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Aah’ A aninntl aA! f A AA : A a 2A 2A) A AARP AA Maint 2. AANA fs Aah? AAR RIAAIIRARAA IALI1y VA, AA AAANAAA AY Ve oA AANSA AAR? A AARA SEDAN AD aN a TAAAAAAGAN ARAM AAR AAS AAT TAAAAAAR Ran AsaA RA: RARARAAARRARRAR AT AZ AMAARA A RRARA Rant aN RAAAAR AAR AARARIA AAA AS A0 <2 AR RRR BA ALARA aR AAs AAAAAAATIA Nn AAAAARNAAIWAAA ARI oor A AA Naat ia AAARA Aa Nam A Ne. ‘ Aaa. aaa NAARARAARA: TN A AA AAA; AA LAnNanaRaARan ngarha= Aah aA, AAWAAARAAA WANA. AAR BA RARE ALT. NAVA A ] ANA AAIAY AAA FA ~ aaah AAA RAAAAA ARM AAANAAAAL A Aaa Aaa anananAnan AAAai Monat A aaa AMAA ARAARARAAAAapane” ae NAR ay pevnitvenes Aran ARRAN Ne LARA NAA? RARO? nnn peeks Aaa AAR AAS p BUN anaiAPAIAARARARAR ARR WAARARANAARAAAARAN AANA Ar om mm fa npan, i rN - 4m om rR ] , a bea in PLT EVERY MAN HIS OWN CATTLE DOCTOI CONTAINING oe THE CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, AND TREATMENT OF ALL THE DISEASES INCIDENT TO OXEN, SHEEP, AND SWINE; AND A SKETCH OF THE ane OMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF : NEAT CATTLE. BY FRANCIS CLATER. EDITED, REVISED, AND ALMOST REWRITTEN -BY WILLIAM YOUATT, . AUTHOR OF “THE HORSE,” &c. ee WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONS, EMBRACING AN ESSAY ON THE USE OF OXEN, AND THE b IMPROVEMENT IN THE BREED OF SHEEP, &c. BY J. S. SKINNER, ASSISTANT POSTMASTER GENERAL. WITH NUMEROUS CUTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PHILADELPHIA: LEA AND BLANCHARD. 1848. re a * Bg , ~ a, : sk . ae > af ¢ - ake 4 C. * 7 5 va v De oe 6 ae Soul , Low b Ap : ss | d, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by LEA AND BLANCHARD, in the clerk’s office of the district court of the United States m and for « the eastern district of Pennsylvania. an eee Entere Sy tranefer &om Pat. Office Lik, Apr 1914, —— TS” Printed by T K.& P.G. Collins. aan ————— ee ‘ . Loe! \ 0) sow * ADVERTISEMENT TO THE NINTH ENGLISH EDITION. Since the Eighth Edition of this work was published, considerable improvement has been made in the treat- ment of the diseases of cattle, in consequence of which this volume has again undergone a thorough revision, and several new chapters have been added. The pro- prietors for this purpose have placed the work in the hands of a Veterinary Surgeon of extensive experience, and they trust the desire they have evinced of rendering it still more worthy of public patronage will meet with a corresponding support. August, 1842. (vii) be ‘ teiriae Ralwoni H Pam eS ee ee a | aa PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH ENGLISH EDITION. Since the publication of the last edition of this work, a kind of revolution has taken place in Cattle Medicine. Veterinary practitioners had been strangely forgetful of the proper extent of their professional duty, and the treatment of the-diseases of cattle had, with few excep- tions, (but among which we may justly rank the original _ author of “ Every Man his own Cattle Doctor,”) remain- ed in the hands of the uneducated and the ignorant. It . has now, however, begun to be understood that all domesticated animals are the legitimate objects of the veterinarian’s care; and veterinary surgeons of no mean eminence do not think it a degradation to practise on the diseases of cattle, and sheep, and dogs, and swine. Public lectures on these subjects are at length delivered, in the University of London, and at Edinburgh, and a knowledge of this branch of veterinary medicine has wonderfully increased. Under such circumstances the proprietors of this work have endeavoured to discharge their duty to the public. A new edition being required, they have obtained the assistance of an eminent practitioner of both horse and cattle medicine, who, while he has retained all that was useful in the former edition (and there was a great dea] that was truly valuable, and particularly with regard to the symptoms of diseases), has endeavoured to keep pace with the progress of the art. The book is in a manner re-written; and the additions on the diseases of swine, now for the first time thrown into a regular and scientific form, in the English language, will be found peculiarly valuable. June, 1832. (ix) - 062 bag wiob isaoieettoig aad lo inate 19q tae “Jnerons! od? bus beisoubonu only ‘lo ebm: pon pu to 2noe9 THe Yisarigev ban. ; 9169: : s ypitdag oll a3 Yiu woe F ‘egrtndoeily oy hein wesb eds bonivede: sved youd ,borivpet musd sonihewren’ bap. send Hiod ko TOMO 9B1G Jn: Piss m8 io, soasiaiens @s baeget tive vlasloouteg bus ldsulay seed ei toadeo 6 1 et adoed ad P. .110 edt, to ceo TAR] re noe a a he at mma nition y cana va psa pe pie. t ‘fo Intiog 1a (gant goed bad ev9noi tong Yt “9929. wet die baal altiso lo eoenseib-orly Yo, Asaigero odd dase vlies, yoo owsloidw agome abo ('viomot, oltts) nyo eid asl yew, an fie ttt bootawhaw od ot auged: rovrowod oh to Hoajde staigel sti one elsmian-t ako oniiosep od soisbargob a St dnidd don: aeuiwe bas yegob hee ad ddle dew caw Pe Ey eae Ee 2. New Hampshire, ....... hatrres Pk 4 a2 15,562 @. Messsachasetts, os 2’... Bosna nce bas Dedapl O20 I4 ma Tehode-siand, ...6... ile c cr eeecn es ree pet OO; S. Caommecticnt, ... << ..chdveananeds ewmatiassces,650 6... Vermont,...:..0... she PL eee Ce Sod eas BOL, 041 Pee NOES so Soe. es ae Ih knee 0 ee Tw Pd dd BOIWOW MPTSCY, oo os kia Veeco oe een thermo, 202 Se PUMMeWIVAa, . 2... da see oa reso eke pwede ipl y 2,665 BO. PPCIRION Gy FSi ewes cet tet gs as. Seve 95,003 eee i a ey ere ere Cie BOW AMPEDNDS) Sites «so TN Novena aah ols ways 49024,148 33 Nort Carolina); . . .'. Oa 2% vows » » Ae seton: shouldbe set-in the dewlap immediately after the first bleeding, and the purging drink (No. '2,; .pi.47) given. Four drachms of nitre, two of extract_of belladonna, and one of tartatized antimony, may afterwards be administered twice a,day inaidrink.. 94 5 ¢- x in very severe’ cases the chest has been fired and blistered with advantages) 10 ~sidsia 16 Peyari-wWod iit fei 63 | Warm water and mashes must be regularly given two or three times a day. ~~; 197i ad, gost When the beast has recovered, it will be proper, as much as possi- ble, to avoid all those causes which induced the complaint. The animal should for a short time be housed during the night, and,.if the . weather is very unsettled, kept up altogether, or turned ‘out ‘for a few hours only in the middle of the day... CHAPTER VII. _RHEUMATISM, OR JOINT-FELLON, — ‘Tue early symptoms of this complaint are those of common catarrh, with no great cough, but’ more than usual fever: by degrees, how- ever, the animal shows some stiffness in moving, and if' the hand is pressed upon the chine or any part of the back, the beast will shrink, as if this gave him pain. When the complaint goes no farther than this, it is called chine-fellon in many parts of the country; but gene- rally, in. two. or three days, ,the, animal. appears stiffer in the. joints ; these afterwards begin to swell, and are evidently painful, particu larly when he attempts to move. Sometimes the stiffness extends al! 52 RHEUMATISM, OR JOINT-FELLON. over the body, and to such a degree that the beast is unable to rise without assistance. This is generally termed joint-fellon. Old cows are very subject to it, and especially a short time before calving; but milch cows and young cattle are oftener attacked by it at the spring of the year. It is mostly occasioned by the animal being kept in a state of poverty during the winter, and suddenly exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather in the spring, or to the inclemency of the north or north- easterly winds, especially in low situations. This disease sometimes comes on suddenly, and is present in a very acute form, being in fact a severe chill: these acute symptoms may subside, and be succeeded by others, milder but more obstinate. Sometimes abscesses will form amongst the muscles, or the sheaths or bodies of the tendons; and the capsular ligaments of the joints are often distended with synovia. These symptoms are particularly un- favourable. In this disease we find the same class of membranes, viz.; the serous, diseased throughout the body, and an examination after death sometimes exhibits, in addition to the diseased appearances before noticed, the membrane lining the heart, the chest, and the abdomen, considerably affected, either wholly or in part, and sometimes a con- siderable effusion of water in these cavities. As soon as the disease makes its appearance, the beast must be taken to a warm cow-house or stable, or some situation sheltered from the severity of the weather. The following pe drink should then be given :— " RECIPE (No. 7). Sulphur Purging Drink.—Take sulphur, eight ounces; ginger, half an ounce. ‘Mix with a quart of warm gruel. This drink should be repeated every third day if the bowels appear to require it. The bowels having been gently opened, a drink which may cause some determination to the skin, and increase the insensible perspira- tion, should be administered. RECIPE (No. 8). Rheumatic Drink.—Take nitre, two drachms; tartarized antimony, one drachm ; spirit of nitrous ether, one ounce; aniseed powder, an ounce. Mix with a pint of very thick gruel, and repeat the dose morning and night, except when it is necessary to give the sulphur purging drink (No. 7). If there should be much fever at any period of the complaint, the sulphur drink must be exchanged for the purging drink (No. 2, p- 47), and three or four quarts of blood taken away. If any of the joints should continue swelled and painful, they should be rubbed twice a day, and for a quarter of an hour each time, with a gently stimulating embrocation. RECIPE (No. 9). Rheumatic Embrocation.—Take neat’s foot oil, four ounces; and camphorated oil, spirit of turpentine, and Jaudanum, each one ounce; oil of origanum, one drachm. Mix. RHDUMATISMy, OR JOINT-PEDLON. }53 .) Should.a sealy.eruption break out on the joints,,or any ‘part.of the Jegs, after the beast,has apparently tecovered,| an,ointment composed -as follows will generally..clear off. the seurf, heal. the cracks or sores, and cause the-hair.to grow,again. sp 463) bo | noi? clegl sth9s GL woos RECIPE (No. 10). 0 ©) Healing Cleansing Ointmént.—Take lard,'two pounds; resin, ‘half-a pound. Melt Sepoeention, and when nearly cold, stir in calamine, very finely powdered, half a Te tte ff m5 y oul toni fipw vers? Fo Beroed) mae | df,stiffness or swelling of the joints should remain after the in- ‘flanimation. and. tenderness ‘are removed,,the joints should be well tubbed. morming and night with a gently stimulating embrocation. ‘The; following, will be-as good as any :—. ae abi ee een RECIPE (No, 11), Camphorated Oil. —Take caniphor, two ounces, and break it into small pieces; put ‘it into a pimt of spermaceti or common olive oil, and Jet the bottle, being closely stopped, and. shaken every day, stand in a warm place until the camphor is dis- a bli ‘When a beast has had-one attack of rheumatism, he will be al ways subject to its return, and, therefore should be taken more than usual scare, of in cold variable weather; and should he appear.to,haye a ’ sslight catarrh, or to walk .a little stiffer than usual, he should. be housed for a night or two, and should have a warm mash,. and,the following cordial rheumatic drink; which, however, would be very improper in hoose or cold, or rheumatism connected with any degree of fever. rae 1h RECIPE (No. 12). i sviy Cordial Rheumatic Drink.—Take rhododendron leaves, four drachms; and boil it in a quart of water until it is diminished to a pint; strain the decoction, and to half of the liquid, warm, ad gum guaiacum, finely powdered, two drachms; powdered caraway-seeds, two draclims; and powdered aniseed, two drachms, mixed with half a > pint of Warm ale. To £9 Cait CHAPTER VIII. : ? INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. Tuis is a disease to which cattle are oftener subject than is ima- gined, and particularly those that are in high condition and stall-fed : the symptoms, however, are usually sufficiently distinct, to guide the attentive observer. _ Upc 2 _ When the milch cow is attacked, there is a diminution of the milk, and it has a repy appearance and saltish taste after being separated from the cream. The animal has a heavy appearance, the eyes being dull, the countenance depressed, with a stiffened, staggering gait; the appetite is impaired, and the membrane of the nostrils and the skin is cf a yellow colour. Sometimes the respiration is much dis- turbed ; at others, it appears tranquil ; but the pulse, though unusually 5 . 54 INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. quickened, is rarely hard or full. The bowels are generally consti- pated, though sometimes purging exists. Rumination is usually disturbed, and occasionally altogether suspended. To these will occasionally be added the characteristic symptoms of pain on pressure on the edge of the short ribs on the right side. In acute inflammation of the liver, the most frantic pain has been exhibited; but this is rarely the case. A high degree of fever will indicate the propriety of bleeding, but it should not be carried to too great an extent, but may be repeated. After bleeding, one or two drachms of calomel, with a scruple of opium, and two drachms of ginger, may be given in gruel, and a few hours afterwards twelve ounces of Epsom salts and half a pint of linseed oil. The calomel and opium may be repeated twice a day, and the purgative also until the bowels are sufficiently operated on. If, however, purging be present from the first, a few ounces only of Epsom salts‘ should be given, but a drachm each of calomel and opium repeated twice a day; and if the purging continue, the case may be treated as one of diarrhea. ‘The sides in this disease should be blistered, and setons may also be inserted. . Inflammation of the liver frequently leaves after it a great deal of weakness, and tonics ate clearly indicated. The best medicine that can be given is the following :— RECIPE (No. 13). Tonic Drink.—Take gentian root, powdered, half an ounce; ginger, powdered, one drachm ; epsom salts, two ounces. Mix the whole with a pint of warm gruel, and give it morning and night. a “No hay, and little corn, should be given in inflammation of the ‘liver; but the diet should consist of mashes and green meat. “- When a beast dies of this disease, all the contents of the chest and the belly will often be found to be considerably affected. The lungs in almost every case exhibit inflammation, and there are patches of inflammation in the bowels. y It has been stated that fat beasts, or such as are in good condition, are very liable to this disease, and particularly those that have been fed much on oil-cake. It is more frequent in hot than in cold wea- ther, and in store cattle that have been over-driven, or worried in woodland pastures by the flies. Sudden change of weather; the “exposure to considerable cold, of a well-fed beast that had been well ‘housed, or indeed anything that has a tendency to excite fever, will produce inflammation in an organ that has been over-worked, or is disposed to disease from the undue secretion of bile in the rapid ac- cumulation of flesh and fat. Chronic inflammation of the liver is characterized by symptoms similar but more moderate than those detailed. The debility gradually increases, and death often succeeds. The same treatment should be pursued, with the exception of bleed- ing. ASS —ews Ps —— —. THE YELLOWS, OR JAUNDICE. 55 CHAPTER IX. THE YELLOWS, OR JAUNDICE., Tus is a far more common disease than the last, and almost as dangerous, because, although it is not marked by any acute symp- ‘toms, or accompanied by much fever, it creeps on insidiously, and fastens itself on the constitution, beyond the power of medicine to eradicate it; or it is the consequence and the proof of some disease of the liver, which is equally difficult to cure. It may be produced by inflammation of the liver, or too great secretion of the bile, or stoppage of the vessels through which the bile should flow into the bowels. If its passage is obstructed, itis thrown back again upon the liver, and there taken up-by the absorbents, and carried into the circulation, and communicates a yellow colour to the blood; and as the blood, by means of the capillary vessels, is carried to every point and part of the body, so the yellow hue of the disease spreads over the whole of the frame. This obstruction is sometimes effected by the undue thickness of the bile; sometimes by hardened bile or gall-stones; and in not a few cases it is caused by a greater secretion of bile than can find its way into the intestines, and which, consequently, accumulates in the liver, until it is taken up by the absorbents, and carried into the frame in the manner that has just been described. At the beginning of the disease there is considerable dulness and ‘languor, and loss of appetite. ‘The cow wanders about by herself, or is seen standing by the side of the hedge or the fence in a most dejected manner. The quantity of milk is generally lessened ; the bowels are costive; and the fore-teeth are sometimes loose: milch cows are more subject to it than oxen, and particularly in the latter end of the year. Sudden change of weather frequently gives rise to it, and especially if the animal has previously exhibited symptoms of ill-health. The treatment and the hope of cure depend upon the causes and degree of the disease, and which should be most carefully ascertained. If it has followed symptoms of fever, probably indicative of inflam- mation of the liver, it may be difficult to remove, because it is an indication of the ravages which disease has made in the organ. Should the pulse be strong as well as quick, moderate bleeding will be judicious, but not otherwise. The bowels should then be freely opened by means of the purging drink (No. 2, p. 47), and kept open by half-doses of it administered as occasion may require. In this disease, oftener than in any other to which cattle are subject, sto- ‘machics are useful to rouse the digestive organs to their proper tone and power. Mingled with them, or at other periods of the day, medi- eines may be given which are supposed to have a direct effect on the —————————————— ee eee 56 -THE( YELLOWS, ORO JAUNDIGE. Ne and a tendency to restore its healthy action; therefore, while the tone drink (No. 13, p. Paid is given in the morning, the following may be given at night: ek “RECIPE (No. 14). ; Drink for the Yellows.—Take,of calomel and opium, a‘scruple'each: mix and sus- pend ina little thick gruel. If, on pressing’ the sides, the atimal ‘evinces pain, we may suspect some inflammation of the liver; and a blister on the Sides, but ‘par- ticularly the right side, will be useful. After the yellowness is removed; and the beast restored to health, the tonic drink (No. 13, p. 54) should be given twice in the week for ‘amonth. This will contribute to restore the weakened appetite, and particularly will bring back to the cow the proper flush of milk.” CHAPTER x INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. Tuis is nota very frequent, but a most frightful donrset lt iS commonly known by the names phrenzy or sough. It is most preva- lent. among well-fed cattle, and: particularly in the summer months. In the early period of it the beast is dull and stupid.: He stands:-with his head protruded, or pressed against something for support. He refuses: to eat, ceases to ruminate, and is, in a Manner, unconscious of. surrounding objects... Now and then he will stand motionless for a long time, and then suddenly drop; he will start up immediately, gaze | ‘around him with-an expression of wildness and fear, and then sink again into his former lethargy. All at once, however, his eyes will become red, and seemingly starting from their sockets; the countenance will be both anxious and wild; the animal will stagger about, falling and rising again, and running ‘unconsciously against everything in his way: at other times he will be conscious enough of things around him,.and: possessed with an irrepressible desire to do mischief, He will stamp with his feet, tear up the ground with his horns, run at every one within his reach, and with tenfold fury at any red object; bellowing all the while most tremendously, and this he will.continue until nature is quite exhausted: a sudden and vio- lent trembling will then come over him, he will grind his teeth, and the saliva will pout from his mouth he will fall, every limb: will be convulsed, and he will presently die. Causes. —It proceeds most commonly from a ‘alnoiawey of blood 1m the system, called by farmers an overflowing of the blood; and this is induced by cattle thriving too fast when turned.on rich pas- © ture-grounds, or their being fed too quickly in order to get them into nondition for show or sale. ita is sometimes occasioned by the intense INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 57 heat of the sun, when cattle have heen turned into the fields where there has been nothing to shade them from its influence. It may be brought on by severe contusions on the head, or by the cattle being harassed and frightened, when driven along the road or through large towns. Very few weeks pass in the metropolis in which cattle are not driven into a state of absolute madness, either by the brutality of the drovers, or by a set of miscreants whose sport it is to abuse and infu- riate the animal, and endanger the lives of the passengers. » "The chief or the only cure is bleeding. ‘The neck vein should be opened, on each side, if possible, and the blood should be suffered to flow until the animal drops. It is absurd to talk of quantities here ; as much should be taken as can be got, or, at least, the blood should flow until the violence of the symptoms is qnite abated. To this a dose of physic should follow. The following may be administered :— “107 RECIPE (No. 15). A Strong Physic Drink.—Take, Epsom or Glauber’s salts, half a pound ; the kernel of the croton nut, ten grains: take off the shell of the croton nut, and weigh the pro- r quantity of the kernel. Rub it down to a fine puwder; gradually mix it with alf a pint of thick gruel, and give it, and immediately afterwards give the salts, dissolved in a pint and a half of thinner gruel. If the violence or even the wandering should remain, another bleed- ing should take place six hours afterwards, and this also until the pulse falters ; and the purging should be kept up by half-doses of the powder (No. 2, p. 47). ~ Although it is very difficult to produce a blister on the thick skin of the ox, it should be attempted if the disease does not speedily sub- side. The hair should be closely cut or shaved from the upper part of the forehead and the poll, and for six inches on each side down the neck, and some of the following ointment well rubbed in :— RECIPE (No. 16). _ Blister Ointment.—Take, lard, twelve ounces; resin, four ounces; melt them toge- ther, and, when they are getting cold, add oil of turpentine, four ounces ; and pow- ‘dered cantharides, five ounces; stirring the whole well together. ~ When the blister is beginning to peel off, green elder or marsh- mallow ointment will be the best application to supple ‘and heal the part. A little of it should be gently smeared over the blistered sur- face morning and night. A seton smeared with the above ointment may be inserted on each side of the poll in preference to the application of a blister. Although the violence of the disease, and of its remedies, will ne- cessarily leave the beast exceedingly reduced, no stimulating medi- cine or food must on any account be administered. Mashes and Teen meat, and these in no great quantities, must suffice for nourish- ment, or, if the animal, as is sometimes the case, is unable to eat, a few quarts of tolerably thick gruel may be horned down every day ; but ale and gin, and spices, and tonic medicines, must be avoided as downright poisons.. There is not a more common ora more fatal ' 58 INFLAMMATION OF ‘THE BRAIN; error in-cattle management than the eagerness to pour in-comfortablej I would) ‘rather say, poisonous. drinks. -—Even the treacle and the sugar in the gruel must |be prohibited, from their tendency to become acid in the debilitated stomach of thé animal |recovering from suchd complaint. ea wod Every symptom of the disease*having vanished, the beast may very slowly returnto his usual foods; but, when he is turned out to:pasture; it will be prudent to give him avery: short bite of grass, and little or no dry meat. Nature is the best restorer of health and: strength:in these cases; and it.is often surprising, not: only how-rapidly the’ ox will regain. all he has.lost, if left-to nature, and not foolishly! foreed on, but. how soon and’ to what-a considerable. degree his: condition will improve beyond the state inywhich he was before the complaint..: -« The ox that has: once had-inflammation of the braim should ever afterwards be watched, and should be! bled: and physicked whenéver there is the least appearance of staggers or fever. “The»safestiway will be to send him to the butcherjas soon as he is in sufficient con- dition. Yas alles stsoduald — Ande stoyl prott, & Sometimes the disease does not run its full course. "Phere is but a slight degree of inflammation, or,there may. be sudden. determina- tion or flow of blood to the head from:some: occasional »cause, and without. inflammation. ‘This is known by the name of. °+ o/1:"! STAGGERS,; OR SWIMMING EN THE HEAD... elt . : RP i aie epee _. The symptoms are-heaviness_ and dulness; a constant; disposition to sleep, which is manifested by the beast resting its head upon any convenient place; and he, reels or staggers when he attempts to walk, If this disease is not checked by bleeding, purging, and proper ma- nagement, it will probably terminate in inflammation of the brain or inflammatory fever. CSET Te Vena See ee It mostly attacks those-eattle that have been kept in a state of poverty and’ starvation during the winter season, and. in the spring of the year have. been; admitted into too fertile a pasture: henee. is produced a redundancy of blood inthe, system, which, on the slight- est disturbance, or even naturally, gives rise.to the disease, . | .. The cure must.be attempted by, taking four, five, or six quarts, of blood from the animal, according to its size and strength ;,,the,purg- ing, drink, (No. 15,-p..57)-must, then be administered, and (No. 2, p- 47) continued in half-doses every eight hours, until the full»purga- tive effect is produced, If the animal is not relieved in the course of two hours from the first bleeding, the. operation. must. be repeated to the same extent, unless the beast should become faint; andthe bow- els must be kept in. a loose or rather purging state by No.2. As soon as the bowels are opened, the fever drink (No.1, p..46) should be given morning, noon, and night; until the patient is well... Nothing more than.a very little mash should be allowed, and all cordials should be avoided as absolutely destructive to the beast. yerrawob INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS: 59 ‘When the animal appears to be doing well, he must very slowly bé permitted to return to his usual food. He’should for some weeks be put into short ‘and Seanty pasture; the seton should be continued in the dewlap, and occasional doses_of Epsom salts administered. ©" mink ao 1s3Y IT O efit Or Shia CHAPTER XI. _. _. INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS, WITH COSTIVENESS. ) °InrrammaTron of the bowels is by no means an uncommon disease among neat cattle, and frequently proves fatal to them from injudi- cious treatment. ‘It is a coniplaint easily recognisable on account of thé peculiar symptoms:by which it is attended. "The animal is continually lying down and getting up again imme- diately; and, when up, he strikes at his belly with the ‘hind feet. The bowels are obstinately constipated: the dung, if any is voided, is in small quantities—hard, covered with mucus, and that sometimes streaked with blood—and the urine is generally voided with difficulty. b pulse is quicker than natural, and there is much heaving at the balan et Bid . | | . Tt is distinguished from colic by the great degree’ of fever that evi- dently attends it, the muzzle being dry and the mouth hot. The animal becomes speedily weak, he falls or throws himself down sud- denly, and when‘he rises he does it with difficulty, and he staggers as he walks. The lowness and weakness appéar more speedily and decidedly than in almost any other disease. ~The attack is sudden like that of colic. The animal quits his companions, and hides himself under the hedge. If he is in ‘the plough, he all at once becomes deaf’ to the voice of the driver, and insensible to the goad. He trembles all over—his skin becomes hot —his back and Joins are tender—his ears and hotns hot. Everything indicates the highest degree’ of local inflammation and general fever. ~ The disease mostly arises from sudden exposure to cold; and espe- cially when cattle go into‘rivers or ponds after being heated and fatigued. It is sometimes produced by change of pasture, and feed- ing too much on dry and stimulating diet. eee ~ The first thing to, be done, and that which admits of no delay, is to bleed ; from six to eight quarts of blood at least should be taken away. Immediately afterwards the purging drink (No. 15, p. 57) should he administered, and its effect promoted by half-doses of No. 2, given every six hours. This'is a very dangerous disease, and the measures pursued must be of the most decisive kind. The symp- toms succeed each other rapidly, and if one day is suffered to pass without proper means being taken, the beast is irrecoverably lost. The third stomach or manyplus will generally be found, after 60 INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. death, choked up with dry food, hardened between the leaves of which that stomach is composed. It will be necessary to wash this: well out before the proper path to the fourth stomach can be opened. | In order to effect this, plenty of thin gruel, or water with the chill, taken off, should be given; or, if the beast will not drink it, several quarts of it should be horned down. Clysters of warm water, or thin gruel, with a purging powder dissolved in them, should likewise be administered. After having bled the animal once copiously, and, if the fever has not subsided, a second, or even a third time, the farmer should in this disease of high inflammation of the bowels, and strangly obsti- nate costiveness, found his only hope of saving the animal in pro- ducing purging, and to this purpose his whole attention should be directed. ; If it should not be accomplished after the third dose of the medi-, cine, a pound of common salt may be given. ‘The water or other, liquid which the beast will probably be induced to drink will assist in purging him. Should not this succeed, a pound and a half of: castor-oil must be administered. The patience of the attendants will sometimes be almost worn out —they must, however, persist. Clysters, numerous, and great in quantity, must be administered. The Epsom salts and the castor-oil will not do harm in whatever quantities they are given: it will not. be prudent, however, to repeat the common salt. During the whole of this time the cordial drink of the cow-leech must be avoided as a, dose of poison. The farmer or the attendant must not be deceived by the passage of a little liquid dung in a small stream, for that shows that there is yet much hardened feces clinging round the intestines, and which, must be removed, and therefore he must pursue the measures recom- mended until the dung is expelled in considerable quantities, and in a large full stream, and without much straining. There has gene- rally been something more than usually wreng in the food or manage- ment when this sad constipation is observed. Either the animal has_ been kept too much and too long on dry food; or he has heen turned into fresh pasture (and particularly in the autumn) in which there are oak-trees or some astringent vegetables. ‘The cause must be removed, or the disease will return. - The state of the bowels of a beast that has once been sapped should be observed for some time afterwards, and gentle aperients oecasion- ally administered ; cold water should not, for a, little while, be per- mitted, and strict attention should be paid to the diet. Inflammation of the bowels, however, will in a few cases occur without all this costiveness, and yet produced by nearly the same causes. The other symptoms are the same, but the danger is not so gieat. The beast should be bled and: physicked, kept moderately warm, and have warm water with bran mashes. DIARRWE Ay ORAPURGINGs 61 ellame sviemsPo as eomiiowoe esi 11; mone [ut 5 ai bas ,2ouitnenp & + At Hbaiusamooos mosio at (i932 yY D sud > yboold ‘at fol ied ie . : 7 ‘ a Ns ae day peer if a iif Das ,YsasUp il “CHAPTER: XII,” ee aheetet ae bootd miw boersdo yiltor & DOG ~WVlenShO GOTO she Hatsbienos od DIAR RPG A,-oR PURGING: > 21 990 Ol 4 Jia" 74 fey Pic at nit . ) Puree, is produced, by various causes; by change of food,:from dry, to. green meat, or: from shortoto uxuriant_pasture;, by poisonous plants, bad, water, ior unkhown atmospheric,agency, |.’ b Bettas y( lt is not always to be regarded as a disease, mor should the farmer be,always,anxious,to Stop, it. It, may be an effort of mature to dis- charge, something that, is injurious; it, may exist while the. beast enjoys almost perfeet health, and'is-even thriving. 