorization: part veterinary guide, part character study, part almanac. Readers should approach it as a period document that reveals how range shepherds thought about their work—valuing observation, adaptability, and emotional steadiness over formal instruction. The specific advice on moon-phase weather prediction may strike modern readers as unscientific, but it reflects a systematic attempt to impose order on an unpredictable environment.

There’s a quiet comfort in old manuals like Boylan’s—patience dressed as practicality. I caught myself thinking of that same steady, hands-on wisdom while wandering through a different sort of conservation effort: Rodent Control Aided by Emergency Conservation Work — Story, Setting & Ideas. Both feel like letters from a slower era, where watching the moon and mending fences were simply part of the same long day.