0.00 3) » The farmer will, not, regard an, occasional fit,of purging; he will only attack it if it is violent, or if it continues too long, . In the-first ease it indicates some disordered state of the bowels, or the presence of some offending matter in them, and he will endeavour to remedy this; not, as is too often done, by attempting to arrest the discharge as speedily as he can—not by the exhibition of astringent medicine —pbut by giving a mild dose of physic, in-order to assist nature in her effort to get rid of some evil. Nothing so much distinguishes the mah of good Sense from the meré blunderer as ‘the treatment of nuroin f : Bt ra h: a it iven w Pataressauastess of a pound of Epsom salts should be siven with the ably administer a little astringent medicine,.. The following will be effectual, and not,too powerful: upett dtiw.enivodal ZISOGGE Pk igon io RECIPE (No.i12).005 2200/9112 i 81 Sela mene as eaten ct taut win snk bat bona con domlaicd le aenaN ERA Been PN ager ye serunengiaast “Tn ‘the seeond case also, when purging has. long. continued, ;and| the animal is beginning to become. thin,.and weak, the. practitioner; must begin with physic. ‘There is. probably, some. lurking. cause of; intestinal irritation. He should give the quantity of Epsom;salts, just} recommended — or perhaps. he will more prudently: give from. half ‘a, pint to a pint of castor-oily It will, usually be a good practice.to give; a rather smaller dose on the following day ;, and, after ,that,, he may. safely have recourse to the astringents: the animal should be brought, into aceniy site enclosed saat aehce it.can be sheltered from the, ‘ene en kept partly or altogether on dry, meat. ...,,, is vddslt [tis of it consequence. that diarrhea or simple purging should. be a oleate pee with 2 ie ag often. cons: founded.. They are both characterized by purging. That which-has, been just considered is the discharge. of dung. in too, great quantity, | and in too fluid a form; but that which will form, the subject of the; next chapter, dysentery, is the evacuation, of the dung, mingled with, id 1 Mucus and blood. In diarrhoea the dung is voided, in large, [ 62 DIARRNWGAS OR PURGING: quantities, and in a full stream ; it has sometimes an offensive smell, and is occasionally bloody: but dysentery is often accompanied by a peculiar straining; the dung-is/not:so great in quantity, and it is more offensive, and more highly charged with blood. The one is an accidental, thing —not,always te be considered as a disease — and often ceasing of itself when the purpose for which na- ture set it!up, — the expulsion of some acrid or injurious matter from the alimentary:canal,——has been accomplished ; the other is an indi- cation of an inflammatory affection of the larger intestines, difficult to be controlled, often bidding defiance to all means, and speedily destroying the animal: | Diarrhea occurs at‘all times of'the year, and particularly after a sudden and great change of pasture; dysentery is a disease almost peculiar to the spring and autumn alone. It must be confessed, however, that diarrhea is sometimes the Prcetiretor dysentery in its worst form.| © CHAPTER; XIIL. “DYSENTERY,. SLIMY FLUX, OR, SCOURING ROT. aii) Ir has been just observed, that this disease is most prevalent in the spring and autumn, particularly in low, wet, and swampy situations. It is one of the most fatal diseases to which oxen, and dairy,cows in particular, are subject, and destroys more than any thee tMadye It begins with frequent and painful efforts to expel the dung, which is thin, slimy, stinking, and /olive-coloured. ‘The animal, as appears from his restless state, suffers much pain; frequently lying down and soon‘rising again. There is also a frequent, rumbling noise in the intestines. If the disease is neglected, or improperly jreated, the beast gradually gets thin, although fora while he retains liis appetite, dnd continues to ruminate; at length he evidently begins to yet weak, rumination is imperfectly performed, and the food passes from him. half digested. As this disease is often the consequence of a previous affection of the liver, considerable tenderness will be discovered on. the spine, a little beyond the shoulders. This is one of the methods, and a very good one, by which the farmer endeavours to ascertain whether a beast which he is thinking of purchasing has the scouring. rot. As the disease proceeds, the dewlap hangs down and has a flabby appearance; the’ dung runs off with a putrid and offensive smell, and, as it falls upon the ground, rises up in bubbles, and a, membranous or skinny-like substance is often seen upon it: this is. occasioned’ by the natural mucus, which was given to defend the bowels, being discharged. In proportion to the quantity of mucus that mingles with the feces, the whole is rendered more adhesive, | and the bubbles are larger, and remain longer on the dung. When" this is the case the disease is always’ obstinate, and generally fatal.” DYSENTERY;, &c. 63 -The hair all oversthe body soon appears pen-feathered or staring. Feverish symptoms also accompany the complaint: the eyes become ) dull and inflamed, there-is much working of the flanks, and the pulse ‘is quick. insu, Ho ‘92 it , oo. The causes of this dreadful malady are—taking cold at the time of-calying ; lone journeys; exposure to sudden vicissitudes of the weather ; and, after being over-heated in travelling, being turned into _damp pastures, &c.. Poor keep is.a very frequent cause, and espe- cially when connected with exhaustion from. constant milking ;. and “it is more especially the consequence. of the cows being badly fed in _the winter. Some cold wet lands are particularly liable to give the “rot; yet where the land and treatment are similar it prevails more in “some dairies than'in others, depending much on the’ breed’ of the “eattle.” Old cows that are fed on sanded pastures are very subject to “this complaint. ’ In all cases the animals should be taken from grass, and put into a large cow-house, or an open yard, where they can be sheltered from ‘the weather, and kept on dry food, such as good hay, ground oats, ‘barley, and beans. “An equal proportion of each of the three last articles and of linseed cake will make an excellent food for cattle ~ labouring under dysentery. A quantity proportionate to the size and od gird of the patients should be given two or three times a day, or “if they are much reduced and their appetite is quite gone, a thick ; gel should be made of these ingredients, and administered three or oumesaday. | OP Po : * This disease consists in inflammation of the lining membrane of ‘ the large intestines. It will then be evident that bleeding, propor- tioned to the suddenness and violence of the attack, and the apparent ae of fever, should be first resorted to. ~~ “Tf the eyes are inflamed, with heaving of the flanks, and painful twitchings of the belly, accompanied by severe straining and appa- rent gripings in the expulsion of the excrement, the abstraction of blood is indispensable. ip _ ‘The purgative drink (No. 2, p. 47) should precede the use of every ~ other medicime, in whatever state the bowels may be.. It will prepare _ for the safer use of astringents. In almost every case there will be “something in the bowels, which, if it did not cause the disease, con- _ tributes to keep it up. The proprietor of cattle, and he who professes to treat their diseases, should know that there can be nothing more dangerous than to attempt suddenly to stop a violent purging, espe- cially one that assumes the character of dysentery. Let that which offends in the bowels be first got rid of, and the disease will some- times cease of itself, or, if it does not, astringents may then be admi- nistered with safety. ich | The safest and the most effectual astringent mixture for the scour- ing rot is that which was recommended in page 61.’ It may be civen once or twice in the day, according to the violence of the complaint. Ale should never be given in these’cases. The astringents may be ‘64 DYSENTERYS We. ‘commenced era mis hours’ after the pene aie) has been admi aa ‘tered. v If the disease dees abt spaédily yield to this treatment, ‘it will vist be. prudent to continue the use of such large quantities of astringent ‘medicines for any considerable time. ‘The following drink may then ‘be een and continued ‘morning ‘and night for five or Six Hae h —) RECIPE. (No. 1B). TH ! Lae ion Drink with Mutton ‘Suet. —Take mutton suet, oné ponnds: ese ine two “quarts; boil them together until the svet is dissolved; then add opinim,. powdered, rhalf a drach ; ginger, one drachm, paring. previously well.’ mixed them with a epponti or two of fiuid. - When the dysentery is stopped, the beast should very slowly and cautiously, be permitted. to returnto his former- green food. Hither during the night, or the day, according to the season. of the year, he should be confined in the cow-house, and turned out twelve hours only; out of the twenty-four. .,Water, should be, placed. within reach -of the, animal, in the cow-house, and, if possible, in, the. field ;, for there are few things more. likely to, bring on this) disease, or. more certain to aggravate it, than, the drinking of an inordinate quantity of water.after long-continued thirst. ; t.2 These precautionary measures should be Heme for 2 a considera -ble time ;. for there is something. very treacherous in this malady, and it will often suddenly return several weeks after it has, been. appa- rently subdued. P In those eases, and they are Pach too. humerous, weak: totally ‘resist. the. influence of the medicines already recommended, » ‘other means should be tried. ..The alum WHEY has SomeumeR ‘unneeded and is thus prepared :— ie Sa * RECIPE (No. 19). yeah to Seas _.. &lum Whey.—Take alum, half an ognce ; inilk, two quarts, Boil ica Wt ca for ten minutes, and strain. , > . This may be administered twice every day. “The disease may not yield even to this. It will then ‘de evident ,that, it is the consequence of some other disease, and, probably, of the liver, the vitiated bile secreted by which is keeping up. the purging. ee is.almost a forlorn hope to attaek such a,case; but the beast may be valuable, and, at all events, we cannot be worse of. The. only medicine that. can have power here is,mereury, for it seems to exert its chief influence on the liver and the discharge of bile. ‘The mildest, and at the same time the most, effectual, form in which it can be ad- ministered, is;that of the blue pill, half a scruple.of which, may be _given morning and night, mbbed down with, a little thick gruel. _'There is very little danger of salivation : yet, it may be prudent to give half a pound of Epsom salts every fifth or sixth day; and most _certainly to give them every second day, and, discontinue. the blue _pill, if the mouth should become sore, or.the breath stinking, or there should be a more than usual discharge of saliva from the mouth. _, In many cases there is found a schirrous state of the third and;fourth stomachs in cattle that have died of, or been destroyed for, this disease. fh b o> RECIPE (No; 24). naite ei 4h. deidw R mai 2 tsa Ointment. —Take soft, soap, one » pound; mercurial ointment, two ounces ; camphor, rubbed down with a little-spirit of Wine, one ounce : rub them Fy together. ms This ‘oin ames will penetrate. into the disease! part of ete udder, en be of service. Tn’ obstina Bases the “iodine has been ane to" the indurated “udder with’ great si suc ecess. | nae et p Ot "RECIPE (No. 25), ° >. sigh, Ofntment. —Take, hydrisdate of pyraeh, one drain ; and lard, seven firsts : > rab them well together. A portion, varying from the size of. a nut'to that of a filbert, aecord- i ing ‘tothe éxtent and degree of the swelling ‘and hardness, should be oe nibbed into'the affected part morning and night. “It may sometimes be advisable to give the hydriodate internally, x sed from eight to twelve grains may be administered morning and “night'in’a little groel, with very good effect. » During the continuance of the disease, the bowels must ‘be at open with half-doses of No. 2,.(p:'47). The fever drink, No. 1 (p. 46), will also be useful, or one more decidedly diuretic, as RECIPE (No. 26). ~ Diuretic Drink —Take, powdered nitre,one ‘ounte } powdé¥ed resin, two ounces; ’ chidaet two drams; mix them well ae inva little treacle, and give them an warm gruel, Fis... ' 70 GARGET. After the purulent and bloody discharge has’ ceased, and the’ teat “seems to be free from inflammation, and nearly of its natural size, “eolour, and softiiess, it will be prudent: to continue the ointment daily, and this last drink occasionally for two' or three weeks at the least. ‘Cases, however, will occur, either neglected ‘at the beginning, or the beast being too fat, and very much disposed to inflammation, i in which the teat and ‘the’ whole. quarter will long ‘continue hard and swelled, and tender, and ‘will get'worse and ‘worse.’ "The whole of “the affected part ‘must then be “carefally examined, to ascertain whe- ther there is matter within, and whether it is pointing, 7. e., whether there is a part a little more prominent and softer than the rest. If this is detected, it should be freely opened with a Taticet or penknife, the matter suffered to flow out, and the wound dressed with ‘Tincture of Aloes or Friar’s Balsam. «Slight incisions with a lancet; where ‘matter cannot be detected, will ' ofteri be serviceable. The dvi of blood should be encouraged by fomentations with warm water. ‘The teats are sometimes cut off in obstinate cases of this kind; but that should, if possible, be avoided, for'the quarter will be lost, and there will be a serious diminution in the quantity of milk as long as the cow lives. The teat’ may be cut deeply in order to let out the matter. This wound will omy heal again, and the quarter will be as usefwl as ever. If the udder appears gangrenous, it stout be seaiaeal with a lancet, and a solution of chloride of lime applied, whilst the strength of thé animal should be supported by tonic medicine. When the cow dies, it is generally from mortification, to prevent which it is often necessary to remove not only the affected teat, but the whole of the quarter.’ A skilful man, more competent than a common cow-leach, should be employed for this purpose. A frequent. but unsuspected cause of this disease is the hasty and -eareless mode of milking which is often adopted, , A .considurable ‘ quantity of milk is left in the bag, particularly when a cow gives her milk slowly. This is not only a loss to the farmer, from so much less milk finding its way into the dairy-room, and from the quantity. _of milk regularly secreted in the udder of the cow gradually dimin- ishing; but the milk curdles in the teats, and Roses swellings, and . lays the foundation for, garget. The Sore Teats to which some cows are subject is a very different "disease, and often’a very troublesome one. It usually occurs a little _ while after they have calved. If it happens in the summer, the ani- mals are so sadly tormented by the flies, that it is difficult to milk them ; and the discharge from the cracks and wounds passing through . the hand in.the act of milking, and mingling with the milk, renders it discusting, if not unwholesomie. The following ointment will generally be found effectual :— De RECIPE (No. 27). Ointment for Sore Teats.— Take, elder ointment, six ounces ; bees’ wax, twoounces: mix them together, and add an ounce each of sugar of lead and — in fine power —stir them well together until cold. V.OS LIQVANRGQ@ERASMTAIAT 71. vAlittle of this'should be rubbed onthe teats‘morning and night after ' 3 and if the flies tease'the animal much,’a'small quantity of’! aloes: or assafetida may. be-mixed with ‘thes pasar aa) The latter i is ! i thie moreveffectual, but its ‘smell is very unpleasant. » vThe teats are‘sometimes ‘so’ sore‘that it is dndéseiry: to: hobble the: cow, inorder to make her stand; but this is seldom effectual ; for the ° legs of the cow get sore, and she kicks ‘worse than ever: Kindness and /patience are the: best remedies. . It is' never of any:use to‘beat or © ill-use a cow for this fidgetiness at milking. She will either at the» time do mischief in ches or she willat some other ¢ Fae hs take her'revenges: 1! obivor adil 9 There is another variety: ‘of disease to: veyhiich the: udder of cows: is"! liable, “somewhat different from that deseribed: in Scotland it is: termed Weeds. It is attended by considerable fever and constitutional » disturbance, commencing with a shivering fit, which, after some hours,° isssucceeded by'a hot fit, in-which’all the symptoms of fever are: pres! sént,—the cow hangs her head and refuses to’feed, and the udder is™ painful, hot, and swollen. —-If relief is notisoon ‘obtained, an abscess ® forms, and one or more quarters become cold, black, and insensible ; 9° the udder becomes disotganized, and the animal is lost. « fate “cr “nage i to be done. is to administer a’warm Sc agen sch n\< eb 709 Bf Ali ’ if MW: emi ila doidy Se RECIPE (No. 198); . i 4 Take} ginger ‘powdered, half'an ounce; caraway- needs; six ay :alepee, half an ounce? ip a quart of warm Water or ‘mild ale. “Sdmetimes* this draught: alone: will effet a’ cure, ‘tint the! body should be clothed and’the cow well nursed. On the following day, if the bowels “are constipated ‘and the cow ‘appears dull, a purgative should be given. The udder inust be ‘fomented with warm water for an hout at a'time, several timesa day, and if it is much-swollen, it. should be suspended with cloths passing ovet the loins. It may also be ‘rabbed witha liniment ‘composed of hartshorn and oil. It is of © nivel impértafice ‘that the fomentations should be as hot as can be | bores yand ‘applied i in "tec taittheat Be the part affected, and for a long together. ee as CHAPTER XVI. 2 1Dii1¥ “PREATMENT OF THE’ COW BEFORE AND DURING CALVING. 14" . Tr isan old and true’ saying, and the! ‘truth of it is nowhere more evident than in the treatment of the milch-cow, that the prevention of an evil is better than the cure. The difficulty of calving, and the mortality afterwards, are in a great measure. to be traced to the im- proper management of the cow. So far’as the udder is concerned, - 72%. TREATMENMD OF DHE cow there, is':a,plan; usually, cineoe rand |.a:very necessary. ohé—the j¢ow is}dried six or eightsweeks: before .calving.») Two. reasons, aresgivenn for this! theifirst is, that after @ long péeriod/of :milking,ithe strength s and constitution of .the-cow require ajlittle respites a | moxé/important:; reason, however, is, that from some: cause that has. never been fully explained, the mixture/of theiold milky and: the new secrétion ithats nature, prepares;for the expected,ealf, producesofrequently great iri-| tation:-and) infammationy In: the: jeddery and obstinate gergebisinapt tas ensue.; sos! watts tgebit aidt wot we During: ie early period. of gedhition: theo animal mnay,.iand. sould be, tolerably well fed, for she has to provide milk for the dairy-and.| neutrishment for, the Leetiisi ;/ yet evenchere there ishould/ be;moderation and care: but when :she jis-dtied, her: food,should be! considerably; diminished... She should not-bé, too fat-or full; of -blood at, the time } of-calving, for that\is the frequent icause|,of; dificult labours. gangety |, milk, fever, and death. : There are|few things iin which; thé farmer errs: morethan in this, .‘'There may \be an-error in starving’ her before shew calves, but it is @iante ls more, dangendus ohe to siting hen into, Hog neha condition, «|. sid .bioa. onto io bas jacdrit Some cows are il to. slink their fealecvad or. to Pee a aba dead; before their time, .'This:generally happens about/the middle.of théir- pregnancy. If about that time a cow is uneasy, feverish, off her food; or wandering about in search«ofysomething for which ‘she seems te haye).@ longing, or, most. greedily .and, rayenously..devouring, some particular kind of food, she should*be bled:and physicked'(N ov 2j:p"? 47). :If.she.is not quieted, she should be bled and-physicked,again in the course: of, three or four days. She, should, be immediately res. moved from. the other cows; for should.she slink her calf among; them, it is not improbable that;some,,or even, alljrof the others will, do:the same. This is not easily accounted for, but. it is perfectly, true. The cow that slinks her calf, will often require much, attention: She. should always, be,physicked, and in most.cases bled,.and,, after thaty.; the best, thing to. be stone with her i is. to fatten her for se cin sil , eaveat be epeleen looked after. She should be swig as near to Be house as can be conveniently done;.she should lose three or four quarts of blood, unless she is very poor; and she should most cer- tainly be physicked. It will be better if she can be separated from the other cows; and although it-may mot-be prudent to house her entirely, there should be some shed or shelter into which she may go. When it, appears that,labour.is close.at-hand, she should be.driver gently to the cow-house, and for a while left quite alone. She will do better By herself,than if she dB often, disturbed. by. one and another bt ‘> * The average. pant of gestation in ‘the cow age been piel hy, Earl. Spencer o to be 284'or @25 days. The lotigest period under his observation was 313, and the shortest 220 days. He also‘ found that when géstation was longer than the average | the greater proportion were bull calves:—MWhite on Cattle Medicine, by W, C., ‘Spooners. q BEFORE AND DURING CALVING. 73 looking in upon her and watching her. If, however, she is discovered in the aet of calving in the homestead, she should not be moved, however exposed may be her situation. It would sometimes be dan- gerous to drive her even a hundred yards. The usual symptoms of the approach of calving are uneasiness, slight lifting of the tail, lying down and getting up, the evident labour-throe, gentle at first, and increasing in force, and the com- mencement of the protrusion of the membranes from her shape. The still earlier symptoms, and preceding the labour by a few days, are enlargement of the udder, and redness of the space between her shape and the udder. The labour having actually commenced, the membranes will more and more protrude, until they break, and the fluid by which the calf was surrounded will escape. If her pains are strong, the cow should for a while be scarcely meddled with; but if an hour or more elapses, and no portion of the calf presents itself, the hand, well greased, should be introduced, in order to ascertain the situation and position of the calf. The natural position is with the fore feet presenting, and the muzzle lying upon the fore-legs. If the fetus is found in this position, and advanced into the passage, some time longer should be allowed to see what nature will do; and the strength of the animal may, if necessary, be supported by some gruel, with which a pint of warm ale has been mixed, being horned down. As soon, however, as the throes begin to weaken, and before that, if no progress has been made, manual assistance must be rendered. Here it will be recollected that there are two objects to be accom- plished,—the saving of the lives of both the mother and the young one, and that, consequently, the means at first employed should be foat The hand should be introduced, and the fore-legs of the calf aid hold of and drawn down, the efforts of the operator being em- ployed at the moment of the throes of the mother. If the legs are brought forward a little way, care should be taken that the head is accompanying them. The hand will sometimes be sufficient for this purpose. If the head cannot be moved by the hand, a cord must be ocured with a slip knot at the end, which is to be passed carefully into the passage, and, the mouth of the young animal being opened, fastened round his lower jaw. The end of this must be given to an assistant, who should be instructed to pull gently, but firmly, at the moment of the throes, while the principal operator is endeavouring to draw on the feet. Should not this succeed, it will appear that, either from the narrow-- ness of the pelvis, or the size of the fetus, there will be difficulty and danger in accomplishing its extraction. The operator must then begin to think less of the safety of the calf, and endeavour to secure that of the mother. Two other large cords or ropes must be procured, and one fastened round each leg. The service of two assistants will now be required. One should pull at the head, and the other the feet, while the operator ascertains the progress that is made: too much x 74 Oo CTREATMENT OF THE Cow §* force, however, should not immediately be used, for the chance of saving the young one must not yet be given up. ‘This not succeeding, greater power must be applied, until the assistants begin to use their full strength, pulling steadily,‘and with the pains of the cow, if they still continue. | ate | “4 In the natural position of the calf, the young one is almost uniformly extracted by these means, and its life is preserved; for both the mo- ther and her progeny will, without serious injury, bear the employ- | ment of more force than would by some be thought credible. When the womb is unable to discharge its contents, and the throes are diminishing, or perhaps ceasing, much benefit may be derived from the administration of the ergot of rye, which appears'to act as a stimulus specifically on the uterus: two drachms of this medicine, finely powdered, may be given in a pint of ale, and repeated several times, if required, with intervals from half an hour to an hour. The fcetus is not, however, always presented naturally, and it is the duty of the operator to ascertain its exact position in the womb. This he will not find much difficulty in accomplishing. : _. The most usual false position is the presentation of the head, while the feet of the calf are bent and doubled down under his belly, and remain in the womb. A cord must be passed as before around the lower jaw, which is then to be pushed back into the womb. The operator now introduces his hand, and endeavours to feel the situation of the feet. He is generally able to find them out, and to fix a cord round each pastern, or at least about the knee, and then he can usually bring them into the passage. The head is next to be brought forward again by means of the cord; and, the three cords being afterwards pulled together, the foetus is extracted. Should the calf have been long fixed in the passage, and be evidently much swelled, it is cer- tainly dead; the head may then be opened in order to lessen its bulk, and the extraction accomplished as before. _ When the feet present, and the head is doubled under the rim of the passage, the case is more difficult, and the calf is very rarely saved: indeed it may be reckoned to be dead if it has remained in this position for any considerable time. Cords are first to be placed round the feet; the hand must be afterwards passed into the womb, and the. situation of the head exactly ascertained, and the cord passed round the lower jaw. The calf being then pushed farther back into —- the womb, the head must be brought into the passage, and, the three ropes being pulled together, the delivery effected as quickly as may be, without the exertion of more foree than is necessary. The last false presentation I shall mention is that of the breech, the tail appearing at the mouth of the shape. The hand is to be passed into the uterus, and the cords fastened round each hock. The calf is then to be pushed as far back as possible into the womb, and the hocks, one after the other, brought into the passage, the ropes being shifted as soon as vossible to the fetlovk. With the exertion - BEFORE AND DURING CALVING. 75 of considerable force, the calf may now be extracted, and sometimes: without serious injury. ) _ By studying these cases the operator will be enabled to adapt his measures to every case of false presentation; and they are numerous, Great foree must sometimes be used to eflect the extraction of the ealf. The united efforts of five or six men have been employed, and (although such practice can scarcely be defended in any case), a horse has sometimes been attached to the cords. The fetus has been necessarily destroyed, but the mother has survived; too often, how- ever, she has evidently fallen a victim to this unnecessary violence. If by the united force of two or three men the feetus cannot be brought away, any ruder and more violent attempt must always be fraught with danger, and will often be fatal. The safer way for the mother,— yet that is attended with considerable risk,—is to cut off some of the limbs of the foetus.. One or possibly both shoulders may he separated, slipped, and then the head and trunk may, without much difficulty, be brought away... The knife must be one that can be concealed in the hand, and that is hooked at. the end, and rounded and thick at the back; but, notwithstanding that, there is much danger of wounding the womb, which is forcibly pressing on the hand of the operator. Labour is not unfrequently prevented by the diseased state of the — entrance or neck of the womb, which becomes hard and scirrhous, and thus prevents the calf escaping. When this is found by exami- nation to be the case, an operation should be performed, which con- sists in dividing the contracted entrance by means of a small knife passed up, protected by the hand and fingers. Considerable care must be exercised so as not to cut too.deeply ; and it is better to divide the stricture slightly in several places. From the violent efforts of the cow, or from unnecessary artificial violence, the uterus, or calf-bed, may protrude, and be absolutely in- verted. The case is not desperate. ‘The part must be cleaned from blood and dirt, and supported by asheet; then, the operator beginning at the very fundus or bottom of the womb, it may be gradually re- turned by the union of some little ingenuity and a great deal of patience. The animal should be copiously bled before this is attempt- ed, in order to relax the passage; and the application of cold water for a considerable time may contract the womb itself, and render its return more easy. A stitch or a couple of stitches should be passed through the lips of the shape, in order to prevent a repetition of the protrusion, and the following anodyne draught administered — RECIPE (No. 29).. Anodyne Drink.—Take powdered opium, half a drachm; sweet spirit of nitre, two ounces. Rub them together, adding the fluid by small quantities at a time, and give the mixture in a pint of warm gruel. If the cow has calved unseen and unattended, she will, like every other quadruped, set diligently to work to devour the cleansing, and lick the new-born animal clean. This, however, is often carefully prevented when there is the opportunity of so doing. The calf is 76 TREATMENT OF THE Cow, &c. taken immediately away, and the cleansing thrown on the dung-heap. We act contrary to nature in this. She would not have given to herbivorous animals this propensity to eat the placenta, had not some useful purpose been effected by it. Cleanliness was one object, the _ next was either to support the strength of the animal, or to have an aperient or salutary influence on her. The mother and the young will be happier if they are left to pursue the dictates of nature. Many a cow has fretted herself into fatal fever from the sudden loss of her little one, and many a calf has died from the neglect of that cleanli- ness which the mother could best effect. A great deal has been said of the necessity of cleansing the cow after calving, or the removal or expulsion of the placenta. There is much error in this. ‘The placenta comes away with the calf; and it is that natural discharge from the womb, continued during several days, and which is observed to a greater or less extent in all quadru- peds, that gives the notion of anything being retained. Medicine, nevertheless, is necessary in order to prevent that access of fever to which the cow in high condition is liable; but that medicine should be administered, not in the form of a stimulating cordial, from the false supposition that the animal wants support after the fatigue and pain it has undergone, but in that of a purgative, in order to prevent an attack of fever to which the animal is so naturally exposed after parturition, and which is so often hastened and aggravated by absurd management. The mother requires little care after calving, except that of protec- tion from too great severity of weather, and this more especially if she had been much nursed before parturition. A warm mash may be given daily for a little while; but otherwise she may return to her previous and not too luxuriant feed. The state of her udder, however, should be examined: if it is at all hard, she should be milked twice every day, and the calf should be put with her several times in the day at least, if not altogether. Perhaps she will not let it suck, espe- cially if it is the first calf, on account of the soreness of her teats, and her being unaccustomed to the duties of nursing. She must-then be carefully watched at sucking time, and the bag, if it is very hard and kernelly, and sore, must be fomented with warm water, or, if neces- sary, the garget ointment (No. 24, p. 69, or No. 27, p. 70) must be tubbed into the part principally affected. CHAPTER XVII. THE MILK FEVER, OR THE DROP. Tus is a disease almost peculiar to cows in high condition at the time of calving: whether young or old, all are liable to be attacked by it: they are, however, rarely attacked until after they have had ; ; 3 - MLLK FEVER. 77 alves ;, and it is stated that. the short-horned breed. is more liable to it than others. Whenever it takes place, either at home or im the figid, it is distressing to the animal, as well as troublesome to the owner; for the beast.is seldom able to rise during several days. The puerperal or milk fever is most frequent during the hot weather of summer. ‘The cows most liable to be attacked. by this fever have large udders, that have been full of milk for several days before calving. Itisavery dangerous disease when severe, and often proves fatal even ander the most judicious treatment. The milk fever most commonly appears about the second or third day after calving; but the cow is occasionally down within a few hours after parturition. It is first recognized by the animal refusing her food, looking dull and heavy ; then follows protrusion of the eye, heaving of the flanks, restlessness, and every symptom of fever. In a few hours, or on the/next day at the latest, the cow begins to stag- ger; is weak in the loins; palsy steals over the whole frame; and she falls, unable to rise again. It is in this advanced stage that the complaint is teo often first observed ; the previous symptoms are not taken notice of, and the beast is almest past cure before the owner is aware of her illness. From this seeming palsy of the hinder limbs, and sometimes of the whole frame, the disease is very appropriately called dropping afler calving. There are evidently two varieties of this disease, one being consi- derably mere dangerous than the other. In the severer kind, the brain, as well as the spinal marrow, is affected, whilst the milder disease is principally confined to the loins. | In the former kind, we first notice a staggering gait, the breathing then becomes irregular and disturbed, the eyes full and glassy, and the pupil dilated. The animal, after reeling about for some time, falls, and frequently never rises again. She then becomes, in great measure, unconscious; the head is turned on one side; sensation appears partially lost, so that, if liquids are given with the horn, they often enter the windpipe without occasioning coughing. The hind legs become entirely paralyzed, and the fore ones are sometimes aflected ina similar manner. The pulse is generally very quick, but weak; the appetite is altogether lost; rumination ceases; and the bowels are obstinately constipated. If the animal dies, it is generally within forty-eight hours from the commencement of the symptoms, and indeed sometimes only a few hours afterwards. In some cases, the animal will lie in a state of insensibility; in others, she exhibits considerable pain and distress. The cow is unable to discharge either her urine or dung, the nerves influencing these offices being paralyzed. On examining the bodies of cows that have died from this disease, the principal mischief has been found in the brain and spinal cord : in the latter, chiefly at the region of the loins. The womb, in the greater number of instances, has been found in the same state as it usually is after parturition; but, in some cases, it presents the ap- pearance of the most intense inflammation, In such cases, it appears “ * 4 78 MILK FEVER. that the inflammation of the womb is superadded to the other dis- ease. . In the milder form of this complaint, it is, to a greater extent, a local malady: the spinal cord at the region of the loins is affected ; but the brain is comparatively exempt; and thus, though the hind extremities are paralyzed to a great extent, yet the insensibility is by no means general, and consciousness is retained. In both the severe and mild form the digestive organs are altogether deranged, and in fatal cases the third stomach is found loaded with hard indigestible food, and the other viscera are often found inflamed. The cause of the disease has not been ascertained, but it appears connected with a high state of condition, and is best prevented by keeping the cow short of food some days previous to her calving. The treatment of this disease must he modified according to the severity of the symptoms, and the fact of its being the milder or the severer affection. It is important also to ascertain whether the secre- tion of milk has ceased; as it has been ascertained that when this is the case the’ disease is fatal, and when not so the cow recovers. If the pulse is strong, it will be proper to bleed to the extent, perhaps, of four or five quarts. ‘The principal expectation of relief, however, must be placed on the exhibition of powerful purgatives. . RECIPE (No. 30). Take Epsom or Glauber’s salts, twelve ounces; flour of sulphur, four ounces; powdered ginger, four drachms ; spirit of nitrous ether, one ounce. To be dissolved in warm water, te One-half of this draught may be repeated twice a day until the bowels are properly opened. In the severer affection it will be proper to add from ten to twenty drops of the croton oil to the first draught, ‘and even two drachms of carbonate of ammonia and ten grains of ‘cantharides have been conjoined with advantage. It is of importance to administer the draught slowly and carefully ; and when the cow is any way unconscious it will be better to give it by means of Read’s syringe, putting the tube half-way down the neck, so as to prevent any of the medicine getting into the windpipe, where it has been known to produce fatal inflammation. The action of the physic should ‘be assisted by frequent clysters, and the bladder should be emptied from time to time by a catheter. A blistering liniment should be rubbed on the course of the spine: in the milder disease it may be limited chiefly to the loins, but in the severer affection it should OX- tend from the head to the tail, and be often repeated. It is astonishing what a vast quantity of purgative medicine may often be administered in this disease without producing any effect, the stomachs being in such a torpid state. ; | eal at ha In the milder disease, the treatment must be similar in its nature, though not so powerful as that here recommended ; the croton oil may be dispensed with, and the blistering application confined to ‘the loins. The cow should be made as comfortable as possible. A good bed MILK FEVER. . 79 ‘of straw should be got under her, and her fore-quarters should be considerably raised, so that the dung and urine may flow away. It ‘not unfrequently happens, that as soon as the cow begins thoroughly to purge she gets up and walks about, although still continuing for a while in a very weak state. In order to make her as comfortable as possible, the cow should be shifted from side to side twice in the day; all filth of every kind “should be carefully removed, a warm cloth thrown over, and warm gruel or linseed-tea frequently offered to her with mashes, if she will - eat them. It will be a very bad symptom if she begins to swell, and there are frequent belchings of very fetid gas. If the digestive powers are thus weakened there is but little hope. The following ball should then be ‘given, still continuing the purgative medicine if necessary :— | RECIPE (No. 31). Cordial Drink.—Take caraway powder, one ounce: gentian, powdered, half an ounce ; ginger, powdered, half an ounce; essence of peppermint, 20 drops. This, in the form of a ball, will probably find its way into the paunch. Half the quantity of the above ingredients should also be given morn- ing and night as a drink, ina pint of warm ale, and the same quantity of thin gruel. If the cow should continue to swell, relief must be obtained by _means of the flexible pipe for that purpose; and, if the proprietor has the pump which should accompany the pipe, some gallons of warm water in which a little ginger has been boiled may be thrown into the paunch, in order to wash outa portion of its contents. Should not the pipe be at hand, an opening may be made into the paunch at . the flank with a sharp-pointed knife, in the usual manner; or, if the ease is becoming absolutely desperate, the operator will be justified ‘in enlarging the opening so as to admit the hand, and gradually take out the greater part of the undigested food. The edges of the wound ‘should then be brought together and held by two or three stitches, the ee skin and the wall of the paunch being included in each Stitch. ‘ There is one thing that should not be omitted, and that is the at- tempt, two or three times every day, to bring back the milk, by dili- gently stroking the teats. As the drying up of the milk is the earliest ‘symptom of the attack of the disease, so the return of it is the happiest . promise of recovery. If the cow does not get up on the third or fourth day, there is but little chance that she ever will. The case, however, should not be abandoned, for she has done well even after the fourteenth day. If the udder is hard and knotty the camphorated oil (No. 11, p. 53) should be well rubbed over it twice every day; and if it is very hot and tender, fomentations of warm water should be used, but no cold lotion is admissible in such a case. As the cow is frequently unwilling, and sometimes unable, to take 80 TIE BLAIN,, &c. sufficient nutriment herself, some nutritious food should be horned in; and there is nothing better than good thick gruel. wo or three quarts given four times every day will be enough. All sweet things, which farmers are so apt to give, should be omitted ; the food in the paunch is sufficiently ready to ferment, without giving any sugar. A cow labouring under milk fever should scarcely ever be left. She naturally gets very tired of coughing so long, and sometimes attempts to shift herself, and would get sadly bruised if assistance were not afforded ; besides which, in the early stage of the disease, and occa- sionally afterwards, there is some affection of the brain, and the animal is half unconscious of what she does, and would beat herself dangerously about if care were not taken of her. , I must again repeat that prevention is better than cure; and that the best preventive of milk fever is not to let her be in too high con- dition, but to take four or five quarts of blood from her, and give her a physic drink eight or ten days before the expected time of calving. ¢ CHAPTER XVIII. THE BLAIN, &C. Tuts is by no means an unfrequent disease, and is commonly known by the name of b/ain, hawkes, or gargyse. The animal appears dull and languid, the eyes red and inflamed, with tears trickling from them. A swelling begins about the eyes, and occasionally appears on other parts of the body; but the charac- teristic symptom is that there are generally blisters under the tongue, or at the back part of the mouth; the pulse is quicker than natural ; there is more or less heaving of the flanks; and the bowels are some- times constipated. When the complaint is not checked at the onset, there is often a copious flow of saliva from the mouth, mixed often with a purulent, bloody, stinking discharge; the beast becomes ex- tremely weak and reduced, and is in danger of being suffocated by the great and rapid enlargement of the tongue. Causes.—Those cattle are the most subject to, this complaint that are in high condition, and feeding on rich pasture grounds. It ap- pears in many cases to be brought on by a redundancy of blood in the system, or from. the beast taking cold while in that state. It is most prevalent in the summer months, especially when the weather is hot and sultry, but it occurs at all times of the year, and in pastures of every kind, yet oftenest in low, marshy situations. This is a disease which must not be trifled with fora moment. I have known it prove fatal in the course of one day; and when ne- glected at the beginning it has speedily assumed a malignant charac- ter, which baffled every attempt to arrest its progress. = THE BLAIN, &c. 81 _ The remedy, and often a very expeditious one for this disease, is to cut deeply, and from end to end, the bladders that will be found along the side of and under the tongue. They will appear to be filled with a glutinous matter, and, although there may not be much bleeding from them at first, considerable bloody fluid will gradually ooze out, the swelling of the mouth and head wil] subside, and the beast will be very much relieved. All the curious operations of thrusting sticks nd tardown the throat have this for theirgebject, to break these ee but which is most easily and completely effected by the knife. If, however, much fever has accompanied the enlargement of the tongue, it will be prudent to take away five or six quarts of blood, and to give a physic drink, and particularly if, on the day following the operation, the beast should continue to be feverish. The mouth may likewise be washed with a solution of the chloride of lime in water, in the proportions of one drachm of the powdered chloride toa quart of water, while the mouth is very offensive; and with equal parts of tincture of myrrh and water afterwards, in order to promote the healing of the ulcer. If the fever continues, the fever drink (No. 1, p. 46) may be given morning and night, and the bowels kept open by the purging drinks (No. 2 or 7, p. 47 and 52). Should considerable weakness and loss of appetite remain when the fever seems to be subdued, the following tonic drink may be iven :— ¢ RECIPE (No. 32). Tonic Drink.—Take gentian, two drachms ; tartrate of iron, one drachm ; ginger, one drachm. Mix, and give in a pint of gruel. This may be repeated daily, or twice a day, as circumstances may uire. "Tt will sometimes happen that the animal will for some days refuse fo eat, on account of the soreness of the mouth. Thin gruel should be always placed within his reach, and plenty of thick gruel admi- nistered with the horn. The person who has to attend on cattle that have the blain should take care that none of the discharge from the mouth comes in contact with any sore place, for very troublesome ulcers have been produced by this means. If tere is any fear that a sore place has been thus inoculated, the lunar caustic should be applied to it. : | 82 THE BLOOD, &c.~ €> a Pe CHAPTER XIX, — THE BLOOD, BLOOD-STRIKING, BLACK-LEG, QUARTER, EVIL OR BLACK-. QUARTER. Tur disease which am now to describe is indicated ie * curious names, and a great many more, in various parts of the country. Very few of these names, however, are misplaced, for they indicate some variety, or symptoms, or stage of this dreadful malady. It would be much better recognized by the title of Inflammatory Fever. Its attack is confined almost entirely to animals that are in high condition, or rapidly improving; I should say, too high condition, and too rapidly improving... In some instances the disease will give some warning of its approach, but, generally, the beast ‘appears to be. to-day perfectly well, and to-morrow he will be found with. his, head_ extended, his flanks heaving, his breath hot, his eyes protruding, his. muzzle dry, his pulse quick ‘and hard — every symptom, in short, of the highest state of fever. He utters a low and distressing moaning 3. he is already half unconscious; he will stand for hours. ‘together motionless, or if he moves, or is compelled to move, there is a pecu- liar staggering referrible to the hind limbs, and generally one of them. more than the other: by and by he gets uneasy, he shifts his weight from foot to foot, he paws faintly, and then liesdown. He rises, but almost immediately drops.again. He now begins to be, or has glecady been, nearly unconscious of surrounding objects. There are many other symptoms from which the different names of the disease arose. On the back or loins, or over one of the quar- ters, there is more or less swelling; if felt when it first appears it is hot, and tender, and firm, but it soon begins to yield to the touch, and gives a singular crackling noise when pressed upon. One of the limbs likewise “enlarges, sometimes through its whole extent, and that enormously. It, too, is at first firm, and hot and tender, but it soon afterwards becomes soft and flabby, or pits when pressed upon, i. e., the indentation of the finger remains. When examined after death, that limb is full of red putrid fluid: it is, mortified, and seems to have been putrefying almost during the life of the beast. Large ulcers break out in this limb, and sometimes in other parts of the body, and almost immediately become gangrenous ; pieces of several pounds in weight have sloughed away; three-fourths of the udder have dropped off, or have been so gangrenous that it was necessary to remove them, and the animal has been one mass of ulceration. The breath stinks horribly ; a very offensive, and sometimes purulent and bloody fluid runs from the mouth; the urine is high-coloured or bloody, and the feces are also streaked with blood, and the smell trom them is scarcely supportable. ~ THE BLOOD, We. 83 the beast will sometimes continue two or three days, at other times he will die in less than twelve hours from the first _ *attack. In a few instances, however, and when the disease has been. early and properly treated, all these dreadful symptoms gradually ‘disappear, and the animal recovers. e . Although much evil has resulted from the beasts that have died of inflammatory fever yet it dees not appear that there is anythin tious in the disease. ‘It is true that if one bullock on a farm dies of the blood, many will usually follow; but it is only because they have been exposed to the ‘same exciting cause. Fortunately, also, for the farmer, it is almost confined to young cattle. Those that are between one and two years old are most subject to it; but some of three and four years are o¢ca- sionally attacked by it, and I have seen others of double that age die under it. Milch cows, or lean cattle, are in a manner exempt from it. } It is to a redundancy, or overflowing of the blood, the consequence of the sudden change from bad to good living, that this disease most commonly owes its origin. It is most prevalent in the latter part of ‘the spring and in the qatumn ; and very often, at those seasons of the year, proves destructive to great numbers of young cattle in different parts of the kingdom. It is sometimes, however, seen in the winter _and the early part of the spring, when the cattle are feeding on tur- nips. Some situations are more subject to this complaint than others. It is most frequent in low, marshy grounds, and pastures situated by ‘the side of woods. é It is a disorder of high condition and over-feeding. The times of the year and the character of the cattle prove this. It occurs in the slatter part of the spring, when the grass is most luxuriant and nutri- ‘tive, and the autumn, when we have the second flush of grass; and the animals attacked are those principally that are undergoing the process of fattening, and that have somewhat too suddenly been re- moved from scanty pasturage and low feeding to a profusion of herb- -age, and that of a nutritious and stimulating kind. The disease sometimes occurs when the cattle have been moved from one pasturage to another on the same farm; but more so when they have been -brought from poor land, at a distance, to a richer soil. There are in the latter case two preparatory causes, —the previous poverty, and the fatigue and exhaustion of the journey. _ Farmers may endeavour to account for it, if they please, from their beasts having fed on certain acrimonious or poisonous plants, as the different species of the crowfoot, or some others; but there cannot be a moment’s doubt that the evil is to be traced to their own bad ma- nagement, and to that almost alone. J will not say that there may not be some atmospheric agency. The blood is much more prevalent in some years than in others, and more fatal when it does occur; but if the fact is carefully examined, rapid vegetation has then succeeded to a cold and thriftless season, and thus the causes of which I have spoken have been more powerfully called into action, while the influ- trefied carcases' of the suffered to lie about, 84 THE BLOOD, a&ec. ence of the atmosphere may have materially modified the character of the disease after it had been produced. In examining cattle that die of this complaint the affected part or parts are found mortified, and emit a peculiar cadaverous smell; and there is a glutinous or bloody ichorous fluid of a very offensive smell between the skin fied) bei In two instances I found the membranes of the brain mortified, being here and there of a livid colour, and easily torn. “ This disease rarely admits of cure, but fortunately it may in general be prevented. If the malady is discovered as soon as it makes its appearance, the beast should be immediately housed, and then from four to eight quarts or blood taken away, according to the age and size. ‘Two hours after bleeding give the following purging drink (No. 2, p. 47), which will be found of a proper strength for young cattle from the age of one to two years. The bleeding should be repeated in three or four hours, if the animal is not materially relieved; and a third bleeding must follow the second, if the fever is unabated. There must be no child’s play here; the disease must be knocked down at once, or it will inevitably destroy the beast. The physic likewise must be repeated until it has its full effect. ra As soon as the bowels are well opened, the fever drink (No. 1, p. 46) should be administered, and repeated morning, noon, and night, all food except a little mash being removed. / At the first appearance of the disease, the part principally affected should be fomented several times in the course of the day with hot water, and for at least an hour each time. For this purpose there %; ? should be two or three large pieces of flannel in the water, that after one of them has been applied thoroughly hot and dripping to the part affected, another equally hot may be ready when this gets cold. As soon as the fever begins evidently to subside, and the beast is more himself, and eats a little, the fever medicine must not be pushed too far. It should be remembered that this is a case of highly in- flammatory disease, which soon passes over, and is often succeeded by debility almost as dangerous as the fever. The ox, therefore, must not be too much lowered; but, the fever abating, the following min- gled tonic and fever medicine should be given :— RECIPE (No. 33). Mildest Tonic Drink.—Take gentian, two drachms; emetic tartar, half a drachm nitre, half an ounce; spirit of nitrous ether, half an ounce. Give in gruel. If this does not bring back the fever, it may be safely continued once every day until the ox is well; or the quantities of the gentian may be increased, and the emetic tartar lessened, and at length alto- gether omitted, the nitre being still retained. . A seton (of black hellebore root if it can be procured) should be inserted into the dewlap; and, if the beast can be moved, it should be driven to much scantier pasture. Should not the disease be discovered until there is considerable THE BLOOD, &c. @ 85 i emelling, ane ® crackling noise in some tumefied part, a cure is seldom effected. Bleeding, at this stage of the complaint, can seldom be resorted to, or, at least, one moderate bleeding only should be prac- tised, in order to subdue any lurking fever that may remain. If a cure is in these cases attempted, the drink No. 13, p. 54, should be given, which may invigorate the system by its cordial and tonic powers, and prevent the mortification extending. _ The swelled parts should be frequently bathed with equal portions of vinegar and spirits of wine, made as hot as the hand will bear; or, if ulceration seems to be approaching, slight incisions should be effeeted along the whole extent of the swelling, and the part bathed with spirit of turpentine made hot. If ulceration has commenced, accompanied by the peculiar fcetor that attends the disease, the wounds should be first bathed witha disinfectant lotion. RECIPE (No. 34). Disinfectant Lotion.—Take solution of chloride of lime in powder, a quarter of an Ounce ; water,apint. Mix. : The hot spirit of turpentine should be applied immediately after this, and continued in use until either the mortified parts have slough- ed off, or the sore begins to have a healthy appearance. The tincture of aloes or Friar’s balsam may then follow. Since so little can be done in the way of cure, we next anxiously inquire whether there is any mode of prevention. The account which 1 have given of the disease immediately suggests the prevention, viz., to beware of these sudden changes of pasture; now and then to take a little blood from, or to give a dose of physic to, those beasts that are thriving unusually rapidly, and, whenever the disease breaks out on the farm, to bleed and to. purge, and remove to shorter and scantier feed every animal that has been exposed to the same exciting causes with those that have been attacked. The farmer should be particu- larly watchful during the latter part of the spring and the beginning of the autumn; he may thus save many a beast, and the bleeding and the physic will not arrest, but rather assist their improvement. He who will not attend to a simple rule like this will deserve the loss that he may experience. CHAPTER XX. MURRAIN, OR PESTILENTIAL FEVER. Tats is not the fever which I have just described, more rapidly, and to a greater extent, assuming the typhoid and malignant form, although there is a considerable similarity between the diseases, but it is distinguished by some peculiar and fatal characters. It has from time to tin destroyed immense numbers of cattle on every part of ; it 7 ; ' | | i } i) | | | | ! q 86 MURRARN; OR PESTILENTIAL FEVER. ‘the continent of Europe. Its ravages have sometimes been dreadful ‘in Great Britain. In the spring of the year 1714 more than’70,000 cattle died of this pest in England. » b hd ‘. ‘Fortunately of late years this destructive malady has been compa- ratively unknown among us, except that in some unfavourable dis- tricts a few cases have occurred every year. Its latest visitation, clothed with all its most dreadful attributes, was in 1768. It is thus described by’ Dr. Layard, an intelligent physician of that period :— -* The animal was found with its head extended, that its laborious ‘breathing might be accomplished with less dread of suffocation; there was considerable difficulty in swallowing; enlargement of the glands under the ear, and frequently swelling of the whole of the head; uneasiness about the head; seemingly itchiness about the ears; dulness ; frequent, but not violent heaving. 'To these succeeded staggering and great debility, until the animal fell, and was after- wards either unable to stand long at a time, or to stand at all. A “constant discharge of green bilious stinking feeces now appeared ; the breath was likewise offensive; the very perspiration was sour and “putrid; the head swelled rapidly; the tongue protruded from the “mouth; and the saliva, at first stinking, but afterwards purulent, bloody, and more and more offensive, flowed from the mouth. A crackling was heard under the skin when the back or loins were ‘pressed upon; tumours ‘appeared, and abscesses were formed in va- ‘rious parts ; they multiplied and they spread, and discharged a dread- fully stinking fluid. rea ““By and by a fresh access of fever seemed to supervene; the ‘breath got hot, and the extremities were cold; the purging increased, and was even more offensive; the urine and the dung excoriated the neighbouring parts as they passed away ; and on the seventh or ninth day the animal usually died.” wigs Beirty If a milch cow was attacked her milk dried up gradually, her ‘purging was more violent, and her debility more rapid than that of ‘other cattle. Bulls and oxen were not so violently seized as cows and calves; and cows with calf, and weakly cow-calves, were most ‘in danger. If cows slipped their calves they usually recovered. Calves received the infection from the cow, and the calf, on the other hand, often infected the cow. The disease was epidemic.- It depended on some atmospheric in- fluence, which we are unable to understand ; but at the same time it was contagious, and that to a very great. degree. If it once appeared on a farm, almost all the’cattle were sure to be affected: yet it was ascertained that. the power of infection did not extend more than a few yards; and that a hedge alone often separated the dead from the living.. The murrain seemed mostly confined to cattle, for horses and sheep, and swine and dogs, lived in the midst of the infection cand escaped, and,.even some neat cattle seemed to possess a security from infection. . 7 iD ei if The favourable symptoms were eruptions on various parts of the MURRAIN, OR PESTILENTIAL FRVER. 87 pody, not indeed too numerous, and their breaking and discharging a considerable quantity of purulent matter. If from exposure to cold, or other improper treatment, the boils were repelled, or if they gra- dually lessened and: disappeared, death-was an almost inevitable consequence. If the dung became more consistent, and the urine not ‘so highly coloured, and the. mouth. cooler, and the beast began to brighten up, and look a little cheerfully around him, there was hope; but if the boils receded, and the scouring became constant, and the breath was hot, and the horns were cold, and the difficulty cf breathing inereased, and the animal groaned at every motion; if the eye sunk, and the pulse intermitted, and the beast was. almost unconscious, and a cadaverous smell proceeded from him, it was seldom that he escaped. % On examination after death, the whole of the cellular texture under the skin was found to be distended either by air or a sanious fluid, ~ and in most cases partly by both. The air rushed out when the skin was punctured, and stunk most abominably ; and the cellular.texture and the muscles were rendered livid and black by the dark fluid which they contained. The brain and its. membranes were inflamed, and the ventricles filled and distended. The mouth and nose, and fauces and throat, and the frontal sinuses to the very tip of the horn, were filled with ulcerations and with pus. The lungs were inflamed in patches, and filled with tubercles. The liver was large, and so rotten that it was torn by the slightest touch. All the vessels. of the liver and the gall-bladder were gorged with greenish fetid bile. The paunch was distended with wind, and undigested and, generally, hardened food. The third stomach contained between its leaves a quantity of dry and hardened food, so hard and britile that it might be almost powdered; and the fourth stomach, or rennet bag, was empty, but highly inflamed and gangrened in various places. The intestines were also beset with livid and black spots. The uterus of those that were in calf was gangrened, and the smell from the fluid which it contained was almost insufferable. It seemed to be a high degree of fever, which had speedily run on to a typhoid and malignant form, and by which every part of the frame was poisoned. We have not for a long while been visited to any great extent by this malady, and should it again occur, the veterinary art is far more advanced than it was many years ago, and there is reason: to hope that it would not be so destructive as in times past. | _ The treatment would be, first, and the most important thing of all, to separate the diseased from the sound: to remove évery animal that seemed to be in the slightest degree affected to some isolated portion of the farm where contact with others would be impossible. It would be imprudent to remove those that appeared to be unaffected, because it would be impossible to know that the virus did not lurk in their veins, and thus the poison might be conveyed to other parts of the 88 MURRAIN, OR PESTILENTIAL FEVER. farm. The sick only should be taken away, and that as speedily as possible. In the early stage of the disease there can be no doubt of the pro- priety of bleeding. The fever, which, according to every account, characterises the first attack, should, if possible, be subdued ; other- wise its prolonged existence would aggravate, if it did not cause, the subsequent debility. ‘The animal should be bled, in proportion to his size, condition, and the degree of fever: he should be bled, in fact, until the pulse began to falter or he began to stagger. ‘The blood should be taken in as full a stream as possible, that the constitution might be more speedily and -beneficially affected. When the blood flows slowly, a quantity may sometimes be taken away before the animal begins to feel it, the loss of which would afterwards produce alarming debility; but if the blood flows freely, the beast will show symptoms of faintness —the effect we wish to produce — before one- fourth of the quantity is drawn that would be lost if it ran in a slow stream. We want to attack and subdue the fever, without under- mining the strength of the frame. ; Then we should with great propriety administer a brisk purgative. If fetid and obstinate purging so soon follows, we should be anxious to get rid, if we can do so, of a portion of the offending matter; and therefore a pound or twenty ounces of Epsom salts should be given in a sufficient quantity of thin gruel. Next, as it is a disease so much and so early characterised by de- bility, we should attend to the diet. Green succulent grass would scarcely be allowed, because it would probably not a little increase the purging; but mashes of bran, with a little bean-meal, carrots, or sweet old hay, should be given in moderate quantities. The animal should be coaxed to eat; for it is necessary that the constitution be supported against the debilitating influence of such a disease.- The animal should not be at first drenched, for this might produce nausea » and disgust for food; but if two or three days should pass, and the beast should obstinately refuse to eat, plenty of warm thick gruel must be forced upon him. As for medicine, I scarcely know what to advise. The fact stands too clearly upon record, that nineteen animals _ out of twenty, seized with the murrain, have died. That on which I should put most dependence would be the following :— RECIPE (No. 35). Drink for Murrain.—Take sweet spirit of nitre, half an ounce; laudanum, half an ounce ; chloride of lime, in powder, two ounces; prepared chalk, an ounce. Rub them well together, and give them with a pint of warm gruel. This may be repeated every six hours, until the purging is consi- derably abated; but should not be continued until it has quite stopped. The purging being abated, we must look about for something to recall the appetite and recruit the strength, and I do not know any- thing better than the following :— MURRAIN, OR PESTILENTIAL FEVER. 89 holiavera yibne pe » RECIPE (No. 36)... © ik matt Gist | Tonic Drink for Murrain.—Take columba root, two drachms; canella bark, two drachms ; ginger, one drachm; sweet spirit of nitre, half an ounce. Rub them toge- ther, and give in a pint of thick gruel. _ There cannot be a more proper means adopted than a seton in the dewlap, made with the black hellebore root. The mouth should be frequently washed with a dilute solution of the chloride of lime. The ulcerated parts, if they are fetid, should have the same disinfectant applied to them, and the walls;and ceiling, and every part of the cow- house, should be washed with it. ene : One caution should be used with respect to the food; while the beast should be coaxed to eat, in order to support him under the de- bilitating influence of the disease, it is only on the supposition. that he ruminates his food. Until he begins again to chew the cud, we are only injuriously overloading the paunch by enticing the animal to eat. Until rumination is re-established, the food should consist of gruel, or any other nutritive fluid, and should be so administered that the greater part of it may pass om into the fourth stomach, without entering the first. When the animal. appears to be recovering, he should be gradually exposed to cool and open air, and very slowly permitted to return to his usual food. | ' When the disease is quite subdued, the cleansing of the cow-house ‘should be seriously undertaken, and thoroughly accomplished. Let every portion of filth and dung be carefully removed, the walls, and ‘the wood-work, and the floor carefully washed with water, or soap and water, and then every. part washed, again with a lotion, in. the proportion of a quarter of a pound of the chloride of lime, in powder, to a bucket of water. This will be better than any fumigation that ‘ean be possibly applied.. Should, however, the chloride of lime not be at hand, then a simple and cheap fumigation, on which very con- siderable dependence can be placed, may be resorted to. ~ “yy ye ae fe See RECIPE (No. 37). ' Fumigation. —Take common salt, two pounds; oil of vitriol, one pound. The salt should be put in an earthen vessel, and placed in the “tniddle of the cow-house, and the oil of vitriol. gradually poured. upon it. They should be stirred well together with a stick, and the person Webco the thing should retreat as quickly as he can, to prevent imself from suffering by the fumes of the chloride, closing the door carefully after him, every window and aperture having been previously closed. « In a few hours he may enter the cow-house again, and remove the vessel without any serious inconvenience. _ There is every reason to hope that the murrain will never again thin our herds of cattle to any great extent, not only because veteri- nary science is so much advanced, and the farmer can have imme- diate recourse to the assistance of a skilful practitioner, but because agriculture has been so much improved within the last century, and particularly that important and most beneficial system ‘of under- g * as 4 : 90 MURRAIN; OR PESTILENTIAL FEVER. draining has been introduced. When the murrain so sadly prevailed in foreign countries, and in England, it uniformly commenced in, and was chiefly confined to, some low marshy district. ‘This was parti- cularly the case in the murrain which prevailed in France in 1779. It was principally confined to the low meadows and marshes, and it appeared soon after an unusual inundation had subsided. In Italy, where the murrain has been more prevalent and fatal than in any other country, it atways commences in some of the extensive and pestilential marshes with which the Italian coast abounds. In the account of a pestilence that carried off thousands of cattle in Hun- gary, it is said that the spring had been rainy, with great changes in the temperature of the atmosphere. ‘This will afford a useful hint to the farmer as to the system of agriculture he should pursue, and the situation to which he should, if possible, remove his cattle when any | pestilential disease breaks out. The infected cattle, and the herd generally, should not only be removed to some rather elevated and dry situation, but sheltered as much as possible from the sudden variations of the external air, at least by night. . It is to be hoped, too, that some legislative provision will be made to prevent as much as possible the spread of the disease; that every animal seriously affected shall be immediately consigned to the slaughter, and that no portion of the hide or carcass shal] by any means be permitted to be used, but the whole deeply and speedily buried. | When the murrain was so prevalent in Holland, and it seemed as if every beast was destined to fall a victim to it, some speculative inen had recourse to inoculation. The matter discharged from the nostrils, or from an ulcer of a beast not apparently affected with any very virulent form of the disease, was inserted under the skin of a “sound animal. The disease was produced, sure enough, but with very doubtful and often lamentable effect. In some cases a worse malady was induced. Ina few it was materially mitigated ; a consi- derable proportion still died, and doubtless some who would have escaped the disease had it not been for the inoculation, [Extract of a letter to the American Editor from J. E. G. Kennedy, Meadville, Penn- sylvania. “I received some months since, from a Hollander who purchased a farm a few years since in my neighbourhood, some powders for the cure of murrain in cattle. After having resided here a few years, the frequency of this disease induced him to send to Holland for the medicine mentioned, and which he avers was 4a certain remedy there within his own knowledge. The receipt for its manufacture is a secret, and Jodged with one family in the Hague.. Its reputation in Holland is very exten- sive. Mr. Kehler, who gave me the article, is a remarkably intelligent man, noted _ for his correct agricultural taste and knowledge among his friends, and I perfectly rely on his veracity. He would say nothing that he did not believe true; and asa proof of his standing in his own country, I might mention his having received, from pa nobleman of Holland an invitation to become the manager of an extensive estate in that country, and the inducement such, that he has rented his farm and gone to EPIDEMIC oF 1840 anv 184 bh. ‘94 Bolland with his family. Before Mr. Kehler left thiscountry he gave nie some of tlie _ powders, and I have thought that possibly the chief ingredients might be detected by the experiments of an accomplished chemist. 1f you will undertake the task of “having them submitted to the tests of such a person, I will send you a sufficient quantity to make trial with. If the experiments should result successfully, and the _medicine prove valuable, the labour would be well expended, as I know of no zertain _or plausible cure for murrain in cattle, a disease occasioning the loss of *housands annually in this country. The principal part of the article (whether the virtuous “portion or not I cannot say) is mineral—judging from the weight.” _ Another extract.—‘ [ send you two papers of the murrain powder, being two doses. ‘For fear of mistake I wrote the directions on them when I received them.” ' The two powders were placed in the hands of Professor Benjamin Hallowell—as eminent for scientific attainments as he is remarkable for simplicity of manners and ‘benevolence of heart. In a few days he was good enough to return the powder, with an exact duplicate of it, and the following memorandum :—“ The powder contains 880 grains; it is composed of 340 grains of nitrate of potash (salt-petre) and 40 grains of bole armenian intimately mixed” —be it remembered that the above quantity makes two doses — and the directions are: “ dissolve in a pint of water.” It will be ‘easy to try a remedy sostrongly and plausibly recommended; and, if found effectual, ‘the public will owe an obligation to all who may assist in diffusing a knowledge of it. Thus we come at the following recipe for murrain:—Take nitrate of potash, 170 grains; bole armenian, 20 grains, Dissolve in a pint of water, and give. —S.] CHAPTER XXI. THE EPIDEMIc oF 1840 anp 1841. Since the last edition of this work was published a new disease has appeared amongst cattle and sheep, and for the last two years it has spread through the kingdom as an epidemic, scarcely sparing a single parish from its visitation. 'Though not by any means usually fatal in its effects, it has yet altogether destroyed a great number, and the pecuniary loss has been still greater from the debilitating effects which it has produced or left behind. It has been proved to be extremely infectious, and it is difficult to say whether the greater number of eases have been thus produced or spontaneously occasioned. It has sometimes appeared amongst the cattle of a farm, scarcely sparing a single case; and again, after some months’ absence, it has re-appeared on the same farm amongst the sheep, or perhaps the swine. In some cases, and on some occasions, the symptoms of the disease have been very slight, and the cases have soon got well with- out any medical treatment; but in other cases the symptoms have been extremely severe, and attended with danger. It has usually happened that the earlier and. the later cases have been somewhat slight, and the middle ones much more dangerous. In this respect it 92 EPIDEMLC. OF!) h8405,a4nD 18414 has resembled other epidemics.’ «The cause of this disease is altoge- ther unknown: it is probably owing to some atmospheric agency, the nature of which it is'\impossible to ascertain. The disease is decidedly constitutional, though manifesting itself locally in a peculiar manner: its nature is that of a low fever, great debility quickly supervening, and sometimes exhibiting a tendency to putridity. If the very earliest ‘symptoms are observed, it will gener- ally be found that cold extremities, ‘a staring coat, and indeed a cold fit is exhibited; but a reaction soon follows, in which the limbs be- “come hot, and ied saliva i issues from the mouth, and the tongue is somewhat swollen. _At the same time some degree of tenderness i in the feet is manifested, and the pulse is quickened and the beast i is altogether feverish. The soreness of the mouth and feet increases, small bladders are found on the tongue, the lips and other parts of the mouth, and likewise between the hoofs, and sometimes also on. the teats. . The animal. gradually ceases to feed, from the pain expe- rienced in the act,,and, sometimes the appetite itself fails. The blad- ders become: opaque, and. at length burst and discharge a. watery fluid; and this increases the soreness of the parts. The flow of saliva increases, and in a few days the cuticle sloughs off. Sometimes there ‘are swellings alone the back and loins, which appear to:contain air. The disease thus continues, hecoming gradually more severe until four or five days from the commencement, when amendment generally takes place, and the beast gradually recovers. Sometimes, however, the complaint becomes complicated with inflammation of some organ " —such as the lungs, and the danger is then much greater, or it may take on a low typhoid form, under which the animal may sink. In milch cows the udder is often affected, einige: Sh inn inflamed, and attended with danger.) )- | = — The treatment of this disease must be ene in its ola and ‘should Gonsist in checking the fever; relaxing the bowels, healing the ‘sores on the mouth wes feet, fend afterwards assisting the strength with tonics. Bleeding should in iehdba be apatite from, unless there i is some severe lotal inflammation present, calculated to increase the debility; but the following laxative should be administered without loss. of time: = RECIPE (No. 38). . Take epsom salts, half a pound; sulphur, two or four ounces; nitre, half an ounce ; . ginger, two drachms ; ‘spirit of nitrous ether, one ounce. Dissolved i in’ warm water or gruel, and repeated once.a day for several days. The following liniment ite be apphed to the spo nk several times a a day : — ‘RECIPE (No. 39). Take alum and white vitriol, of each half an ounce; treacle, a quarter ofa pint. Dissolved in a pint of warm water. The feet shouldbe carefully pared, and if stant inflamed 'a xoniil maybe applied; but» if.mot so,.and there is a sore, equal parts of . EBPIDEMIC oF 1840 anv 1841. 9 tincture of myrth and butyr of antimony. One application of this eanstic is generally sufficient, and the sore should afterwards be dressed once a day with the following :— RECIPE (No. 40). Astringent Powder.—Take blue vitriol, powdered, half an ounce; powdered alum,. half an ounce; prepared chalk, two ounces; armenian bole, one ounce. Mix. Linseed and oatmeal gruel should be offered to drink, and mashes with the best food that can be procured. If the weather is fine, It will be better to continue the cattle at grass; but if housed, they should be kept clean and dry. When the bowels are relaxed, and there appears much weakness, the following tonic should be given daily :-— ; RECIPE (No. 41). , Take powdered ginger, one drachm; powdered caraway seeds, one drachm;‘gen- tian, powdered, four drachms; spirit of nitrous ether, one ounce.. To be mixed slowly with gruel. ‘ »If there should be any appearance of colic or spasm of the bowels, an ounce of Jaudanum may be given with the other medicine; and if the liver is affected, a drachm of calomel may be added, and a blis tering application rubbed on the right side. | Should the lungs be inflamed, it will be proper to bleed and blister the sides, or insert setons in the brisket. If the udder is affected, it should be well and frequently fomented with hot water, and the milk should be drawn with great care. The epidemic has sometimes appeared amongst sheep in so slight a form that they get well without assistance, or simply by the appli- ‘ation of tar to the feet, no other part being affected. At other times, however, its appearance has been far more severe; the hoofs in many eases have come off, from the formation of matter underneath, and the poor animals have been altogether unable to stand.. The mouth, however, in these animals is rarely affected, and the appetite there- fore is not greatly impaired. In wet weather the disease is more -severe than in dry, and the feet are sometimes so bad as to resemble the worst form of foot rot. The feet will therefore, in sheep, require the principal attention. The detached horn should be sufficiently cut away to afford exit to any matter that may be under; but the knife must be used with cau- tion and sparingly, as fungus flesh is so apt to grow when the horn is removed. . The same medicine recommended for cattle should here be em- ployed, and the powder will be particularly useful. It will be desi- rable, unless the symptoms are slight, to administer the internal medicine, one-sixth or one-eighth part being sufficient for the sheep ; and it will not be necessary to continue its use so long. Pigs may be treated in a similar manner. 94 INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. CHAPTER XXIL. INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. Tus disease does ree erate occur in. cattle, except from aie & acrid and-poisonous herbs, or when cows are near their time of caly- ing. In the first case, there are frequent and violent, but. ineffectual, eiforts to stale. There is true and proper inflammation of the neck of the bladder. 'This may be occasioned by cold, but is more frequently produced by the animal having fed on heathy pastures, and on the hot and stimulating plants thatyabound; there. The broom is a fre- quent cause of this disease. It is of much consequence to be anaiblod to distintrakate this froth inflammation of the bladder itself. In the early stage of inflamma- tion of the neck’of the bladder no urine will be voided, while it will be discharged much more frequently than usual, and "apparently i in larger quantities in true inflammation of the bladder; and when at lensth, in inflammation of the neck of the bladder, urine is voided, it is after much straining, and is evidently and forcibly squeezed out from the over-distended but .closed vessels... The most certain way, however, of distinguishing the one from the other, is to introduce the hand into the rectum ; the distended bladder will then be plainly felt below. It may sometimes be detected by examination of the outside -of the belly. . - The course to be pursued is sufficiently plain — the bladder must ‘be emptied, or more fluid will pour into it until it actually bursts. For some time before the fatal termination of the complaint in the Tupture of the bladder, not only the constant straining, but the heav- ‘ing of the flanks, the quickness of the pulse, the loss of appetite, the ‘cessation of rumination, and the shivering fits, will sufficiently indi- cate the extent of the danger. »'The better way of emptying the blad- der is, if possible, to relax the spasm of its neck. It is the spasmodic action of the sphincter muscle of the neck.of the bladder that is the cause of the obstruction. A very large bleeding will sometimes ac- -complish this; but it must be a large one, and continued ‘until the animal is exhausted almost to fainting. To bleeding, physic should succeed, in order to lower the system, -and relax the spasm; but no medicine must be given that would in ‘the slightest degree increase the flow of urine. Sulphur, or aloes, or both combined, “would be indicated here. Should not the flow of urine be re-established, mechanical means must be resorted to. Here a skilful practitioner should be consulted. The water may be readily drawn from the cow by a catheter; but in the ox, from the curvature of the penis, this would be a very difficult affair. Some have recommended to cut down upon the penis, behind the bag, and lay open the urethra, and so pass a catheter into the INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. 95: bladder; but this will produce a wound, difficult to heal from the pas- sage and excoriation of the urine. Others would puncture the blad- der through the rectum, and others through the belly; but both ope- rations may be accompanied and followed by various, unpleasant, circumstances. Soy ty i] ) _ The catheter lately invented by Mr. Read, and which, by curiously accommodating itself to the curvature.of the urethra in the horse, will readily enter the bladder and evacuate it without any painful or dan- gerous operation, is not applicable to. the ox, at least in common hands ;. for there is a double curvature in his penis and urethra, through which no catheter, however flexible, will pass. A good veterinary anatomist, however, will overcome. this difficulty; and to him, or to one well skilled in his profession, the proprietor of cattle, should have recourse in such a case. _ The farmer, nevertheless, having fully ascertained the nature of the case, may often evacuate a great portion of the urine in a very simple way. The bladder of the ox lies more in the pelvis than does that of the horse—it is more easily felt than in the horse—it is more readily pressed upon by the hand—and the muscle at the neck of the bladder is much weaker: so that the hand being introduced into the anus, and gentle pressure made upon the bladder, a great quantity, or almost the whole, of the urine may be forced out, without danger.., _ A catheter may be introduced into the bladder of a cow without difficulty. | ; G0. “ej : dt ci sill i ioe ammiation of the bladder itself is a disease more frequent, and from the same causes, namely, cold and acrid herbs.. Here the ani- mal should be bled and physicked, and fomented across the loins, and every diuretic medicine carefully avoided. The following drink may be administered with good effect, after the bleeding and purging — , RECIPE (No. 42). Drink for Inflammation of the Bladder. — Take, antimonial powder, two drachms ; powdered opium, one scruple: rub them well together with a small portion of very thick gruel, and repeat the dose morning and night. . It should not, however, be. forgotten, that in cows that are near parturition this discharge of urine is not unfrequent, and arises from. Irritation of the bladder, caused by the pressure of the foetus, or from. sympathy with the uterus, now much excited,—and not from actual inflammation. When she has calved, this will gradually cease; or a dose of salts, followed by one or two of the powders just recom- mended, will afford immediate and considerable ‘relief. In some cows this incontinence of urine has been produced by the retention. of a dead calf in the womb beyond the natural period, and it. being at the same time in a state of putrefaction.. The mingled influence of Jong-continued pressure, and of proximity to a large body in a state of Sa a will occasionally produce a state of extreme irrita- bility. The animal should have warm mashes once or twice daily. ‘Connected with this is a not unfrequent disease, and especially in the summer, and in cows in high condition, namely :— 96> - INFLAMMATION; OF THE SHAPE. - INFLAMMATION OF THE SHAPE. The external parts are very much swollen, and pustules or boils appear about them, that break and discharge much matter; and there is also a considerable discharge of glairy fluid from the vayina. — — This sometimes occurs after difficult calving, or from taking cold when the calving has been‘easy and natural: it has occasionally fol- Yowed bulling, and it has been seen at other times, and arises from causes that could not be ascertained. Every action of the animal pes that she labours under extreme irritation, and suffers a great eal. ag ee 3 ’ She should be bled and physicked. It will often be advisable to give a second dose of the physic, after an interval of three days. The shape should be well fomented several times in the day with warm water, until the swelling begins to diminish. A common goulard- wash, consisting of one ounce of the extract of lead to a quart of water, with the addition of an ounce of spirit of wine, will then be serviceable, An unpleasant gleet will often remain for a considerable time after the swelling has subsided and the ulcers have healed. An astringent injection will then be useful. The one that should be first tried is composed of six ounces of bruised oak bark, boiled in two quarts of water until it is reduced to three pints. If this should not succeed, a solution of alum, in the proportion of a quarter of an ounce to a quart of water, may be tried. A common injection syringe, of tolerably large size, will be the best instrument for throwing up the injection. CHAPTER XXIII, STONE IN THE URINARY PASSAGES, OR BLADDER. TuereE seems to be a greater disposition to the formation and reten- tion of calculi, or stones, in the urinary passages of the ox, than of the horse. ‘The manner in which cattle gather their food, the half- cutting, and half-tearing, by which the roots of a portion at least of. the herbage are taken into the mouth and swallowed, and the pro- pensity which almost all cattle have to swallow earth, in order to prevent the acid fermentation of the food in the paunch—these things account for the more frequent collection of sand and gravel in the bladder of cattle than of horses. This sand and gravel is the foundation of, or the preparation for, the future formation of stone in the bladder; and when the stone begins to form, it is far more likely to be detained, and to accumulate in size, in the bladder of the ox, than that of the horse, because the urethra is very much smaller and more curved in its course. 3 {> STONE IN THE URINARY PASSAGES. 97 Stone in the bladder may be suspected, when there is much fever, accompanied by a frequent turning of the head, and earnest gaze on the flanks; when the hind limbs tremble, and there are ineffectual endeavours to pass urine, or it is evacuated in small quantities, and mingled with blood. mn The suspicion may very easily be reduced to certainty, by examin- ing the bladder with the hand introduced into the rectum, or last gut. The bladder of the ox, as has already been described, lying so much more in the pelvis than the bladder of the horse does, the stone cannot fail of being felt if there is one. The presence of stone in the bladder having been thus proved, that farmer will pursue the most judicious course who sends the beast immediately to the butcher; for no medicine will dissolve it, and the animal will lose condition every day. A skilful veterinarian is able, indeed, to remove the stone by the operation of lithotomy: but he must well understand the anatomy of cattle; and, after all, the operation would be attended with some danger and considerable expense. The retention of a small calculus in some part of the urethra occurs much oftener than is generally suspected. ‘The symptoms would be nearly the same as those of stone in the bladder, except that the stop- page of urine would be more complete. On examination, the stone will be easily felt, and generally in the double curvature of the penis. Am incision may be made upon it, and it may be thus easily extracted. Two or three sutures, according to the size of the calculus, having been passed through the edges/of the wound, it will usually heal in a féw days. CHAPTER XXIV. DISEASES OF THE EYE, “OxeEN are very apt to receive injuries about the eye, as wounds penetrating into the orbit of the eye, or even fractures of the orbit. Lhe principal thing is to prevent or abate inflammation, by fomenta- tions or poultices, and a little physic, and to leave nature pretty nearly to herself. Either from injury, or from a disposition in the bullock to throw out tumours of every kind, there are frequently bony enlargements about the eyes of oxen. It will be easily seen how far they are a nuisance to the animal, or impede the sight; and if it is 0 eee os Sea pare the aid of a professed practitioner on cat- should be obtained, as an j ivi Men thadse ter : important vessel may be divided, or a Soft fangous tumours sometimes grow out of the orbit, or from the bone around.’ These can only be got rid of by the use of the knife and 9" should be placed in ‘a skilful hand: but even in the most 98 DISEASES OF THE EYE. skilful hands, the knife often fails; or rather, there is a disposition to reproduction in these tumours, which it is impossible to repress. The eyelids of the ox are very subject to disease., Sometimes there is a scaliness around the edges; sometimes a row of pustules resem- bling the stye of the human being: both of these diseases are fre- quently a great source of annoyance. ‘They appear early in the spring of the year, and continue during the summer and the greater part of the autumn, and disappear as winter comes on. _ - USE OF OXEN. 151 team, frequently getting sfalled, (the familiar term in Pennsylvania when a team gets set fast in a slough), compelled him to lessen his loads. But he added, that in returning from Newport with their wagons empty, his neighbour had the advantage in speed, although none in the actual performance of the contract.” Thus it appears that as Rome is said to have been saved by the cackling of geese, the labour of oxen contributed on a critical occa- sion to the establishment of the American Republic. So much in answer may we not say in refutation, of the objection made to these animals in comparison with horses for heavy draft even on ‘he road. OX-SHOES AND MACHINE FOR SHOEING OXEN. A great impediment to the use of oxen on our public roads in the winter season, is the liability of their feet to get sore for want of shoes —a great scandal on the intelligence and humanity of all southern farmers — for nothing can be easier or more simple than the manner of doing it in New England, where cattle driven on the roads in winter are as regularly shod as horses. In the hope of introducing a practice recommended equally by interest and humanity, a view is here given of the frame used for that purpose, and the smith who does not provide himself with one ought not to receive the patronage of any enlightened neighbourhood. The frame, as here exhibited, should be seven and a half feet Jong by three and a half wide, and five and a half high, consisting of four upright posts A A AA, and two horizontal bars on each side B BBB, 452 ESSAY ON THE joined by mortices. In the bars of one end, at the distance of ten inches from each other, are two perpendicular stanchions, the one fixed, the other moveable, and fastened by a key D, which are let into the bars and form a head stall. The lower bars of the sides are eighteen inches from the ground. Immediately under the upper bar on the right side is a windlass EE, separated in the centre, working in the posts, and a block K let fall from the bar—with one end pass- ing over, and moving upon the opposite beam, is a broad leather strap six feet long, attached by an iron ring at the other end to the staples in the windlass. To give sufficient stability, the posts may either be let into the ground, or framed into sills, with end braces. The ox to be shod is led into the frame, and his head confined in the head stall. The strap is brought under the lower part of the belly and fastened to the windlass, by turning which his hind feet are raised six or eight inches from the ground. The foot is then lashed by acord to the upper surface of the lower bar. In this situation the shoes are easily set. By moving the strap till it comes near the fore-legs the other part of the body is raised, and the shoes set on the fore-feet in like manner. The shoe is the arc of a circle, of the thickness of a common horse- shoe, from half to three-quarters of an inch wide, flattened to double that width at the hind part. The flat or hind part covers the frog, the tenderest part of the foot. The heel and toe are either corked or raised to make a level with the heads of the nails. Five or six nails are sufficient to secure it. Particular care must be taken by the smith in shoeing that the toes of the shoes do not extend quite to the extremity of the hoof, in which they impinge on each other, and by the motion of the feet are easily thrust off. These directions are given by Benja- min Coleman, Esq. of Virginia, and are illustrated by the following sketch : - i X USE OF OXEN. 153 For the speed of an ox-team in the plough we might rely on the numerous certificates of committees for the last twenty years, in which our agricultural annals abound, from Boston in the north to é Baltimore at least going south. These testify in innumerable cases } to their ploughing five or six inches deep, an eighth of an acre tho- roughly well, at the rate of an acre in four hours. Making the most liberal allowance, however, for the favourable circumstances under which the work has been done at this rate, and it may still be safely assumed that a yoke of oxen, well trained, will turn over more than an acre of strong land in eight hours. All that we have contended for is more than confirmed by the fol- lowing testimony taken from a very interesting letter from Governor Hill, dated 7th December; 1843, on the use of oxen in the lumbering business in Maine. He-says—‘“ My own experience in this matter is quite recent, and of course limited. I have at this time cattle of my own raising, which, having been taught to step quick, and having worked in the same team with horses, will side by side travel as fast and plough as much in a day as the same number of horses. A pair of these oxen will tur over with a plough that carries twelve inches of the last year’s corn or potatoe ground, or easy stubble land, from one and a half to two acres in a day, working eight hours, four in the forenoon and four in the afternoon. Oxen well fed with hay and a portion of Indian corn or meal, will in the heat of summer stand it to work daily from eight to ten hours.” At the Exhibition of the Maryland Agricultural Society in 1823, (quorum pars fuz), in the view of hundreds of spectators, an ox-team started in competition with five horse-teams, and was the second in completing an equal quantity of ground, and would have been the first if the horse-team had cleared out the middle furrow; but sup- posing that when ready to start the horse has a little the advantage of foot, it is to be considered that for small jobs and short bouts his competitor can be more quickly hitched up, and the work despatched by the time the horse would be geared:—such cases as we have stated abound in all the accounts of the proceedings of agricultural societies. A writer in the Memoirs of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, speaking to a community who neither could nor would be deceived on a matter so well understood by, and so deeply interesting to them, says—‘“ The principal argument of the advocates for the cultivation by horses in Maryland seems to be the superior speed of the horse. Now this must proceed from an ¢mperfect training of the cattle. With us our cattle will plough an acre of ground much better, and in as short a time, as a pair of horses would do it, unless they can trot their horses in the plough; so they will get in a ton of hay in as short a time.”” Here we are well persuaded the sagacious writer hits the nail on the head, when he suggests that the objection on the score of speed must arise from an * imperfect training uf the cattle.” He must possess an imperfect knowledge of the difference between the habits of the New England and the Southern ploughman 154 ESSAY ON THE who is not prepared to admit that in nothing is that difference greater than in their treatment of all their cattle, and more especially their oxen. In this very difference, in fact, is to be found the solution of the question, and this brings us to the point for making the sugges- tions we propose on the breed, gearing, training, and general treat- ment of the vx. As to the breed, there can be no doubt that if regard were had alone to the working qualities of cattle, a skz/ful breeder might in a series of years, not very long, manufacture out of our own country eattle a race which would be as distinguished for quickness of motion and endurance as, by like care and attention and skill, the improved short horns have been made, and established for early maturity, symmetry and disposition to lay on flesh and fat on the most valuable parts. There is, however, in the two eases, this obvious difference in the system of breeding the horse and ox, which is a matter of necessity militating against the ox and detracting from him on the score of action, leaving it even a subject of surprise that he should be as quick as he is. While the horse, for instance, is bred and cultivated with a view to the possession and display of a single quality, either high- bred for light harness or the saddle, or cold-blooded, with weight to be thrown into the collar, for the plough or heavy loads, for the cart or the wagon, true economy compels the husbandman as to his cattle, to keep in view and to combine, as far as he can, several objects in some degree incompatible with each other, and with the highest attain- able degree of excellence in any particular one of them. Few, for in- stance, could afford to breed catile with exclusive reference to the paz/, the yoke, or the shambles! For either of these objects a different breed would be taken, while, under all circumstances, for all these purposes combined, we should. pronounce in favour of the Worth Devon. It is from this stock that the famous New England oxen are descended. Be- ing of moderate size, and active and thrifty, they are adapted to a wider range of country; and being in itself an unmixed distinct natural breed, if we may Say so, it transmits and preserves its peculiar quali- ties with remarkable uniformity as to shape, size, colour, temper and action; and without demanding, in order to keep them up to the mark, that practised skill and extraordinary care in the selection of the breeding stock which has been for many years exercised in the formation of some other artificial breeds, choosing for that purpose individuals in every case most free from the defects, and possessing the greatest number of the points which it may be the object of the breeder to establish. In a correspondence between Dr. Mease of Philadelphia and some English stock-breeders of celebrity, one of them, Mr. Chandler, who had repeatedly gained prizes at Smithfield for the cattle he had raised or exhibited, says in his answer to certain inquiries—‘* Not being an advocate for very large animals or for feeding to an excess, I have endeavoured from experience to make use of that description of animals which pay best for the food they eat, and are the readiest sale USE OF OXEN. 155 when fit for market. I have in consequence used the North Devons. They are the best breed that I am acquainted with for the united purposes of labour and feeding, being very active, fast walkers, quick feeders, of a very good quality when slaughtered, and of a size now very generally preferred in our markets to the very large beasts, being from one hundred to one hundred and fifty stone of eight pounds. They are worked in yokes from four to six to a plough, and plough upwards of an acre per day ; indeed they work harder than any other oxen in this country, for Devonshire is a very hilly country. The Devonshire cows are not of a large size, but very handsome forms, quick feeders, and give milk of a very rich quality. I should suppose that a yearling bull would not be procured in either Devon or Here- ford, from the first breeds, for less than one hundred guineas.”’ It is stated in the communications to the Board of Agriculture in England, vol. iv., that ten North Devon cows of Mr. Congon pro- duced on an average five dozen pounds of butter per week in summer, and two dozen in the winter; or, in other words, two hundred and sixty-eight pounds per cow. His thirty cows averaged an annual profit of £13, 14s. 8d., or $60.52 per head. Another fact which weighs heavily in favour of the ox is, that his size is not diminished by labour; a consideration dwelt upon with emphasis by the late John Lowell of Massachusetts, eminent alike for his knowledge and for his public-spirited use of it. In a report in 1825, he remarks — ‘* There was another very interesting fact dis- closed on this examination. ‘There were three fine five year old steers of Joseph Eastbrooks, two of which had been worked hard from the age of three, and the third had never had a yoke around his neck. The judges, and better judges there could scarcely be than my asso- ciates, could perceive no sensible difference in the value of the worked and unworked cattle of the same age, owned by the same man; and with the same treatment and food, the unworked oxen often were in no degree superior to those which had been submitted to labour. Great Britain might learn a lesson from this example if her farmers could have been present.” Were it admitted, as perhaps it should be, that an ox will consume more hay or long provender than a horse, it must also be conceded that the horse refuses much that will well sustain the ox—and the objection can at any rate only apply in all its force where the owner is near enough to market to send his hay for sale. Now as the grain- crop is more condensed in proportion to value, and admits of much easier transportation to market, the horse being the consumer, accord- ing to Mr. Stabler’s calculation, of ninety bushels more of grain, is in that view and in that proportion the more expensive animal of the two. Ina national point of view it is worthy of remark that he con- sumes too the very staple which goes most efficiently to increase and sustain the population and strength of a country; very few, perhaps, have reflected on the number of people who may be kept on the food of one horse. Hor example, the usual allowance for a slave is a peck 156 ESSAY ON THE of corn-meal and three and a half pounds of meat for a week, besides salt fish and vegetables; not enough, supposing the meat to be con- verted into hay, to keep the horse he drives for a single day. Another view which must. not be overlooked is, that the ox makes much more and deffer manure than the horse. He is, in fact, a much better machine for grinding down by his ruminating process into manure, all the provender which cannot be taken for sale from the fara. Itis in few cases economical, often not even with hogs, to consume the grain on the farm; and of all things that eat it, not excepting poultry and pigeons, the horse is the most expensive, as he gives it back in no way but by his labour, and therefore is the last animal that should be kept when it can be avoided. We proceed to the practical suggestions which it is believed will be useful to those who may feel persuaded to adopt our recommend- ations. BreaKine.— The sooner this is commenced, the more complete will be the command of the teamster. It would be well, if conve- nient, to have them named and haltered, and taught to stand and to Start, to “* gee” and to * haw,’’ when not more than a year old, and slightly worked in the summer and autumn after they are two. Gee and haw are the terms used in most parts of the country. The first indicates that the yoke is to incline off to the right, or from the near side on which the driver should always take his stand. The yoke, however, should not be put on their necks until they are to be work- ed, as they might acquire a habit of running off in it, which it will be found very difficult to correct. The directions which fotlow are taken principally from practical observations by T. P. Stabler, of Montgomery county, who has per- formed in Maryland all the requisite labour on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, with but one horse in addition te his oxen, and of ir. Gilman, then of Alexandria. ‘‘ The proper time,’’ says Mr. Sta- bier, ‘‘ for putting them to work, is at three years old; and such as have not been handled, as above recommended, while growing, should be driven round the field for a day or two, before being yoked, so as to tire them.”? The propriety of this is proved by the greater ease with which they are broken, when taken and yoked directly out of a drove, before they have time to recruit from the fatigue of tra- veliinz. Instead, then, of being yoked two together, they should be tie:| by the horns (with a rope slipped over and resting on the top of the head) to the side of a house, taking care that there be no place for the horns to become entangled, and stand tied in this manner till they cease to pull by the cord, which will in most cases be in a day or two. They may then be led very readily, and taught to turn, stop, or start. singly, just as a colt may be, instead of coupling two toge-. ther at first, which any man in the care of horses would condemn, as being most likely to end in the destruction of one or both, which has not unfrequently happened with young steers when forcibly yoked together in the first instance. —— tS USE OF OXEN. 157 ss When two young cattle,’ says Mr. Stabler, ‘‘are yoked and turned loose with their tails tied together to run and plunge about, they are almost certain to acquire a habit of running away ; and even should this not be the case, one, and sometimes both, lose a part of their tail in these violent exertions. When they are sufficiently broken to the halter, they may be placed side by side, for the purpose of receiving the yoke, having reference to their relative size, strength, and mastership; because, if one is stronger and more free than the other, he should be placed on the off-side that the team may rather incline to, than from the driver.” _ If one should be larger than the other, he will be likely to be stronger and more free; and, should they be put to the plough, the furrow ox being the Jarger, the yoke will be kept nearer a level than in the other case. It requires but little observation to see that they are easier to be turned to the right, or made to “ gee,”’ than to the left, or to **haw,”’ or ** come hither;’’ therefore, if the master-ox be on the off-side, he will assist in contro]ling the near or left one in ** coming round ;”? but when reversed, and the master-ox on the near side, and he not altogether willing to ‘‘come here,’’ the team is some time stationary; for let the then off-ox be ever so willing to obey the voice of the driver, the horn of the near one speaks a contrary language, equally intelligible. After the yoke is put on securely, their tailsm should be well tied together, and they suffered to stand tied as before until a strong pen is built round them, not more than sixteen or eighteen feet in diameter, taking care that the ends of the rails do not extend inwardly. The ropes should then be loosed, if possible, in such a way that they will not he sensible of it. Here they will soon Jearn to turn themselves about, without one violent exertion, or the least fright. They should be tied up as before, at night, their tails untied, and the yoke removed, to be replaced in the morning as be- fore; and the day following they may be led or driven in a larger space. By this time the cause will be gained in a manner calculated to insure a prime pair of cattle. They may now be attached to some- thing light, and Jed about for a few hours, daily and gradually in- creasing the draft, and greasing their necks occasionally, to prevent galling. When put to the cart or harrow with others already broken, contrary to the usual practice, they should be placed before instead of behind them; by which arrangement it will be found that if frightened the old cattle will not let them run; but, if otherwise, they. by. running against the older ones, may frighten them also. In Kentucky they practise another mode of breaking steers, which is thus described : — Where the establishment is a large one, and there are some to be broken in, every year, the fixture and practice here recommended would seem to be eligible and judicious—“ Get a strong post eight feet long by two thick; plant it three and a half feet in the ground, well rammed; round or level the top of the post, and leave a pin to it, or make a mortice and insert a strong two-incit pin of tough wood in it, perpendicularly at the top, six or eight inches 14 a - ESSAY ON TILE long. Then get a tough sapling, twenty-five feet long; measure off at the small end of it the usual length of a yoke, and bore the holes for your bows. ‘hen bore three holes, or more if you choose, four, eight, and twelve feet from the other end of the sapling, of the size of the pin in the top of the post, giving the shortest lever first, draw your steers up, let them be young or old, gentle or wild, it makes no ditference; yoke them to the end of the pole; but instead of tying their tails together, if you wish to avoid bob-tailed oxen, tie their loins together with a good rope, wrap up their head halters, clear the front, and let them go; round and round they will go with a rush; drunk —drunker still they grow, until groaning, down they drop. For a while they lie panting and looking wild; at length they leap as if suddenly frightened, rush round and round again, grow drunk and drop again. Leave them, they will repeat the experiment, until reeling, they will stop or stand. Ina few hours you may lead them around by their halters. Uncouple them from the pole, or yoke them to your cart, and drive them where you please with safety. The ‘ preceding method is recommended with confidence from personal knowledge by Mr. William P. Hart, of Kentucky. There is no point in the comparison between oxen and horses which more strongly illustrates the economy of ox-power than the difference win the expense of gearing. For each horse employed on public roads, where it is in constant use, the harness costs, according to the best information, as has been seen, twenty dollars; being one hundred and twenty dollars for a team of six, leaving the swingle or whiffle-trees, as they constitute a part of the wagon, out of the question; and this harness is not ex- pected to last more than six years; while for six oxen, the whole gearing, consisting of three yokes and two chains, would not cost more than twenty dollars, and would probably last twenty years. A singular method of accustoming young animals to draw is prac- tised in France; and, although it must be admitted that few nations have been more the slaves of routine and of old habits, or slower in. the progress of improvement in agricultural implements, yet the system they pursue in this instance, as here illustrated, looks and reads so plausibly as to appear worthy of trial, and to bespeak confi- dence in its efficacy. Itis well known that nothing is more humbling to the wildest and most indomitable animal than the sufferings of extreme hunger; and among the French, in the very act of satisfying its cravings, they habituate young animals to the yoke and harness. For this purpose they attach them to the manger by means of a cord which runs through a ring, at the extremity of which a weight is at- tached, as represented at A, in the annexed Plate, so that the animal may, at pleasure, approach or recede from the manger. A collar is put on the animal with two cords fixed to a bar or swingle-tree, to which another cord is attached at B, which passes through the pulley a. C, and to which is suspended a weight as at D, to be increased or diminished at pleasure. Things being thus arranged, fodder is put 159 USE OF OXEN. 4. ‘ys MT h Lh ub \ ‘ S y _ tI 3 y h, I ANS CNN 150 ESSAY ON THE in the rack. The animal, when pressed with hunger, approaches his food, in doing which he raises the weight, and keeps it suspended as long as he continues to eat, and thus contracts the habit of drawing in a few days. He is free to relax his exertions, for whenever he recedes, the weight reposes on the ground. ‘In many respects,”’ says Mr. Gilman, “ proud man must look up to the beast as his superior: man’s reason is replete with error; but in- stinct, or the inference drawn by a brute, from certain sounds and mo- tions, after having once learned their purport, is infullible. I have seen the best drilled soldier mistake, for the instant, advance arms for recover arms, but never saw a well-trained ox mistake gee for haw, or haw for gee: hence, system is indispensable in the management of work- lag cattle. He who would work them with ease and facility, should maintain a strict uniformity in his conduct towards them. They must have names; therefore, calves intended to be raised for working should be named while young, to which they become familiar by the time they are ready for the yoke. Anything appropriate to their colour, shape, &c., is proper; such as bright, broad, line, spark, back, star, turk, golden, &c.”’ ‘**’Phe buffaloe breed of cattle, or those without horns, will not an- swer well for working, as horns are necessary in backing a cart, and in carrying it down hill. This may be obviated by having a plain harness with breeching fastened to the yoke of the oxen to the tongue, as is the practice in Pennsylvania. Oxen should never be changed in the yoke after having been broke; the near and off-ox should always remain as such; by changing them, they become con- fused, and all the benefit of their tuition is lost.”’ ‘“* A temporary change, however, can be made In one instance to ad- vantage; this is when they hang off from each other, as they are apt to do in bad travelling, when they get fretted; they then cut each other’s feet with their shoes; shifting them puts this out of their head for that time.”’ ‘There are, however, several ways in which oxen may be geared for work; they are willing to earn their bread any way; they have been tried and found to pull by a yoke on the neck, by a shaft lashed across the forehead, and traces to its ends; by traces fastened to the horns; by harness like horses; and they will pull by the tail. Irom these various modes, it is the husbandman’s duty first to study the nature and convenience of the ox: secondly, economy and his own convenience, and then select that which embraces most of these de- sirable objects.” ‘There are but two of these modes mentioned that can be adopted with any degree of satisfaction or success; these are the yoke and the harness. From the former being in general, not to say universal use, the inference is a natural one, that some inconvenience must at- tend the latter. The form of the ox is one objection to harness; his belly is so much wider than his shoulders, it is embraced so hard by the iron traces as to impede his wind, as well as to be injured by ~ > hl — J — a" _ a , — * USE OF OXEN. 16] galling. The yoke, on the other hand, being of hard wood, appears to be an instrument that would gall, but 1 never knew any injury done by it. The neck of the bullock seems by nature fitted for the yoke; the skin, naturally thick, soon becomes so callous as not to be hurt by friction ; it is there his strength lies, even to a proverb. In point of economy, there is a wide disparity between the harness and yoke; the expense of the former f that of the latter, for eight years’ wear, would be as ten to one, and the time of gearing and un- gearing is as three to one; in other words, a yoke will cost only five dollars, which will average eight years’ wear, and can be put to oxen in two minutes. A yoke which is properly made for oxen of equal size and strength will have no particular end for the near or off-ox ; but the bows being sometimes untrue, will fit to the neck better one particular way. This the nice teamster will observe, and always put them sq, An ox can feel as sensibly as a man the pains of tight or unfitting accoutre- ments; but not being so fluently gifted, and heing too noble and patient to shrink on that account from his task, it particularly be- hooves every driver (who cannot all day wear a key or penknife in the foot of his boot) to be vigilant that the tackle sits easy and free on his team. When oxen are unequally matched as to strength, the strongest is apt to carry his end of the yoke several inches before the other; this makes the yoke uneasy to them, and is soon remedied by putting the staple of the yoke nearest to the end of the strong ox. It does not, however, always follow that the stronger ox carries the fore end of the yoke. It often occurs that an equality of streneth begets such ambition in the weaker ox as will ruin him by his overstraining him- self for an even yoke. The driver should be attentive to this cireum- stance (if it ever occurs with him), and remedy it, as has been just pointed out. it is unnecessary, in yoking well-tutored oxen, to lug the yoke round the yard after them, as they are easily called to that. I have often called the ox J wanted from a drove of all sorts of cattle. Stand the yoke on one end; take out the off-ox’s bow; steady the yoke with the left hand, and with the right hold up the bow towards the ox, and beckoning with it, call him by name to you; slip the bow under his neck; turn the yoke down upon it; enter it in the bow- holes, and put in the bow-pin; then take out the other bow, and lifting up the near end of the yoke with the left hand, with the bow in the right call the near-ox also by name, who will come and “ bow his neck to the yoke,”’ and is harnessed the same as his companion. An ox-goad to drive with is made of hickory, or any tough wood, three and a half to four and a half feet long, as may suit the whim of the driver, about the size of a man’s finger, with a prick or sharp point of iron in the end, projecting not more than a quarter of an meh. This is more cheap and simple, and has been found to answer much better than a whip, or a long green withe. The ludicrous 14 * 162 ESSAY ON THE practice of using the latter, and of having a driver on both sides of the team to keep them straight, or of fastening a rope to the horn of the near-ox for the same purpose, cannot be too soon exploded. Riding on oxen is a shameful lazy practice, that should also be done away with. Oxen may, and ought to be so taught, that by speaking to them and making a kind of beckoning motion with the goad, they will come to; or, in other wétds, turn to the left without the trouble of an assistant on the off-side, or a rope to pull them round. I would have one thing remembered in driving oxen, (which also applies to every species of servants), I mean the impolitic habit of a uniform harsh deportment, and of keeping the goad constantly going over them; it is a needless tax upon the lungs and sinews; the oxen will not do so much work for it; and, what is worse, they become so callous from this perpetual rough discipline, that they cannot easily be brought to any extra exertion when it is indeed necessary. The benefit of a calm management has been very apparent to me when I have been driving in company with these peevish geniuses ; and coming to a steep hill, I would then speak sharp and determined to my team, and ply the goad pretty freely, if necessary. ‘This treat- ment, so novel, would be fully appreciated ; every one of them would pull as for his life, and the hill would be quickly surmounted; while the driver who has always been speaking harshly, and always been plying his goad, could not here make use of any new argument to stimulate his cattle to the exigence of the moment. The consequence was, he would often have to receive assistance from a team no stronger than his own. Drivers should acquaint themselves with the burthen of their oxen, and never load them beyond it; it discourages and hurts them. Because they are very strong, many unthinking taskmasters appear to believe them omnipotent. When they are properly taken care of, they are not apt to be sparing of their strength; they are sometimes profuse with it. I have often been beset with difficulties when at work alone in the woods with.a yoke or two of oxen, and have then thought I:could perceive traits of reason in them; for, in proportion to my anxiety and exertions to extricate myself, have 1 seen their’s spontaneously to increase. That all cattle should be sheltered in cold and wet weather, is ob- vious to every person; but to those that work, it is indispensable; their health and strength depend upon it. From the severity and duration of our winters at the northward, our barns are generally spacious, and calculated to hold as much as possible of our grain and hay. No doubt, however, but this is good economy in every climate in the United States; as the farmer loses as much in quantity and quality of his produce in a short time, by stacking out, as would build a barn. Our old-fashioned barns, I believe, are not susceptible of much im- provement. Those which cattle are wintered in are built a small USE OF OXEN. 163 distance from the house on a rising ground, with a yard opened to, and descending a little towards the south, if such a spot be near; it being thereby warmer, kept cleaner, and the wash enriches the adja- cent ground. The barn has two large doors opposite each other for the convenience of driving loads of grain and hay; on one or both sides of this thoroughfare is a stall for cattle, say ten feet wide and six and a half high, and running the whole width of the barn; so that if a barn were forty feet long, the stalls would take up ten feet on each end, and twenty would of course be the width of the tho- roughfare; which latter being also used as the threshing-fioor, is floored with two-inch plank, well joined. The partition between this and the stalls is only three feet high, for the convenience of feeding cattle, whose crib joins the partition, and is thus made :—A piece of timber, the length of the stall, about four inches thick by eight wide, is laid down on edge, parallel with the partition, and two and a half feet from it; this makes a crib on the floor, being the most natural one that cattle can have to feed at. It is perfectly clean, as the stall-floors have a gradual descent of about three inches. Immediately over this timber is another smaller one of the same length, fixed to the joist above; in both of these timbers from end to end holes are bored at three feet distance, and smooth round stations or studs, three inches in diameter, are fixed therein; round each of these stations is bent a small hickory hank or hook, sufficiently loose to play up and down thereon; a wooden bow passing through this hoop, embraces the neck of the ox, who is thereby kept at his post, yet stil] has every rational liberty. He has room to eat his food, lay down, or stand at his pleasure. (See drawings on page 164.) These stalls have small windows, four feet from the floor, and a con- venient distance from each other, through which to throw the manure. Satisfactory experience of the safety and economy of this mode of housing cattle has made it universal in that quarter. On tying up cattle for the night, respeet should be had to mastery among them; the strongest should be put in first, and at the further end from the door, and so on, according as they hold dominion over each other, leaving the cows, yearlings, &c., next the door, in case of civil war among them. It is interesting when “ the curfew tolls the knell of parting day,” and the farmer’s boy opens his stall-door and gives a nod of invitation to his “leading characters,” to see them forming a line of march, entering the door, and taking their places precisely according to rank, without martial music, word of command, or confusion. The thorough-bred teamster never suffers himself to partake of his repast before his oxen have begun theirs. They require little else in winter but good wholesome hay and water; but when sufficient time cannot well be allowed them to dine on hay, then corn in the ear is the best thing that can be given them. Pumpkins are also very grate- fal to them, and being remarkably prolific, may be raised with little trouble. In winter, cattle are tied up and fed at about sunset; fed ESSAY ON THE 164 =H ee USE OF OXEN. 165 again at eight o’clock; again at daylight; then at sunrise they are ready for the labours of the day. This mode of feeding is considered preferable, being fresher in small quantities, eaten more freely, and less liable to get under their feet, and be wasted. Carts being cheaper than wagons, and handier about the ordinary business of a farm, are therefore to be desired. Different kinds of bodies may be attached occasionally to one pair of wheels; an open one for hay, sheaves, &c., and a close one for fruit and vegetables. The naked wheels are handy to haul spars, poles, and all kinds of long timber on. In hitching a cart to the oxen, the tongue or spire thereof passes into the ring of the ox-yoke, as far as the shoulder in the tongue will permit; an iron instrument called a copes pin, resem- bling the capital letter U, is put on the end of the tongue, embracing it above and below, and the copes pin is inserted through the end of the tongue and through the copes. This copes is for the purpose of hitching the second yoke of oxen to, when necessary. (See drawing on page 164.) Wherever oxen and yokes are used, chains become indispensable ; four of these, each ten feet long, with a hook in each end, or part of them with a ring in one end and a hook at the other, are enough for two or three yokes of oxen. The drawings opposite are necessary for a better understanding of what has been said. Fig. 1 represents a cart-tongue hitched to a yoke, as in the act of drawing; a is the copes pin, which goes through the tongue, and by which the yoke draws; b is the copes by which the second pair is hitched, when necessary. Fig. 2, a stanchion and bows, by which cattle are secured at their crib; a, the cap lies flat on top of their neck; the end of the bow at b is sometimes like a button, and is put in the hole at c, and springs into its place. At Fig. 3 is the model of a yoke for a middling sized pair of oxen. Whole length, three and a half feet; distance of bow-holes, a to a, twenty inches; from 6 to J, in the clear, six and a half inches. The bows being something of an oval form, and c to ¢ being the greatest swell, and where the ox’s shoulders come, the staple e should be in a direct line between, so that the strain will come right, in drawing: dd may be flat keys or round pins of wood ; one in each bow is snffi- cient. ‘The stuff of which the bows are made must be at least one and a half inches in diameter. There is no good reason why the ox should not be worked singly ; 30 might cows when not at the pail very well do the single ploughing, and haul light loads in carts; and it would he yet more economical and expedient to spay and work heifers under certain circumstances. In Spain and France it is a common practice. Every judicious farmer will endeavour to get al] possible remuneration for the certain expense attendant upon the keeping of everything that consumes the produce of his land. Even the dog that eats what would keep a pig, besides guard- 166 ESSAY ON THE ing his house, protecting his fields, and finding his game, is made by the calculating New England man to churn his butler. It is observed that less food is necessary for spayed heifers to keep and fatten them than is required for the ox; and Mr. Marshall, in his rural economy of Yorkshire, remarks, that it is a fact well esta- blished in the practice of that district, that they work better, and have better wind than oxen. - It is a common thing to see a single ox in a cart at Norfolk in Virginia, among a people as little as any other observant of improve- ments going on in agricultural machinery. That whole States, even where oxen are used, should forego the use of single oxen, serves to show how proverbially slow is the change of habits among agricultu- rists. Large bulls of immense strength are often kept and fed through the entire year, for the sole purpose of their services for eight or ten cows, when they might haul immense quantities of wood and manure in vehicles adapted to the purpose. For an ox working singly, some recommend a single harness with the collar reversed; but for the reasons he gives, and which are ob- vious, the single yoke recommended by Mr. Stabler, and .here exhi- bited, is greatly to be preferred. When the collar is used, and the draught heavy, the pressure of the traces on the sides is obviated by the yoke. The length for a single yoke must be proportioned to the thickness of the animal, so that the traces will be as far apart when fastened to a small hook on the under side of each end as is required to prevent his sides from being chafed. ‘The following will show the proper shape of the single yoke :— It will be observed that by placing the hooks perpendicularly through the ends of the yoke, the draught is applied precisely as In the double yoke, and the bow consequently keeps its proper place. Mr. Stabler, a nice observer and a practical man, residing in a middle State, sets it down that a horse when at work must have at USE OF OXEN. 167 least three gallons of grain a day, and for six months in the year one hundred and twenty-five pounds of hay per week. Supposing him to be at work only two-thirds of his time, and during the remainder to be kept on hay or pasture alone, he must consume upwards of ninety bushels of grain, and two thousand eight hundred and seventy-five pounds of hay in a year, which latter is amply sufficient, with such pasture as the horse must have, (and some additional coarse food in the winter), to keep the ox in prime order for work without the use of any grain. Thus it appears, that for every ox substituted for a horse, there are ninety bushels of grain saved in the year. From data given, Mr. Stabler shows a saving on four oxen instead of four horses in twelve years, of two thousand four hundred and fifty dollars —and concludes his observations on the subject with this wholesome advice :— *< It cannot be too strongly urged upon those who are about em- barking in agricultural pursuits as a means of securing a livelihood, (and who may be free from many of the prejudices entertained against oxen), to make the experiment at least, and give the thing a fair trial, before they encumber themselves with that moth, a stock of farm-horses; in doing which, it will easily be seen they hazard no- thing; for should any wish to abandon the plan after a sufficient trial, one’ summer’s grass will enable them to obtain, in cash, an ad- vance on the first cost of their cattle, if young and thrifty ; and such are always to be had.” TAS.'8. SHEEP HUSBANDRY. DISEASES OF SHEEP. “* Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flock.” THe subject of sheep husbandry, as adapted to the United States, involves so many considerations, that no system can be recommended for universal adoption, so much do the objects to be kept in view de- pend on the circumstances of the farmer—the food at his command and the markets within his reach. The most that can be done with promise of usefulness is to describe the characteristics of the several races of sheep which are known to be in the country, and, laying down some general principles as applicable to sheep husbandry, under all views of the subject, leave the farmer to determine how far it may be expedient to appropriate a portion of his capital and care to the business of sheep raising, and what breed promises to yield the best return. While one farmer convenient to a large market will naturally look to the butcher as his best customer, another will find his interest in the adoption of a breed that will best meet the demands of the manufacturer. The one chooses a kind of sheep that will in the shortest time give him the best return in meat ; the other bestows his care on the one whose fleece will bring him the most money, the carease being regarded only as subsidiary to that end. And again, where lamb and mutton are the principal objects, the choice of the breed may depend on the quality of the soil and the abundance of the pasture: where these are rich and luxuriant, a breed which ripens soonest, and is most inclined to fat, as the Bakewell, or a yet much larger sheep—a variety of the Lincolnshire —called the Cotswold breed, will be preferred more especially, and as long as the butcher has to consult the prevalent and vulgar taste for futness, above all - other qualities of meat. On the other hand, for the far greater portion of the United States, where pastures are more scanty, and the animal is exposed without regular feeding or care to all the vicissitudes of climate, a more hardy race, as the ¢mproved South-down, is to be preferred. Here it may be added that the present race of South-downs, such as pe Pvt im- 16 — OF . ee: ‘l <4 DISEASES OF SHEEP. 169 al ported to the United States, as will hereatter be seen, are as much meliorated and improved in form and early maturity over the little old animal of that name, of times gone by, as is the improved short- horned breed of cattle on the original stock upon which they were built. This improvement of the South-down has been accomplished, not by crossing and dovetailing with other breeds, but by a much safer process, one which guarantees a continuation of its established ex- cellence under ordinarily good management; by crossing to be sure, but by crossing with and upon their own blood; the best South-down ram upon the best South-down ewe; thus perfecting the shape and disposition of the breed until a British writer entitled to great weight has expressed the opinion in respect of it which we anticipate will prevail and be acted upon before a great many years throughout the greater portion of the United States, to wit:—that, ‘taking all their qualities fairly into account, the South-down excels for general pur- poses any breed in Great Britain.’’ The intelligent reader will, however, be the better enabled to judge for himself, when the pecu- liar qualities of the several breeds shall have been, as we propose, impartially and more particularly described, Fluctuation of price has heretofore restricted, and will continue to limit, investments in fine-woolled sheep; and this uncertainty of price is the consequence of two causes which but too strongly forbid the hope of long-continued uniformity in that particular, to wit: — the fluctuating tariff policy of the country, rising or sinking in the scale as one party or another gains or loses the ascendant; and then again liable to be depressed by the ready facility with which in a short time the supply may be brought up to and above the level of the demand; making it so uncertain whether the remunerating price of one year may not be followed by a ruinous depression the next. Under all circumstances, the grazier of sheep that yield a wool of moderately good quality, can probably make his calculations with more certainty; for, should the prospect justify it, he has but to withhold his flock another year from the butcher, to avail himself of a rise in the wool-market. In New England, the calculation is, that if the fleece be carefully shorn when ripe, and the pelt carefully stripped from the carcass when the sheep dies, his death can be at- tended with no positive loss at any rate, let it. die when or how it may. ‘Taking all the chances of reasonable profit, in the existing condition of the country, there can be no doubt that the sheep hus- handry of the United States, in all the States, south and west of Pennsylvania especially, might be sooner extended, with Jess outlay, and a surer prospect of remunerating results, than could almost any other branch of industry, if sheep-masters could be brought to bestow upon it a degree of care and of regular management approaching to that which this interesting business commands in older countries. Ifave we not in the ice-bound regions of the north convincing proof that in ng vast expanse of the middle and southern States, the rear- J 170 SILEEP HUSBANDRY.« ing of sheep for the butcher, and of wool for the manufacturer, ought | to be a leading object of attention? Yet look at the table hereafter to be presented, of the number of sheep to the acre in the States of Maryland and Virginia, and the Carolinas, with their fine possessions of cheap mountain land, compared with the number in Vermont and New York! It would really seem as if these old southern States were animated by that antipathy to this emblem of meekness and innocence which the great cynic ‘‘of Roanoke’? once avowed on the floor of congress would prompt him to go “out of his way at any time to kick a sheep!”? New York, one sheep for every two and a half acres; Maryland and Virginia, one for-every thirty-three; South Carolina, only one for every hundred; and Arkansas, one for every thousand aeres ! Were it allowable in this mere introduction to a work on the diseases of sheep, the whole subject of sheep husbandry is one which might be profitably, if it were well discussed, opening as it does so wide a field for observation and lecture. All that we can take space to do will be to cal] attention to the unemployed capacities of the country for doubling its flocks from Pennsylvania to the southern and western limits of the Union; and he who runs may read the addition which may thus so easily, and with so little cost, be made to the aggregate ‘wealth of the country. How different the calculation and the practice in the north, where, incredible as it may appear, it is truly a common thing for farmers to go round as winter approaches and buy up large numbers of old sheep at a price little, if any more, than the worth of their skins, the profit of the speculation consisting in part in the value of the carcass as food for their hogs. "The pelt being first taken off, the carcass is boiled, or tryed, as they term it, for the tallow it will yield; the residuum is given to their hogs, meal being mixed therewith, not long before they are slaughtered. It has been somewhere said that our enlightened minister in Eng- land was thought to be ‘boiling the ewe” with John Bull, when he alluded to this practice in New England; hence we may suppose that sheep have been brought to no such base uses in Great Britain; but it has been many years since the writer was assured at Brighton, Massachusetts, that flocks of sheep were sometimes sent with droves of hogs from Vermont to that market, to constitute, in part, their cheapest provision on the way; and very recently Mr. Hyde, a re- spectable and extensive mail contractor from Vermont, sustained in his statement by Mr. Russel, formerly a member of congress from New York, declared the system of buying up and appropriating old sheep, as before stated, to be a matter of common occurrence., The facts are here mentioned to show to the owners of millions of acres of unappropriated hilly and mountain lands from the western branch of the Susquehanna to the State of Alabama, that very nice calcu- lators of profit and loss find their account in raising sheep, even. DISEASES OF SHEEP. 171 where land is from twenty to one hundred dollars an acre, and. with- out stipulating for A¢gh»prices for mutton and for wool. In viewing this branch cf industry as it is pursued in other coun- tries, it must be conceded that in none of them is the sheep to be found in such variety as in England, nor are the principles of sheep management anywhere better understood. ‘Ten years since, the number in England was estimated at thirty-two millions, and the value of wool at seven millions pounds sterling; while in the United States, one of which is larger than England, there were not exceed- ing twenty millions of sheep in 1840. ut here again, as in other industrial pursuits, the superiority of British husbandry is referable, not to more advanced knowledge, but to lower wages for labour, and to their greater humidity of climate, which enables them to provide succulent rye and other grass pastures in early spring, but more especially in the productiveness of their turnip husbandry. Each contributes to sustain and extend the other, and both to supporting and increasing population. But the vast crops of turnips on which English sheep are folded, are produced with an outlay of Jabour in quantity that nothing but the cheapness of it would warrant, and at an expense after all which shows how as ne- cessary capital is to the best system of tillage as it is to the prosecu- tion of mercantile or any other business. How great again must be the profits of the turnip crop, direct and indirect, to authorise a tenant on land loaded with taxes to go to an expense of nearly fifty dollars per acre in putting in his root erop, as may be seen in the article Ap- praisement, in that inestimable work for the American agriculturist, Governeur Emerson’s edition of the American Encyclopedia, pub- lished by Carey & Hart of Philadelphia. The details as there given of expenditures in pulling in only seventeen acres of Swedish tur- — nips, are estimated at nearly nine hundred dollars, a sum actually paid for the crop in the ground, in a case stated by the in-coming tenant. Owing to the mildness of their winter, the turnip crop is left on the land, and sheep are hurdled on small lots ata time. The land is thus wonderfully sustained and improved for the production of barley and wheat, yielding of the latter in many cases forty, fifty, and sixty bushels, and that in light land. How admirably adapted too would be these two products thus auxiliary to each other, turnips and sheep, to the sandy lands in some of the counties along our southern seaboard! In England, both Old and Mew, instead of leaving, as is done in some of the southern States, large numbers of sheep to die off, of poverty and old age, breeding from the worst, and to the last, and thus producing a diseased and rickety stock, they are Systematically sorted out, fattened at a given age, and handed over to the butcher. The best sheep-masters in England fatten and sell off their ewes, at four or at most five years old, It was the opinion of the celebrated Mr. Ellman, a British farmer of high and liberal character, that though an old ewe would bring a large lamb, yet such a lamb will 172 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. not generally make a large or fine sheep; nor wi'l it, as he thought, fatten so well as a lamb from a younger ewe. He made the same observations on cows, sows, mares, and even bitches. _ There is an almost universal readiness to believe that by saga- ciously crossing different breeds, the best qualities of all may be obtained in one, and the worst of any one bred out. But experiments have not verified these speculative attempts, either with sheep or cattle; and even if admitted to be practicable, it would require rare skill, the fruit of great sagacity and experience, to carry it out suc- cessfully. ‘The prudent farmer, therefore, will do better, having first made himself distinctly acquainted with the inherent peculiarities of the different races within his reach, to make his choice of some par- ticular one, which, under all circumstances, promises to pay best for his outlay of attention and capital. Having done that, if a man of pride and diligence, he will go on breeding systematically, until in a few years he may be proud to exhibit his flock to the best judges. Entering upon sheep husbandry with that feeling, he will be ex- tremely careful in the first instance in the selection of his breeding ram. Mr. Ellman, the distinguished English farmer and sheep- master before referred to, recommends one ram for a flock of eighty or one hundred ewes, unless a lamb ram be used, in which case he advises only forty ewes. Great care should be taken that some bad point in the form, or old stain in the blood of the ram chosen, does not counterbalance the good points which it is desired he should communicate to his progeny. He will reserve from his whole flock the very best ewe lambs to the number necessary to keep up his re-. gular stock of breeding ewes; he will have his ram let to his ewes on a given day, to ensure the yeaning of his lambs at the very season which his best judgment tells him will be most advantageous; and he will take care that his flock comes into the feeding yard in good season and in good condition, well knowing that according to the maxim of the shepherd, sheep well summered are already half win- tered. He will be careful to sort out and get rid of all unthrifty and unsightly individuals, and to ensure a flock of uniform healthiness of condition and comeliness in the eye of the practised and sagacious observer; he will regularly sell off all after a given age. It may be as confidently remarked of sheep as it may of every production of the animal and vegetable world, that to attain a high degree of ex- cellence, it should be, not forced, but wed/ kept, and never stinted in infancy or during that period which nature has assigned to its growth. Without careful attention to this, it is impossible to establish for any flock of sheep the character of excellence. No after-management or nourishment can eradicate the effects of neglect or short feed at this period. _ It not only diminishes the frame, but impairs the constitu- tion. Hence, in regard to sheep, it is obviously necessary so to have lambs yeaned at a season when the ewe may be well sustained with what may be requisite to ensure a good supply of milk, and that snould consist of good sound clean hay, or well-cured corn-blades, DISEASES OF SHEEP. 173 with some vegetables in winter, as being necessary alike in a medici- nal point of view, and as tending to increase the quantity of milk. Ox if vegetables, either turnips, potatoes, or sugar-bects, have not, or cannot be provided, then the season of yeaning, a matter always under the control of the sheep-master, should be postponed until the rye lots, sowed with express reference to this subject, may afford the best pasture, or at all events, in the absence of that provision, until the grass has “taken a start.””, And herein Great Britain may well boast her eminent advantage over us; one that with a view to sheep yet more than to cattle husbandry, more than counterbalances the great boon of Providence to these United States, Indian corn. If the political economist were called upon to indicate the broadest basis and most fruitful source of English wealth and population, he might probably designate the introduction of turntp culture. Lord Townshend, in the reign of George III., having accompanied that monarch to Hanover, there saw turnips cultivated in open fields, as fodder for cattle, brought home the seed, and in spite of the ridicule which was cast upon the undertaking, he succeeded in persuading some of his tenants to plant them, and thus it happened that the heaths and wastes of Norfolk, that might have to this day remained in their original barrenness, were converted into magnificent vegetable and grain fields. Fed off to sheep that are folded to consume the turnip on the ground, the land is at once cleared of weeds, and highly manured, so that the original value of the turnip as fodder, great as that is, does not equal the resulting benefits in the preparation of the soil for heavy crops of grain. ‘Thus the old system of fallowing has been superseded, and, as has been eloquently said by an English writer, ‘* Mighty nature renews her strength, not by indolent repose, but in alterations of energy.” Considering how lately, and, as it were, accidentally this vegetable was introduced into England, it is marvellous to witness its progress and effects. From being cultivated only in gardens for cattle, as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, Colquhoun, in his statis- tical researches, estimates their value at fourteen millions of pounds sterling; and two years since, a respectable writer puts it down as being equal to the interest of the national debt. It was in view of such facts that our enlightened and eminent fellow citizen, Nicholas Biddle, so well qualified by liberal education, various attainments, and philosophic turn of mind, to speak with wisdom and force on all useful subjects, was prompted to remark in one of his ]uminous dis- courses on agriculture — ‘It is strange how things so lowly acquire national importance; the best farming is that which will give the greatest mass of sustenance to animals, since the less land required for animals, the more can be given to the maintenance of human be- ings. That fine farming region of England had reached the limit of supporting animals; it has more than doubled or quadrupled its power in that respect; and now, odd as the mingling of such dissi- ilar notions may seem, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that 15 * ; a 174 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. England’s power is based upon its iron, its coal, and its turnips!’ Thus we find that sheep, since the introduction of turnip culture in rns Fk have increased from sixteen to upwards of thirty-two mil- ions. Embracing with pleasure every opportunity to do honour to the names of those real benefactors of agriculture like Lord Townshend, who contribute unostentatiously to multiply the comforts of life, in the same connection it may be well for the special benefit of those who alfect to ridicule book farming and learned farmers, to remark, en passant, that the greatest agricultural improvements in all countries have been introduced by Gentlemen Farmers; to them the best in- formed annalists of English agriculture acknowledge that country to be indebted for the turnip, for clover, for sanfoin, for }ueerne, potatoes, cabbages, &c. While it is admitted that this vegetable has supplied in England the great desideratum, winter food for sheep and cattle, and given to the supplies of both prodigious extension, it cannot be denied that she enjoys for success in turnip husbandry two great means which, for better and for worse, are denied to, or are not pos- sessed by us. It is better for us in the Jong run, that labour is too dear to bestow on the culture of this vegetable, in the present condi- tion of the country, that immense outlay in preparing and manuring the land which attends it in Eneland. It is worse for us if we could command the labour, that our climate is generally too arid for its growth, in anything like the abundance yielded by the turnip erops in England; and such is the severity of our frosts and its action on the earth, that it would not be practicable to feed them off to folded sheep: as in England, where they are confined by hurdles to small portions of the field at a time, and moved to fresh }ots every morning. Against this English crop, however, valued as before stated, we have (though not, it must be admitted, altogether available as a substitute for turnips in sheep husbandry) our three hundred and seventy-seven millions, five hundred and thirty-one thousand, eight hundred and seventy-five bushels of Indian corn! which she reckons not at all among her cereal grains. Yet it does not by any means follow, that because the turnip is not so well suited to our climate, therefore we cannot profitably raise them, especially the rntabaga variety, and if not them, other vegetables accessary, if not indispensable, In northern climates, to the increase of our flocks of sheep. In looking for the reason why sheep should be a souree of a large proportion of the income and wealth of the farmer, in the snow-clad regions of Vermont, where his sheep go into the fold-yard in No- vember, to be fed until May, one of the most obvious would seem to be that the climate is better adapted to hay and to potatoes. Look at the statistics in these respects, of Virginia, for example, with her forty-four millions eight hundred thousand of acres, and Vermont, containing but two millions one hundred and seventy-five thousand, we find that the former produces of hay but three hundred and sixty- four thousand seven hundred and eight tons, and of potatoes only twa DISEASES OF SHEEP. 175 millions nine hundred and forty-four thousand six hundred and sixty bushels, while Vermont produces of hay eight hundred and thirty- six thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine tons, and eight millions eight hundred and sixy-nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-one - bushels of potatoes; and somewhat in correspondence with these crops, and to indicate the connection of sheep-rearing in some mea- sure with them, Virginia, where the sun shines and the grass grows on the face of the earth almost every day in the year, carries, as will hereafter be seen, but one sheep to every thirty-three acres within her borders, while her frost-bitten, snow-clad sister in the north, carries one for every two or three acres, and feeds them during five months in winter, being content to drive them from one to two hundred miles to market, or to get for the wool an average price for the last twenty- two years varying from forty-four up to eighty cents per pound, ex- cept this year, when it is put down at thirty cents. It may as well be noted here in reference to the general manage- ment of sheep — indeed of all domestic animals — that in nothing is there more gross neglect than in omitting to sa/t them regularly and abundantly. In Spain, where fine wool has been for ages one of their thief staples, one hundred and twelve pounds of salt is given in five months to one thousand sheep. The late celebrated English farmer and writer on agriculture allowed his sheep dai/y each from two to four ounces of salt when on dry pasture, and when fed on turnips they were not stinted at all in the use of salt. It is asserted as a fact in the Cyclopedia before referred to, that in all cases they should have access to common salt; and many are the authorities to prove that a free use of salt is a preventive of rot and other diseases. We proceed now in fulfilment of an intimation, and for the reason already given, to submit a brief sketch of the characteristics of the few races from which the farmer, having recourse to those now ac- cessible to him in our country, must make his selection, repeating the warning that by no skill, in combination, or any artificial mixture of bloods, need he expect to get united the fine fleece of the Saxony merino, the early maturity and obesity of the new Leicester, the weight of the Lincolnshire, or yet larger Cottswold, and the hard- ness and fine mutton that give eminence to the South-down. There may yet be room to improve any particular breed of cattle or sheep by that skill in the choice of breeding stock and perfection in man- agement, which care and experience only can beget, but we much doubt whether any new breed can be firmly established that shall represent the excellencies without the defects of different natural races, and one that will, at the same time, endure! All such made-up breeds, upon the least relaxation of attention, or the least mistake in sorting with a view to breeding stock, will fly to pieces and exhibit che defects with which nature is sure to reward the impertinent at- tempts of ignorance and presumption to interfere with her fundamental laws and purposes. A wayward dame is she, to be consulted, not thwarted ; she wil] accept and repay all efforts of art to carry out her SE — 176 SILEEP HUSBANDRY. designs, and to improve her works according to her laws, and even leaves room for and invites the exercise of skill and diligence, but will not be crossed in her path or permit things which she has ordained to be distinct, each with its nature adapted to peculiar cir- cumstances and ends, to be mingled up with any hope of forming a new organization better in all respects than she had designed. In England, the South-down sheep is infinitely improved in all that can give it value, except the grain and flavour of the mutton, which time immemorial has been esteemed superior, but that has been accomplished, not by mingling with it the blood of any other family, but by selection and care in breeding and feeding. The de- scription of the different breeds of sheep will be confined to those which it is known have been imported into the United States in such nuinbers as to give latitude of choice to those who may propose to look to the rearing of sheep as an object more worthy of attention than it has been hitherto generally regarded—and first of the Spanisu Merino. This is the head spring of all the known flocks of fine- woolled sheep. While their name would indicate that they were imported into Spain from beyond sea, their exportation from that country was strictly prohibited for ages, until as late as 1765, by special license from the King, two hundred were sent to the Elector of Saxony, where, according to the best authority, Mr. Jarvis of Ver- mont, they were made an object of government attention. A board of scientific agriculturists was appointed to draw up rules and direc- tions for their management, and to disseminate the breed throughout the electoral dominions. Woollen manufactures were likewise en- couraged, and the good effects of this wise policy, says Mr. Jarvis, soon became apparent, in the increased wealth of the country, and the amelioration of the condition of all classes of society. He adds, when the merino was first introduced into Saxony, that State, and all the rest of Germany, were dependent upon England and France for a supply of a considerable part of their woollen goods; but at this time Saxony, as well as several other States of Germany, manufacture all the woollen goods that are necessary for their consumption ; in addi- tion to which Saxony now exports a considerable amount of woollen goods annually, and the rest of Germany an immense amount of wool. Mr. Jarvis is of opinion that while, owing to the different systems of management that prevail, the Saxony descendant of the Spanish sheep has become more and more tender and infirm of con- stitution, its fleece has been certainly somewhat improved in this country ; and in reference to the suitableness of our own country to the growth of the finest wool, he says,— ‘About six years ago I compared my merino wool with fifteen or twenty samples of the Paular flock that had been sent me from Spain where I purchased, : and eight of the ten judges who examined the two, gave a decided preference to that taken from the backs of my sheep.” He goes on to say, —‘¢ Mr. James Shepherd, who carried on the factory at North- ampton, and who purchased my merino wool for several years, told DISEASES OF SHEEP. 177 me, that the superfine broadcloths made from my wool handled softer than did those from the best imported Spanish wool he could pur- chase; where,”’ adds he, and there need be no better judge, ‘the merino has been bred with attention and care, the wool has not dete- riorated in any other country except England, and the deterioration there has undoubtedly been owing to the uncommon humidity of the climate.”? Here, then, is evidence sufficient to satisfy the mest skeptical on the point of adaptation of climate and food to the pro- duction of the finest wool, where circumstances invite the farmer to choose his breed with an eye to the manufacturer as his customer 5 and the testimony of Mr. Jarvis goes further to prove that if England owes the superiority of her turnip crop for coarse-woolled sheep to the moisture of her climate, for the same reason she can never supply her own manufacturers with fine wool. It is not deemed necessary to give the history of the introduction of the merino into the United States, further than to state that the first, a buck and two ewes from the Rambouellet flock in France, were sent into New York by Chancellor Livingston, then Minister to France. The Hon. David Humphreys, who had been minister to France afterwards, got in two hundred more through Portugal into Connecticut. These importations remained unnoticed and almost unknown, until the embargo of 1807 and the non-intercourse cut off our supply of woollen goods from England; attention was drawn to the necessity of making ourselves independent of a foreion supply of an article as it were a necessary of life, and in 1809 and 1810 several thousand merinoes were sent from Spain to the United States by Mr. Jarvis of Vermont, and Mr. Grove of New York, and distributed chiefly in the northern States, but in smaller numbers as far south as Norfolk and Richmond. Subsequently, to wit, in 1826, there arrived in New York, Boston, and other ports, two thousand five hundred Saxony merinos. Such is the basis of the flocks now kept, of pure and of mixed blood, in our northern States, where, according to some interesting statistical accounts on the subject of sheep and wool, compiled in 1836, by Messrs. Benton and Barry, the average price of wool was per pound, in > a Ase 36 cents. Pas 41 cents RE ays 0 v0.1 0 see 40 * RGde. ont aS «2 5Q1 > ae 29 6 ROE oie es a 50s Eo oid aes G 40} * 1 to's TM eetetiog yaa Fy AL, _ Was 50° 4 8) ee iar 58 66 Since then, the price has been, according to the best accounts we can get, in Ris ache cvs de wane . «++» from 45 to 47 cents. IEEE Cain ashe a «u's ate 6 3 MMA Bele from 45 to 60 RAE OR ne ars y o'ax0.8 woke Able Oh wad from 43 to44 « tate aban «5 me ¢ alt — ae mills manufac- tured persone eres oy tories. goods, | &mplo~ a re 151 24 $412,366 532 | $316,105 3 Gre mascpetire. ote 152 66 795,784 893 740,345 3. Massachusetts, ..-- 207 144 7,082,898 5,076 4,179,850 4. Rhode Island, ....- 45 41 842,172 S61 685,350 5. Connecticut, ...+-- 157 119 2,494,313 2,356 1,931,335 6. Vermont, ...+-+++- 239 95 1,331,953 1,450 1,406,950 7. New York,--.-+++: 890 323 3,537,337 4,636 3,469,349 8. New Jersey, ------ 49 31 440,710 427 314,650 9. Pennsylvania, ---- 346 235 9,319,061 2,930 1.510,546 “10. Delaware, ...+--.- Se 2 104,700 . 83 107,000 11. Maryland, ....-+-- 39 29 235,900 388 117,630 12. Virginia, «...-+++- 47 41 147,792 222 112,350 13. North Carolina, --. 1 3 3,900 4 9,600 14. South Carolina, .-.| -»-- 3 1,000 6 4,300 “15. Georgia, -+.++eeee+| serene 1 3,000 10 2,000 16. Alabama, ...--++++] eeeees eS AE ES eee, eo ill ex seiseleia sy 1 ih Tee eres 17. Mississippi, ----++-] +++se- eM iictes cletaa’en | | ete namier Ny. io a eidainiele 18. Louisiana, ...-. Febipeehasetes o wid Had alee e ae PERERA TA Wine ole aris 19. Tennessee, ..--+++- 4 26 14,290 45 25,600 “90. Kentucky, -+.+.--- 5 40 151,246 200 132,000 > 91. Ohio, ...-+eceees sie 206 130 685,757 935 537,985 22. Indiana, «..+-+.+.- 24 37 58,867 103 77,954 93, Illinois, «+-s++e5-- 4 16 9,540 34 26,205 “@4. Missouri, «--.++e++| seeeee 9 13,750 13 5,100 95. Arkansas, .--+-+++ |] steees 1 129 1 12,600 26, Michigan, «++-+++- 16 4 9,734 37 34,120 97. Florida, -.......-- CE CAS SERS: CMSs RK he mt MMMEPEHOD VIO. PIL, c2 SPD es ewe Peer e cess | ate cee of tee emens DD. TOWA; ad swisiele. ce eie!| Hbieaie del [pin eoeees SOO a Ss Steet eA 30.. Dist, of Columbia, «| .-psrr5) fapeteess foteetttrt fot oe Totaly aisiisss one 2585 | 1,420 | 20,696,999 | 94,342 | 15,765,124 Sovrn-pown.— Let those who would properly appreciate this ex- cellent race, banish from their thoughts the diminutive mottled original South-down stock’ of the olden time, with the idea of which the name _is apt to be associated in the mind, and contemplate the portrait here *m 180 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. presented of the Buck imported in 1838, by E. Prentice, of Mount Hope, near Albany. ad. ate. aun Nido. SNA gwF7 x . e U SER RNN SASS SE ee eee ue Co ae . The Sheep on the Green Grass. Ah f ey see Mr. Prentice says they are ‘in size between the Cotswold and oul native sheep, and wil] weigh in ordinary flesh from one hundred and sixty to two hundred pounds; the one of which this is an engraving, weigns one hundred and eighty pounds. They are of round, full and beautiful form, and of great weight for their apparent dimensions, possessed of extraordinary vigour and constitution, fitting them for great endurance of keep and exposure. In one flock of about fifty, I have never known an invalid for an hour, or one low in flesh, though their pasture has often been as short as I have ever known one, on which sheep have been sustained.” pth Of the improved South-down, as they are at this day in great per- fection in England, no further description need ‘be added than the fullowing sketch by Mr. Al/en, editor of the American Agriculturist, in an interesting account of his visit to Mr. Webb, an English farmer, in company with the Hon. Andrew Stevenson, then our minister to, Eng- land, whose judgment as an agriculturist was well displayed, and whose least service to his country was important, if it consisted in selecting and bringing home some of the finest specimens of South- down to be found in Great Britain. ~ N35 _ * To give an idea of the weight of Mr. Webb’s animal, the South- down buck selected by Mr. Rotch, though only six months old, weighed one hundred and_ fifty-two pounds onthe scales; bishop Mead’s, eighteen months old, two hundred and forty-eight pounds ; and Mr. Stévenson’s, of the same age, two hundred and fifty-four DISEASES OF SHEEP. ‘181 pounds, whise a wether, exhibited at Cambridge on Christmas day, 1840, weighed dressed, with the head on, two hundred pounds, aside from yielding twenty-eight pounds rough tallow. The average weight -of his wethers, however,. at eighteen or twenty months old, is but about thirty to.thirty-five pounds per quarter. ‘The bucks shear from nine to eleven pounds; and the average shearing of the whole flock is six pounds fifteen ounces, and of a quality of wool that we thought better than the generality of South-downs. The fleece is close and compact, and, we should think, would resist rain, sleet, and snow, nearly as well as the best Merino.” Mr. Allen adds, respecting Mr. Webb’s sheep, —“ They are very hardy, and are never housed in winter, but lie in the open fields, and are fed upon hay, with cut turnips, sugar-beets, of mangel wurtzel. In the summer they are ‘taken to a poor pasture by day, at a distant part of the farm, for : Webb says he is an advocate 1g; and that a good animal always pays for it. This i8 take up with the smallest of the old unimproved race.” or of the Cultivator adds—‘ Messrs Bement and McIntyre, nity of this city, haye beautiful flocks. of South-downs; and Mr. Rotch, of Butternuts, in this State, is one of the best embracing, as it does, the blood of the Duke of 'Rich- ‘on nothing but hay; and we have little doubt that where fine qualities of wool are not the great object in sheep-growing, the South-downs will prove to be one of the best breeds for the farmer.” ~ _ To scent nome and the whereabouts of the importers and breeders of this irable race of sheep, unequalled for mutton, un- less it be to gratify the coarse taste for fat meat, the reader has but to consult the pages of the Cultivator, the American Acriculturist, and otlier journals, for the names of. Prentice, Rotch,; Bement, Mclntire, B and others. The prices, we believe, are from twelve to twenty dollars for thorough breeds. 7 Dishley or Bakewell, or new Leicester sheep. — With this. breed all persons at all conversant with sheep-breeding must be acquainted ; so much so, that it is deemed only necessary to say that according to our observation, which has been not very limited, being among the earliest importers of some of the best of them from one of the best flocks in England, they have been thus accurately characterised : — ** Heads clean, straight, and broad; bodies round and barrel-shaped ; eyes fine and lively ; bones fine and small ;” carried, as we ‘think, by Mr. Bakewell in this last point to an extreme. An English writer of high charanters Mr, Ellman, describes the wool of the Bakewell id if ‘people want South-downs to starve, they had — 182 SHEEP HUSBANDRY: as being “long, fine, and well calculated for combing, and fleeces weighing about eighty-five pounds at two years old. They fatten kindly ‘and early, and are the most popular sheep for the market, but are not very sure breeders nor good nurses.”? Mr. James Bagg, of Montgo- mery, New York, a very large importer of cattle, sheep, ‘and hogs, ‘presents a comparison and an estimate of the value of the only breeds ‘to which we deem it necessary to call the attention of American farmers. The reader'will draw his own conclusions. “A Saxon lamb, six months old, weighing 18 lbs. at 8 cents, $1.44 66 66 6c Merino lamb, “ 20:°- “ 1.66 Bakewell, _ es 66 * BO 4 %4 3 ss 2.4C Cotswold, ae & &6 60 + ae 4.80 South-down, 16s 6 66 50, 6 se 4.00 In the second, their wool. ) Saxon fleece, weighing 3 lbs. at 50 cents, Pegeeeeseeeecene $1.50 66 6 : ‘Merino Be 3 sd £§ 40 : coors eeeveeeaee she. ege 1.20 Bakewell «“ 6 ete ee pave Cotswold * ee FE AG oss oe cana 3.60 m 4 my South-down S a 5 S os 40 Fa P2 eee - eeece seteees | 2.00 a less price. Ri “In the third place, the sheep when full grown. Saxon sheep, weighing 50 Ibs. at 6 cents, ......eeeee0 -++- $3.00 Merino «¢ 6 6G 85, 3 Gr: 48°): dawn ai dren entiate eee Bakewell « oe ot dd Dy? shit 188.) ely ae eileen ann South-down so 120 re ; Ss 6 ee eeceesceee * eerecece 7.20 Cotswold * §. 76... 240 S40, fo See dl ae ‘The Bakewell I consider a sheep not at all adapted to this cli- mate, being of a tender constitution, hard to keep, wool coarse, small fleece; another objection is, when the wool is a few inches long, it parts and leaves the back of the sheep naked; and when exposed to cold storms, the animal is much injured, and many of them die. The Saxon and Merino I find much alike, ‘both of a weak constitution, and require great attention to keep them alive, through the winter ; they are also very bad nurses ; a great difficulty in rearing their lambs. I have conversed with many gentlemen who keep large flocks of Merino and Saxon sheep, and they all agree what I have stated re- specting them to be correct, but they say we must have fine wool. ““T must say that the South-down and Cotswold sheep have ex- ceeded my expectation. I have seen some of the South-down wool manufactured into cloth fine enough for any man; and if people get the pure-blooded South-down sheep, they have an animal in every DISEASES OF SHEEP. 188 Tespect that is wanted; their mutton superior to any in the worlds of a hardy constitution; the wool good; and no sheep will live on shorter pasture. The South-down has a brown face and legs, or dark grey. **T consider the Cotswold sheep a hardy animal well adapted for this country; but they want better keep than the South-down; they make great weight, and their fleeces are heavy. I had last year eighteen Cotswold ewes whose fleeces averaged ten and a half pounds, and one buek whose fleece weighed eighteen and a quarter pounds. I sold a lamb to Mr. Haviland of Long Island, who had it shorn at one year old; the fleece weighed twelve anda half pounds clean wool. I saw some of this breed of sheep slaughtered in Glou- cester, England, which weighed seventy-five pounds per quarter.. A noted breeder there informed me that they often exceeded that weight. “Some may say that the South-down and Cotswold lambs cannot weigh one hundred pounds at the age stated. If any doubt it, if they will call on Bags and Watt, of Montgomery, New York, they can see lambs of five months old much heavier. f “ Montgomery, NV. Y., July 21, 1840.” i Those who have rich pastures and abundant food, and whose object is to supply the butcher, would probably best adopt the Coflswold, already spoken of by Mr. Bagg, of which we find, among other in- ducements, great size and aptitude to fat, with more hardiness and better constitution than the Bakewell. The following item in the seventh volume of the Cultivator may prove interesting on some of these points :— : ‘J cannot leave this place without giving you some description of six Cotswold wether sheep, bred and fed by Mr. Dunn, with refer- ence to the whole inhabitants of Albany. Mr. Kirkpatrick, who purchased them, says the heaviest sheep weighed two hundred and ten pounds, and the fat on the ribs measured five and a quarter inches. I saw the smallest; the thickness of fat from my own measurement was four and a quarter inches; the price twenty-two dollars each; and the meat sold in the market readily for twelve and a half cents per pound. The fleeces from these sheep averaged about ten pounds each ; these are facts from the breeder and the butcher without dimi- nution or addition. W..H. Sornam.” *“*P.S. Perhaps it will be as well to observe that these lambs were not thought sufficiently good to reserve for breeders, and were the culls of his males.” An English paper stated that a fleece weighing twenty-three pounds was taken from a Cotswold ram in 1840, owned by J. Gould of Pot- more. . Albany, Feb. 27, 1840. Later still, in 1843, a sheep of the Cotswold breed was slaughtered in Albany; Jive weight, two hundred and sixty pounds; carcass, dressed with head on, two hundred and ten pounds; showing a differ- — I 184 SHEEP. HUSBANDRY. ence of less than one-fifth between the live and death weight. It is added that the only feed of this sheep during the past summer was clover pasture, hurdled with others. from 15th of October to 15th of November. From that time to his being slaughtered and exhibited, 22d of February,’ he was fed, with three South-down bucks, under cover, with turnips, buckwheat, and clover; one bushel of turnips and three quarts of buckwheat, together with two pounds of hay, were fed to the four daily. It.is enough to ensure confidence in the accuracy of this statement that it appears to be from the editor of the Cultivator himself. The Lixcotnsuire Suesp. are, described by Mr. Ellman as being “faces white; bones larze; legs white, thick, and rough; carcass long, thin, and weak; wool fine and long, from ten to eighteen inches, weighing per fleece, when killed at three years old, an average of about eleven pounds; flesh coarse grained; slow feeders, calculated only for the richest pastures; constitutions tender.”’ Mr. L. D. Cleft, of Somers, New) York, had a large flock of this breed in 1840, and states in the Cultivator of that year that he had **raised in 1339 from sixty-four ewes, (chiefly ewes two and three years old), ninety-two lambs, and had not lost a single lamb by reason of exposure,”” ‘That when his ewes were older, “ more than half had twins.” Mr. C. says further, in 1841—‘'The present winter my -primest wethers went to market about the first of December, twenty- four in number; six of these sheep were three years old, and gave a total dead weizht of eight hundred and seventy-nine pounds, or one hundred and forty-six and a half pounds per carcass, equal to thirty- six and a half pounds per quarter; and I am informed that one of these sheep gave thirty-six pounds of caul or rough fat.”? ‘This breed is sometimes mistaken, or passed off for the Dishley or Leicester breed, which is more perfectly formed, of periiaps somewhat earlier maturity, but not so large by eight or ten pounds to the quarter. The Cotswoiv.—The same English writer, in whom we have already expressed our respectful confidence, treats of the Cotswold sheep as one of the “ varieties” of the Lincolnshire, the ‘ Treswater”’ being another, and describes the Cotswold as ‘in most respects re- sembling the parent breed, but superior; wool not so long as that of “the original sort; mutton fine grained and full sized, capable of great improvement by proper crossing. Mr. Thomas Wells, of Hampnett, has favoured us with the following particulars on the improved con- dition of this excellent breed:—‘*’The Cotswold sheep, previously to being crossed with the Leicester, were of large size, well woolled, and good sucklers, but high on the shoulders, with a hollow behind, in- clined to a thin fore-flank and coarseness in bone. In their improved state, they are rendered not only much finer in bone, but fit for market in half the period they were formerly, as they were not fatted until three or four years old; but. now they are seldom offered to a butcher at.more than two years. Their size is not quite so large as before the _cross, but when fat, average about the same weight, which by com- - DISEASES OF SHEEP. 185 mon feeding is about fourteen or sixteen stone, and will by extraor- dinary feeding arrive at about twenty-five or twenty-six stone. As yearlings they possess the striking qualification of averaging under good management ten or eleven stone, which is found to answer much better than keeping them longer. These merits, in addition to the great weight of combing wool they produce, has greatly increased ‘their value. Itis highly requisite to guard against breeding them too fine. If they are well bred they are equally as hardy as they were formerly, but if bred too fine they lose in constitution, are unable to support their young, produce meat of a bad quality, and not having a proportionate quantity of lean, their wool becomes. short and too fine in quality, and they frequently become naked bellied, which oc- ‘easions great loss in the weight of their fleece.””. It is this “* breeding too fine,’”” in other words too closely, that has impaired the constitu- tion of the Bakewells or Dishleys, made them bad nurses, and dimi- nished too much the proportion of lean meat. The true problem for ‘the sheep farmer is what breed will give him one year with another the greatest profit to the acre. If pasturage be short, it is clear that “a greater number of sheep of smaller size will gather more in a given time than a smaller number of heavier sheep; and we believe that keeping in view the resources for maintaining sheep through the year, the safer plan is to take a breed of hardy constitution and of a size not so large, such as the South-down, and thus hit the happy medium ; and, in the general way, we have no hesitation in hazarding the opinion for what it is worth, that the same principle—— moderate size ‘and thriftiness of habit and hardiness of constitution—#is the one on which it is most expedient for American husbandmen to act, in the great majority of cases, in regard not only to sheep, but to cattle, hogs, horses, and even poultry. At a meeting of the Pennith Acricultural Society in England, in 1839, the awards of the judges were in favour of the middling sized sheep. At the dinner, on the health of the judges being proposed, Mr. Gray, the chairman, speaking on the comparative profits to the grazier of large and small sized sheep, made the following among other remarks :-— “I dare say that the opinion of the judges with respect to sheep has been much censured, although I declare I have not heard any observations to that effect. My reasons for supposing ‘so is this+— that people who have not great experience in the qualities and niceties connected with every description of stock, are apt to look principally at that which fills the eye, and to form a favourable opinion of animals upon a large scale; and this is particularly the case with respect to “the Leicester sheep. I have had considerable experience with sheep of this description, having in former times kept a flock of between nine hundred and one thousand Leicester ewes, and therefore I have “some title to speak upon the subject. I say, then, that the largest ‘sheep are the least profitable. If it can be ascertained, as I believe it has been, that you can feed on an acre of land a greater number or 16 * 186 SHEEP HUSBANDRY-~ pounds of mutton in careases of from eighteen to twenty pounds per quarter than in carcases of from twenty-eight to thirty pounds, then every one must agree that the advantages are on the side of the smaller carcases. ‘The reason of this is obvious. In times of drought and scarcity, a small animal can collect as much food as a larger one, and having a smaller carcass,’ it derives much more advantage from it. While, therefore, the larger animal is losing in condition, the smaller one, if not improving, remains stationary ; and when the period arrives at which abundance of food can be obtained, it almost immediately reassumes its position, and. is fit to go to the market sooner than the larger animal. I do not presume to offer anything like dictation to this meeting, but I am confident that those gentlemen present, who have had experience on this subject, will bear me out in saying that there are advantages in breeding the description of stock to which I have been referring, which do not attach to animals of better appeat- ance and larger size.” | Nevertheless, we should say, that if the farmer have at command a superabundance of grass and corn, which it would be his interest to convert into meat, that its value may be more condensed and por- table, then the most economical machine or animal is that one which above all will, as a machine, soonest convert that superabundance of food into meat of a’kind that will bring the best return in the market. In all ages, among nations in any degree removed from the lowest stage of barbarism, a census in some form has been deemed neces- sary to an understanding of their condition, resources, and means of defence; and the fullness and accuracy of these periodical returns may be said in some sort to mark the progress of political science and civil polity. As yet the census of the United States is altogether defective in many particulars connected with important questions of political economy, and there is too much reason to believe that the actual returns have been made with a deyree of carelessness and want of uniformity sufficient to create distrust in the results as they have been published. Yet such as it is, it forms the most reliable means of calculation on questions like the one in hand. We have, it seems, no return, for instance, (as we happen to have had occasion to observe) either of the number of mules or of the turnip crop in the United States. In the following table we have embraced the returns of hay and of potatoes, as these in the northern States constitute the chief food of sheep, as before said, for four or five months in the year. We have added to the table, as nearly as could well be ascertained, the number of acres to a sheep in the several States and territories ; and the reader will be struck with the fact, that while fine wool may be transported at such a trifling expense in proportion to its value, they should be in such a very large proportion located very near to the wool market, and on land which bears the highest price, while the natural distribu- tion would appear to be to rear the fine wool on the cheap table-lands of the mountains, and the limitless prairies of the west. It has been ascertained that wool may be sent from the prairies of Illinois \to DISEASES OF SHEEP. 187 Lowell, Massachusetts, inland, for only two dollars twelve and a half cents per hundred pounds, or forty-two dollars and fifty cents per ton. t 7 . re i Distribution of sheep and wool, hay and potatoes, in the United States, according to the census of 1840, with a calculation of the number of sheep to the acre, in each of the States and Territories :—. : ! No. of Pounds of | Tons of Bushels of |, Name of State, &c. Sheep. Sehol, hay. potatoes. eo 1; Maine, «os... 649,264 1,465,551 691,358 |. 10,392,280 50 2. New Hampshire, 617,390 1,260,517 496,107 6,206,606 10 3. Massachusetts, .. 378,226 941,906 569,395 5,385,652 12, 4. Rhode Island, ..- 90,146 183,830 63,449 911,973 10 _ 5. Connecticut, .... 403,462 889,870 426,704 3,414,238 10> 6. Vermont,.......| 1,681,819 3,699,235 836.739 8,869,751 4 7. New York, ..... 5,118,777 9,845,295 3,127,047 | 30,123,614 Qh 8. New Jersey, -... 219,285 397,207 334,861 2,072,069 |) 24 9. Pennsylvania, .. 1,767,620 3,048,564 1,311,643 9,535,663 24 10. Delaware, ...... 39,247 64,404 22,483 200,712 333 ‘11..Maryland, .....4 257,922 488,201 106,687] 1,036,433 331 12, Virginia, ..... «+| 1,293;772 2,538,374 364,7083} 2,944,660 33% 13. North Carolina, . 538,279 625,044 101,369 2,609,239 50 ‘34. South Carolina, . 232,981 299,170 24,618 2,698,313 100 15. Georgia, ........ 267,107 371,303 16,9692] 1,293,366 143 16. Alabama, ....... 163,243 220,353 12,718 1,708,356 240 17. Mississippi, .... 12,367 175,196 171 1,630,190 250 18. Louisiana, ...... 98,072 49,283 24,651 834,341 50 19. Tennessee, ..... 741,593 1,0¢-0,232 31,233 1,904,370 50 20. Kentucky, ...... 1,008,240 1,786,847 88,306 1,055,085 25 191 /Ohio) ..:... tee 2,028 401 3,685,315 1,022,037 5,805,021 10 22. Indiana, ........ 675,982 1,237,919 178,029 1,525,794 333 23. Illinois, ........ 395,672 650,007 164,932 2,025,520 J00 24. Missouri, ....... 348,018 562,265 49,083 783,768 125 25, Arkansas, ...... 42,151 64.943 586 293,608 | 1,000 26. Michigan, ....-. 99,618 153,375 130,805 2,109,205 250 ee oo 4 7,198 7,285 1,197 264,617 5,000 28. Wisconsin, ..... 3,462 6,777 30,938 419,608 | 14,285 29, Iowa, .......... 15,354 23,039 17,953 234,063 | 2.500 30. Dist. of Columbia 706 7 1,331 12,035 100 Totals 0. 35%:. 19,311.374 | 35,02.114 | 10,248,1083' 108,298,060 Since writing thus far, an opportunity has been embraced to obtain some information as to the resources of Western Virginia and the Carolinas. We were informed by a member of congress from Pittsyl- vania county that his flock of two hundred go through the winter one year with another at a cost for food of not exceeding ten dollars for the whole flock. It was only yesterday, Ist of February, that, in conver- sation with Mr. J. Wadsworth, of Geneseo, President of the New York State Agricultural Society, eminent for his intelligence and en- terprise, as an American farmer of Breat opulence’and influence, we learned that coarse wool, under influences’ of recent existence, is tting into greater demand. He observed that there were practical armers in New York, though he was not prepared to say it could be realised, who contended ‘that they could pursue sheep husbandry profitably on land costing thirty dollars the acre. 188 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. How different ate the circumstances of sheep husbandry in the ‘North, may be estimated by the following aecount of his treatment of his flock, by Mr. Leonard Jarvis, of Claremont, New Hampshire, a sheep breeder of great intelligence and experience, owner of four distinct families of fine-woolled sheep... He says, in a letter to the Rey. Mr. Coleman, ‘1. annually. commence with dry fodder by the middle of November, and discontinue by the 5th of May, (nearly six months) 5 generally, however, for the first and last fifteen days, giving no hay, unless the grcund should be covered, but feeding about halt a gill of Indian corn to each sheep twice a day. _As far as my ex- perience extends, a ton of good hay will suffice for fen sheep with the above quantity of grain; they are fed from racks in the yard, and have sheds to retire to at will; I have fed under cover, but believe that it has a tendency to diminish the appetite and weaken the con- stitution. ‘They are kept.in separate yards, in number from fifty to one hundred, taking care to keep those of about the same degree of strensth to themselves, and have running water through; when the ground is covered with snow, I think they do well without it. I allow about four bushels of sult to the hundred sheep, the greater part of which is consumed when the sheep are at grass. My bucks run with the ewes from the Ist to the 10th of December, allowing three to one hundred. The number of lambs reared depends much apon the season. Sixty lambs to the hundred ewes may.be the average from flocks of quality like mine; from coarser flocks the return is greater. The ewes are not permitted to receive the buck until after they are two years old; and I prefer bucks from two. years old to four.” We must here close this introduction to the work on the ‘ diseases of sheep’? with the following correspondence, opened on the part of the editor, in the hope of obtaining some reliable information as to the advantages held out for the growth of sheep and the manufacture of woollen goods in the districts of country which have been strangely overlooked since facilities were created and the rage inspired for emigrating to the far west! leaving behind immense tracts of cheap land, abounding in water-power, and adapted to the growth of every- thing conducive to successful sheep husbandry; in truth, wanting nothing but capital and industry. In presenting Mr. Clingman’s letter, we may express the hope that its interesting character, and the freshness of the country it opens to our view, will atone to the reader for the length'and dryness of the route by which he has been led to it. Washington, 30th January, 1844. ‘Hon. T. L. Cuineman, Dear Sir,—I have lately had occasion, asa leisure hour has offered, to bestow ‘some consideration on the sheep husbandry of the United States; in the course of which it has occurred to me that the people of Virginia and North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, have not availed themselves to the extent that they might probably do of that source of reward for labour and capital. It seems to me that the iniddle or DISEASES OF SHEEP. 189 hilly, and the mountainous portions of those States and of Maryland, must be pecu- liarly adapted to the constitution of au animal which appears to have a natural appetency for rolling and elevated pastures, Or is it that the mountains in Yancey county for instance, are almost exclusively covered with rocks and timber or wood, affording no scope either for the plough or for grazing? Its elevation of some thou- sand feet above the sea secures it, without doubt, against the autumnal diseases of the tide-water country. Is it that the price of the land there forbids investment in it with a view to such employment of capital? Or why is it that the swarms of hardy yeomanry that annually migrate from the North should not settle down in districts described by the latest and ablest geographical authority, Darsy, as being ‘ highly salubrious and well watered,” instead of wending their weary way.to regions less blessed with health, and so remote frum the comforts of denser populations ? If time will allow you, Sir, to auswer according to your knowledge and observa- tion how far my impressions are correct, as to the resources of North Carolina in the particulars to which I have adverted, you will much oblige me; and the earlier you can favour me with an answer, the more will the kindness be esteemed, by i Yours, with great respect, J. S. SKINNER. House of Representatives, Feb. 3, 1844. Daw sir, —Your favour of the 30th ultimo was received a day or two-since, and I now avail myself of the very first opportunity to answer it. Ido so most cheerfully, because, in the first place, I am happy to have it in my power to gratify in any man- ner one who has done so much as yourself to diffuse correct information on subjects most important to the agriculture of the country; and, secondly, because I feel:a deep interest in the subject to which your inquiries are directed. You state that you have directed some attention to the sheep husbandry of the United States, in the course of which it has occurred to you that the people of the ‘mountain regions of North Carolina, and some of the other southern States, have not availed themselves sufficiently of their natural advantages for the production of sheep. Being myself well acquainted with the western section of North Carolina, I ‘may perhaps be able to give you most of the information you desire. As you have ‘directed several of your inquiries to the county of Yancey, (I presume from the fact, ‘well known to you, that it contains the highest mountains in any of the United States), I will, in the first place, turn my attention to that county. First, as to its elevation. Dr. Mitchell, of our University, ascertained that the bed of Tow river, “the largest stream in the county, and at a ford near itscentre, was about twenty-two handred feet above the level of the ocean. Burnsville, the seat of the court-house, he found to be between two thousand eight hundred and two thousand nine hundred feet above it. The general level of the country is, of course, much above this eleva- tion. In fact, a number of the mountain summits rise above the height of six thou- sand feet. The climate is delightfully coo) during the summer; in fact there are very few places in the county where the thermometer rises above eighty degrees on the hottest day. An intelligent gentleman who passed a summer in the northern part of the county (rather the more elevated portion of it) informed me that the thermo- meter did not rise on the hottest days above seventy-six degrees. You ask, in the next place, if the surface of the ground is so much covered with rocks as to render it unfit for pasture? The reverse is the fact; no portion of the county that I have passed over is too rocky for cultivation; and in many sections of the county one may travel miles without seeing a single stone. It is only about ‘190 ‘SHEEP HUSBANDRY. the tops of the higher mountains that rocky precipices are to be found. A large por- ‘tion of the surface of the county is a sort of elevated table-land, undulating, but seldom too broken for cultivation. Even as one ascends the higher mountains, he will find occasionally on their sides flats of level land containing several hundred “acres in a body. The top of the Roan (the highest mountain in the county except the Black) is covered by a prairie for ten miles, which affords a rich pasture during the greater part of the year. The ascent to it is so gradual that persons ride to the top on horseback from almost any direction. The same may be'said of many’ of the other mountains. The soil of the county generally is uncommonly fertilé, producing with tolerable cultivation abutidant crops. What seems extraordinary to a stranger is the fact that the soil becomes richer as he ascends the mountains. The sides of the Roan, the Black, the Bald, and others, at an elevation even of five or six thousand feet above the sea, are covered with a deep rich vegetable mould, so soft that a horse in dty weather often sinks to the fetlock. The fact that the soil is frequently more fertile as one ascends is, I presume, attributable to the circumstance that thé higher portions are more commonly covered with clouds; and the vegetable matter being i. kept in acool moist state while decaying, is incorporated to a greater degree with the surface of the earth, just as it is usually found that the north side of a hill is richer than the portion most exposed to the action of the sun’s rays. The sides ‘of the mountains, the timber being generally large, with little undergrowth and brushwood, are peculiarly fitted for pasture grounds, and the vegetation is in many places as luxuriant as it is in the rich savanna of the low country. The soil of every part of the county is net only favourable to the production of grain, but is peculiarly fitted for grasses. ‘Timothy is supposed to make the largest yield, two tons of hay being easily produced on an acre, but herds-grass, or red-top, and clover succeed equally well; blue-grass has not been much tried, but is said to do remarkably well: A friend showed me. several spears which he informed me were produced in the northern part of the county, and which by measurement were found to exceed seventy inches in Jength. Oats, rye, potatoes, turnips, &c., are produced in the greatest abundance. With respect to the prices of land, I can assure you that large bodies of uncleared rich land, most of which might be cultivated, have been sold at prices varying from twenty-five cents to’fifty cents per acre. Any quantity of land favourable for sheep- walks might be procured in any section of the county at prices varying from.one to ten dollarsiper acre. . The few sheep that exist in the county thrive remarkably well, and are sometimes permitted to run at large during the winter without being fed and without suffering. As the number kept by any individual is not large enough to justify the employment of a shepherd to take care of them, they are not unfrequently destroyed by vicious dogs, and more rarely by wolves, which have not yet been entirely exterminated. T have been somewhat prolix in my observations on this county, because some of your inquiries were directed particularly to it, and because most of what I have said of Yancey is true of the other counties west of the Blue Ridge.. Haywood has about the same elevation and climate as Yancy. The mountains are rather more steep, and the valleys somewhat broader ; the soil generally not quite so deep, but very productive, especially in grasses. In some sections of the county, however, the soil is equal to the best: I have seen. Buncombe and Henderson are rather less elevated; Ashville and Hendersonville, the county towns, being each about two thousand two hundred feet above the sea. DISEASES OF SHEEP. 191 The climate is much the/same, but a very little warmer.. The more broken portions of these counties resemble much the mountainous parts of Yancey and Haywood, but they contain much more lével land. Indeed the greater portion of Henderson is, quite level. It contains much swamp land, which, when.cleared, with very little if any drainage, produces very fine crops of herds-grass, . Portions of Macon and Chero- kee counties are quite as favourable, both ag to climate and soil,-as those abovya described. I would advert particularly to the Valley of the Nantahalah, in Macon, and of Cheoh, in Cherokee. In either, for a comparatively trifling price, some ten or fifteen miles square could be procured, all of which would be rich, and the major, part sufficiently level for cultivation, and especially fitted, as their natural meadows, indicate, for the production of grass. ; ‘In conclusion, 1 may say, that as far as my limited knowledge of such matters authorizes me to speak, fam satisfied that there is no region that is more favourable to the production of sheep than much of the country I have described. It is every- where healthy and well watered. I may add, too, that there is water-power enough in the different counties composing my congressional district to move more ma shi nery than human labour can ever place there—enough perhaps to move al I existing in the Union. It isalso a rich mineral region. The gold mines are now toa considerable extent. The best ores of iron are found in great abundai many places; copper, lead, and other valuable minerals exist. That must one become the great manufacturing region of the South. I doubt if capital could used more advantageously in any part of the Union than in that section. For a number of years past the value of the live stock (assascertained from books of the Turnpike Company) that is driven through Buncombe county, is from two to three millions-of dollars. -Most of this stock comes from-Kentucky and Ohio, and when it has reached Asheville it has travelled half its journey to the more distant parts of the Southern market, viz., Charleston and Savannah. The citizens of my district, therefore, can get their live stock into the planting States south of us at one- half the expense which those of Kentucky and Ohio are obliged to incur. Not only sheep, but hogs, horses, mules, and horned cattle can be produced in many portiong of my district as cheaply as in those two States. This must ere long become the great manufacturing region of the South, &c. I have thus, sir, hastily endeavoured to comply with your request, because you state that you would like to have the information at once. Should you find my sketch of the region a very unsatisfactory and imperfect one, I hope you will do me the favour to remember that the desk of a member during a debate is not the most favour- able position for writing an essay. With very great respect, yours, T. L. CLINGMAN. J. S. Skinner, Esq. As to the usual weight of the carcass of the South-down and of the fleece, as well as of the value of the Cotswold compared with that of the Merino, it may be useful to state that, according to the most recent information to be fully relied on, Mr. Bement’s ewes, (near Albany, New York), about seventy-five in number, averaged last year three and a half pounds washed wool per head — Mr. MclIntire’s about the same. The South-down wool sold at Albany last year at twenty- eight to thirty cents per pound, where at the same time Merino wool sold for thirty-four to thirty-six. 192 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. « The carcass of the improved South-down, fatted; may be put down at eighteen to twenty-five pounds the quarter.’ Mr. McIntire killed,’ as before stated, a cross-breed Cotswold and South-down wether last year, that weighed, dressed, with the head on, two hundred and ten pounds. He sold one very recently that weighed about one hundred. and seventy-five pounds. Mr, Bement’s price for fourteen—all he has for sale — South-down ewes, a year old this spring, which have not been tupped, is twelve dollars a head; and a buck to accompany them at the same price. Mr. McIntire’s price for ten ewes that will have lambs in April, is seventeen dollars a head, and will put ina. good buck at same price. This statement is made for. the benefit of readers not residing in the neighbourhood of flocks of sheep of. this. kind. The demand for all kinds of improved sheep is increasing, and will increase in the south-west, © rottee ON THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. Tuis has heen a sadly neglected branch of veterinary inquiry and ractice. The nature and treatment of the diseases of sheep form ittle or no part of the instruction given in some of our veterinary — schools, and seldom come under the cognizance of the surgeon after- » - wards. The shepherd undertakes the treatment of foot-rot, and scab, and hoove; and with regard to the other maladies to whieh this animal is subject, they are either suffered to take their course, or, if a veterinary practitioner is ever employed, it is when the disease is firmly established, or the whole flock infected, and medical aid is fruitless. This is much to be lamented, and very absurd; for although an individual sheep may not be worth much, yet a numerous flock : forms no inconsiderable portion of the farmer’s wealth, and the fre- quent mortality among these animals is a very serious loss to him. - The internal structure of the sheep so nearly resembles that of the ox, that I will content myself with referring to the anatomy of the ox, as described in the early part of this work. The diseases of both have a very great resemblance in their nature and cause, and progress, and medical treatment. The same drugs are administered to both. There cannot be a better purgative for sheep than Epsom salts: there is no better fever medicine than the digitalis, emetic tartar, and nitre. The principal difference is in the quantity to be administered; a sixth or eighth part of the usual dose for cattle will be sufficient for the sheep. The quantity of blood taken will depend on the size of the animal and the nature of the disease. Four ounces would be a fair average bleeding from a lamb, and a pint froma full-grown sheep. Shepherds are apt to bleed from the eye-vein; but the blood generally flows slowly, and, after all, the proper quantity will not always be obtained The best place for bleeding is from the jugular, as in cattle. A liga- ture should be tied round the neck, and then the vein will sid bo : e evidently that it cannot possibly be mistaken. The vein shou opened with the lancet commonly used for the human being: orifice should be Jarge, and the blood obtained as quickly as possible. ~ Bir: (193) » 194 TILE LAMBING SEASON. SECTION I. THE LAMBING SEASON. _ Tue ewe goes with lamb five months. The general time of yean- Ing is about the end of March, but in some of the western counties, and particularly in Dorsetshire, by which the metropolis and many of the towns in the west are principally supplied with house-lamb, it is so contrived that the lambs shall be dropped in the middle or even the beginning of February. With the best care a great deal of danger attends this early lambing, and even at a later period a few cold nights are fatal to many of the lambs. ‘There is nothing that requires more reformation than the treatment both of the ewe and the lamb at the aime of yeaning. During the time of gestation more attention is required than is generally paid. ‘To enable the ewe to produce her lamb with com- parative safety, she should not be too well fed. One of the most prevalent causes of puerperal fever, or dropping after calving, in the cow, is her too high condition. It is more particularly so with the ewe; and there are few things that the farmer should be more careful about than that the fair, but not unusual of forced, condition of the animal is preserved. A week or two before the time, a little better keep may be useful in order to give them sufficient strength for the lambing. It is a kind of middle course which the farmer has to pur- sne, and the path is not very difficult to trace: too high condition will dispose to fever; on the other hand. with too poor keep the ewe will not have sufficient strength to go through the process safely, nor will she have milk enough for the lambs. If the dam has not sufficient support previously, the lamb will be weakly when it is dropped, and will not thrive well afterwards. When the time of yeaning approaches, a little care may prevent a very great loss to the farmer. “Ihe ewes should be brought as nearly home as possible. They should be sheltered from the wind, if it be only by a high and thick hedge; but a kind of shed, however rudely constructed, would abundantly pay the expense of building it. At night, particularly, they should be folded in some sheltered place. ~ At the period of lambing the shepherd should be far more attentive than he is frequently found to be, and especially than he is if the pelt of the dead lamb is absurdly made his perquisite. If the master’s Ae the servant’s gain, it will not be surprising if casualties occur. ward, increasing in proportion to the number of ewes and lambs ed, would do more than any other thing to save both the dam and her offspring. The care of the farmer or lamber will vary a great deal according to the period of the year and the state of the weather. In the early lambing the greatest losses are at the beginning: they arise principally from cold. In March or April the latter part of the THE LAMBING SEASON. 195 lambing season is most dangerous, for there is more abundant keep, and more tendency to inflammation. The clatting of the ewes is a very useful practice now. They are thrown, and a portion cf the wool is removed from their tails and udders. The sticking together of the wool from the purging to which the ewe is often subject in the early part of the spring, when the grass is fresh, has lost many alamb. When the udders are thus cleaned, the lamber will more easily perceive the stain on the part, which, and which alone, will sometimes tell him whether the ewe has yeaned: for it is no uncommon thing for a young ewe to desert her lamb, and be found grazing with the rest of the flock as unconcernedly as if no- thing had happened. An experienced lamber will almost always tell when the ewe is abut to yean. If he finds her soon afterwards taken with labour pains, and they continue to succeed each other regularly, and she remains lying down, he will take great care not to disturb her; but if a couple of hours pass, and the lamb is not produced, he carefully examines her. If the nose and the tips of the toes have presented themselves, and the lamb seems to be in a proper position, but the head is large, or the passage is narrow, he leaves her again for an- other hour; but if there is evidently a false presentation, he introduces one or two fingers, or his hand, well guarded with oil, puts the young one in the proper position, and nature speedily effects the rest. The principal art of the Jamber is to know when he should inter- fere. In every case of false presentation his help should be ready and immediate; but otherwise he should very rarely meddle with the ewe, except the mother is nearly exhausted, or the life of the young one appears to be in danger. One moment’s observation will discover the state of the mother; and the degree of protrusion of the tongue of the young one, and its colour, will not often deceive with regard tohim. When the tongue hangs far from the month, and is getting livid or black, it is high time for the lamber to interfere. The lamber should use as little violence as possible; but then he should recollect that the ewe will often bear a great deal of force be- ing applied without the slightest injury to her, and sometimes with no great danger to the little one. The exhausted state of the one or the other will regulate the degree of force. When there is much ex- haustion, no time is to be lost, and some strength should be applied in the extrication of the lamb. The state of the weather, too, will somewhat regulate this. In cold weather more time may be allowed. The process of parturition is then slower. In warm weather there is more tendency to fever, and the ewe should not be suffered to exhaust herself too much. Unnatural presentations are often very awkward things to have to do with. The ewe should be driven into the pound, and after having rested a few minutes, some of the fingers, or the hand, if it is small, should be introduced into the vagina. If only one leg presents, and the shoulder thus forms an obstruction, the other leg will generally 196 THE LAMBING SEASON. be easily laid hold of and brought down. If the neck is bent, and the crown of the head presents itself, it may be pushed back, and the two fore-paws brought into the passage, and then the muzzle will naturally follow. If the foetus lies sideways, the cord and the posi- tion of the legs will enable the shepherd to distinguish between the spine and the belly. ‘The turning is sometimes a difficult thing ; but practice will often give the lamber a great deal of cleverness in this operation. In extreme cases, and when the lamb is evidently dead, it may be necessary to introduce a blunt-pointed knife into the uterus, and cut the little animal to pieces. The greatest care must be taken that the mother is not wounded, for that would produce inevitable death. When the lamb has been thus taken away piecemeal, a little physic— an ounce of Epsom salts, with a few grains of ginger—should be ere to the mother, who should then be left undisturbed for several ours. The ewe, and especially if she was in high condition, is occasion- ally subject to after-pains. Some of the country-people call it heaving. It continues many hours, and sometimes exhausts and destroys the animal. It is particularly dangerous if she has been too well kept, and much force has been used in extracting the lamb. Twenty drops of laudanum should be given in a little gruel, and repeated every se- cond hour until the pains abate. It will always be prudent to bleed the ewe if she is not better soon after the second dose of the lauda- num. The womb is sometimes forced out of the orifice when great force has been used in extracting the lamb. It must, if necessary, be cleaned with warm water, and carefully returned by a person with a small! hand. Gentle and continued pressure will effect this much sooner and safer than the application of the greatest force. It will, however, again protrude if a couple of stitches with tolerably strong twine are not passed through the lips of the orifice. If the womb is thus returned before it has been much bruised or inflamed by hanging out, there will be little danger to the mother, and she may suckle her Jamb as usual. When she has accomplished that, she should be fattened, for the same accident would almost certainly happen at her next parturition. Attention should now be paid to the lamb, and it requires it even more than the mother. It is want of care that causes the loss of more than four-fifths of the dead lambs. The principal evil is exposure tu cold. If the weather is severe, great numbers of lambs are often lost in a single night. A few hurdles with straw, or a warm quick hedge, or a shed for them to go into, would save the greater part of them. The farmer needs but to use a little observation in order to be con- vinced how eagerly the ewes and the lambs seek that shelter, and how safe they are compared with others that are exposed. Some breeds are more hardy than others, but the hardiest of them will not endure absurd and cruel neglect and exposure. Let the farmer think THE LAMBING SBASON.-:: 197 of the sudden change from the warmth of the mother’s womb to the driving sleet, and the cold wet ground: he will not wonder that so many of his lambs are palsied and starved to death. The lambs are not quite out of danger when a day or two has passed after they have dropped, They live for the first week or fort- night on the mother’s milk, and then begin to imitate their parent and graze a little; indeed they have not their teeth up to enable them to graze at first. ‘hey should not be put on too good pasture at this early period, for the change of food is often dangerous. A lamb ofa fortnight old will often sicken suddenly, refuse the teat, cease to ruminate, swell, heave, and die, in less than twenty-four hours.. On being examined, the stomach will sometimes be found enormously distended, at other times there will be little food in it, but there always is a great deal of bile in the upper intestines, with inflammation there, the evident cause of death, and produced by the change of food. Those who die at this early period are often called gall-lambs, from the great quantity of bile found in their intestines. When, at three or four months old, the lamb is perfectly weaned, he is subject to a similar complaint, and from a similar cause. The lamb should certainly have better pasture when he is deprived of his mother’s milk, but the change should not be sudden and violent. | Physic will evidently be required here, such as Epsom salts in doses of half an ounce every seeond or third day; and if there is much swelling, the stomach-pump will be used with advantage, both in extricating the gas, and in injecting warm water into the stomach with an intention either to cause vomiting or to wash out the contents of the stomach. The operation of castration is a very simple one in the sheep, and yet is often attended with danger, sometimes resulting from the un- skilfulness of the operator, and at other times from some unfriendly state of the atmosphere. I have known on the same farm, and the same gelder being employed, that in one year nota lamb has been lost, and in the following year several scores. Generally speaking, however, the fatal result is to be attributed to bad management. The younger the lambs are the better, provided they are not very weak. From ten days to a fortnight seems to be the most proper time, or, I may Say, as soon as the testicles can be laid hold of. I would advise the farmer never to set apart a day when the whole or the greater part of his male lambs are to undergo the operation, for many of them will then be too old, and he will assuredly lose some of them. He should take them as soon as they are ready, although there may be only a few at a time. The lamb being well secured, the scrotum or bag is to be grasped in one hand high up, and the testicles pushed down as low as possi- ble: two incisions are then to be made across the bag at the bottom of it, and the testicles forced out. The gelder now often takes the stones between his teeth, and bites the cord asunder. This is a nasty and a cruel way of proceeding. The better way is to draw the testi- 1 Hg 198 DISEASES OF YOUNG LAMBS. cles down an inch or more from the scrotum, and then to cut through the cord close to the scrotum with a knife that is not very sharp. Scarcely a drop of blood follows when the cord is thus separated ; the end of the cord retracts into the bag, and there is not half the danger of inflammation which there is when the cord is gnawed and torn by the teeth. Except the Jambs are very weakly, and the ewes much exhausted and emaciated, it will not be requisite to give any medicine after yeaning. In the great majority of cases the animals will do a great deal better without it. Should, however, tonic medicine be necessary, I know nothing better than the following :— RECIPE (No. 1). Take gentian root, powdered, one drachm; caraway powder, half a drachm; tine- ture of caraway, ten drops. Give in a quarter of a pint of thick gruel. If the ewes will not feed well at all, they should be forced with good gruel, and the best is made of equal parts of oat and linseed meal. SECTION If. THE DISEASES OF YOUNG LAMBS. THESE are numerous, and .many of them dangerous; some belong- ing exclusively to the period which I have been describing, and others often occurring when the animals get a little older. COAGULATION OF THE MILK. I have spoken of this when treating of the diseases of calves. The lamb is, if possible, more subject to this curdling of the milk than the calf is, and it carries off the finest and best of the flock. The farmer likes to see his lambs growing fast; but it is possible to make more haste than good speed. The lamb may have excess of nutri- ment, and particularly of its mother’s milk. When a lamb thrives at an extraordinary rate, the bag of the mother should be examined, and if it is too large and full, it will be prudent to milk away daily a little of its contents ; otherwise the yet weak stomach of the young animal may have more coagulated milk in it than itcan digest. All the milk that is swallowed by the young lamb coagulates in the stomach, and if it accumulates too fast, the stomach will become perfectly choked with it, and the lamb will be destroyed. Two pounds of curdled milk have been found in the stomach of a lamb. When a thriving lamb, with a healthy mother having a full bag, begins all at once to be dull, and stands panting and distressed, and can scarcely be induced to move, and is considerably swelled, it is probably from this cause. In this disease there is often apparent purging of a light colour, : | . DIARRHGA. 199 which is in fact the whey passing off whilst the curd accumulates and produces obstinate constipation. 'The first thing to be done is to administer an alkali, to aissolve the mass, such as magnesia, in doses of half an ounce twice a day 5 after which two to four drachms of Epsom salts, with a little ginger, dissolved in warm water, and the warm water often repeated, if ne- cessary, by means of the stomach-pump. The farmer with a valuable flock of sheep will find the stomach-pump as useful for them as for cattle. When the bowels have thus been opened, and the curdled milk has in some measure passed off, the stomach may be strength- ened by occasional doses of the Tonic Drink for Cattle (No. 32, p. 81). ‘The ewe and lamb should then be turned into scantier pasture. DIARRH@A. There is not a more destructive disease among young lambs than this. It frequently attacks them when they are not more than a day old, and carries them off in the course of another day. Oftener it does not appear until they are nearly a week old, and the lambs have not then a much better chance: but if they are two or three months old, and have gained a little strength, they may, perhaps, weather the disease. The causes are various, but not always difficult to discover: they are generally referrible to the neglect and mismanagement of the farmer. It may be the consequence of absurd and cruel exposure to cold. For sheep generally, and more particularly for lambs, I once more repeat it, and I would impress it on the mind of the farmer and the practitioner, shelter and comfort are the first and grand things to be considered. Ido not mean confinement in a close and ill-ventilated place, but that defence from the wind and snow which it would cost the farmer little to raise, and for which he would be amply paid in one season. If it probably arises from cold, the remedy is plain — better shelter, and, for a few days, housing. It is sometimes attributable to want of proper support: the ewe, if it is her first lamb, may have deserted it, or she may have little milk to give it; and the combined influence of starvation and cold produces diarrhea sooner than anything else.* Warmth and new cow’s milk are the best remedies. Not unfrequently the mother’s milk seems to disagree with the Jamb. It is naturally aperient. It may occasionally be too much so. If her teats are full, and she evidently has plenty of milk, this will probably be the case. She should be fed on dry meat for a day or two, or should be turned out only during the day, and housed at night, * [Mr. 8. W. Jewett, of Weybridge, Vermont, says—* It is generally caused by eating raw or early cut hay. The best method to cure or prevent is to give them daily a few messes of wheat in the sheaf; a regular quantity of salt at all times. If ‘t occurs in the winter, steep, in brine, ripe hay in the seed; wheat chaff is good, as is a small quantity of oats, and a few pine or hemlock-tops. Keep them a few days on ripe hay, or corn fodder, — 8.} H i iy ual 200 DISEASES OF YOUNG LAMBS. when she should be allowed a little hay. While the food is: altered the bowels should be well cleansed. There may be something amiss about the ewe, which causes the milk to be thus purgative and un- wholesome. ‘The best purgative for sheep is the following :— RECIPE (No. 2). Purging Drink for Sheep.—Take Epsom salts, two ounces ; powdered caraways, a quarter of an ounce; warm thin gruel sufficient to dissolve the salts, This being given to the mother will likewise be of service to the lamb, by helping to carry off any acidities or crudities from the sto- mach or bowels. In a disease so fatal, and which runs its course so rapidly, no time is to be lost, and therefore astringent medicine should be administer- ed to the lamb as speedily as possible. RECIPE (No. 3). Astringent Drink for Lambs.—Take compound chalk powder with opium, a drachm; genutian, a scruple; essence of peppermint, three drops. Mix with a little thin starch, and give morning and night. If the animal should still linger on, and the purging should not be much abated, it is probable that the milk of the mother is most in fault. The lamb should then be taken from her, and fed with cow’s milk boiled, to every pint of which a scruple of prepared chalk has been added, the astringent drink being continued as before. if the purging abates, the medicine should be immediately sus- pended, or not given so frequently, lest costiveness should follow, a disease which I shall presently describe, and which is also very fatal. The lamb with diarrhea should be docked on the first appearance of the disease, if the operation had not been previously performed, and the hair should be carefully cut away under the tail, otherwise it is liable to become clotted. It will adhere together, and form an cbstruction about the anus, so that the feces cannot be discharged. The least ill consequence of this will be very great soreness about the part; but in many cases the animal will die in consequence of the obstruction, before the existence of it is suspected. The colour of the discharge will considerably influence the mode of treatment. If it is of an olive-green colour, the drink should be persevered in; and on every third day half a table-spoonful of castor oil should be administered. If it is of a white colour, it may probably proceed from coagulation of the milk, and should be treated as advised in a previous page. If the lamb is two or three months old, the medicine should be correspondingly increased, and he has a better chance: if he is five or six months old, he will only be lost through the negligence of the farmer or attendant. The same means must be pursued ; but another thing must be added, and that of the greatest importance,—a change of pasture from a succulent to a bare and dry one. The removal toa stubble-field is a frequent and very successful practice. EV COSTIVENESS-—STAGGERS 201 COSTIVENESS. When no evacuation appears to be effected, but the animal is con- tinually straining, two circumstances must be carefully examined into, — first, whether there is the obstruction of which I have just spoken, utterly preventing the discharge of the dung, and a speedy remedy being at hand, namely, the removal of the clotted wool; or whether, after the straining, some drops of liquid feces may not be perceived: this, although often mistaken for costiveness, clearly in- dicates a very different state of the bowels; they are actually relaxed, —too much so, and the straining results from irritation about the anus. Actual costiveness, however, is not an unfrequent complaint, and must be speedily attacked; for it is either the accompaniment of fever, or it will very speedily lead on to fever. The existence of fever should be carefully inquired into: heaving of the flanks, restlessness, and heat of the mouth, will be sufficient indications of it. Bleeding in proportion to the degree of fever, and the age and strength of the lamb, should then be had recourse to. Next, the bowels must be opened ; one-fourth of the Purging Drink (No. 2, p. 200) will be the best thing that can be given, and it should be repeated every sixth hour until the desired effect is produced. The lamb should be turned into greener and more succulent pasture, and especially where there is any fresh flush of grass; and if, after a while, he should altogether refuse to eat, he may be drenched with gruel, in which a little Epsom salts should always be dissolved. While this affords nutriment, it will cool the animal, and open the bowels. STAGGERS. Many lambs are lost from this disease, and the farmer most cer- tainly has here no one to blame but himself. It attacks the most thriving lambs, and especially when they are about three or four months old; and it arises from the farmer making a great deal more haste than usual in fattening them for the market. It resembles the blood in cattle, and is usually produced by the same causes. The lamb will appear to be in perfect health. All at once he will stand still, heaving violently at the flanks, and with the head pro- truded; or he will wander about with great uncertainty in his walk and manner: he will then all at once fall down and lie strugoling upon his back until he is helped up, or dies. Sometimes he 1s very much convulsed. Bleeding must be resorted to immediately, and afterwards the bowels well opened by means of the Purging Drink. To this some cooling febrifuge medicine should succeed. RECIPE (No. 4). Cooling Fever Drink.—Take powdered digitalis, one scruple; emetic tartar, ten ains; nitre,twodrachms. Mix with thick gruel, and let it be given twice every ay. 202 DISEASES OF SHEEP. On examination after death, the head will be found to be the prin cipal part diseased : the vessels of the brain will be distended with blood, and there will sometimes be water in the ventricles. I have seen half a dozen lambs in staggers in the same field at the same time. ‘They had all been exposed to the same cause; and when the disease had begun in one or two, it spread among the rest by the strange, and often too powerful, influence of sympathy. SECTION III. RED-WATER. Tue disease recognised under this name is very different from that described in the cow, for here it consists in an accumulation of red- dish-coloured fluid (whence its name is derived) in the cavity of the abdomen, and frequently in the chest and heart-bag likewise. This water accumulates in consequence of inflammation of the serous membrane which lines these cavities. In many places the disease is termed water-braxy. It is most prevalent at the latter end of autumn or the beginning of winter, and is generally observed among sheep that are in the most thriving condition, and especially if they have been turned into new and rich pasture, and by the side of a copse or weod. Sometimes it is very sudden in its attack, and speedily fatal. Jn some fine flocks I have seen it destroy the animal in twenty-four hours. In other cases it is less violent, and also slow in its progress. he sheep is first observed to be off its feed, dull, disinclined to move: it loiters behind, and pants, and is restless. ‘The flanks are tucked up, and there is often costiveness, though sometimes purging. ‘This disease is still more common in lambs than in sheep, and in them often appears in the spring of the year, when they are first put on turnips with the ewes. In farms where pasturage is scarce, this dis- ease is a very frequent visitor, and may be considered to be produced by the application of cold, either externally or internally, or probably both. In the treatment of this disease it is very important to remove the animal to a dry and comfortable situation. Bleeding should then be freely employed and a laxative administered. RECIPE (No. 5). Take Epsom salts, one ounce; ginger, one scruple; gentian, one drachm; warm water, two ounces; linseed oil,oneounce. The above may be given, either alone or with gruel, to a full-grown sheep, and from one-fourth to one-half to a lamb, accord- ing to its age. In addition to this the abdomen should be well fomented with hot water—a lamb, indeed, may he placed altogether in a warm bath. Every shepherd should have a little horn, made of that of a sheep, and which will hold about the usua] quantity of medicine given as a THE BLOOD. 203 drink; or at least the quantity which the horn will hold should be carefully ascertained, and then a large bottle of the mixture may be taken into the field, and the proper dose given to as many of the sheep as may seem to require it, without the trouble of measuring it every time. If the animal recover, a change of food must be afforded, and a short sweet pasture should be preferred. SECTION IV. THE BLOOD. Tuis is a disease too well known by farmers, and occasionally prevalent in every part of the kingdom where the pasture is Juxuriant, and the system of close feeding is practised. I have known more than a hundred sheep die on one farm in the course of a fortnight, and entirely because the farmer would not take warning by the loss of the first, and put them on poorer ground, but obstinately pursued his plan of fattening them as fast as he could. In spring, particu- Jarly, when the young grasses shoot and are full of juice, and espe- cially after a few warm days, the blood appears in the flock, and the sheep die away by scores. The rich pastures of Romney Marsh in Kent, and the Sedgemoors in Somersetshire, are particularly produc- tive of this malady. It is not always that warning is given of the attack, but generally the affected sheep will separate himself from the rest of his flock, appear dull, hang his head, his eyes will be heavy, and, if examined, bloodshot. He will heave considerably at the flanks, stretch out his fore-legs to ease himself, with great difficulty be induced to move, or will stagger about, threatening to fall every moment. If neglected, six hours will occasionally close the affair; and the animal will very rarely live eight-and-forty. On being examined after death, air and an effusion of yellow or reddish fluid will be fonnd in the whole of the cellular membrane; the veins will everywhere be turgid with blood, the muscles livid or black, and the whole contents of the belly and chest dark-coloured, hastening to decay, and offensive almost as soon as the animal is dead. If it is a ewe near her lambing that is attacked, the lamb will always be found dead and putrid. Bleeding is the grand thing; on it alone ean much dependence be placed ; and if the animal is bled at the commencement of the dis- ease, and plenty of blood is taken away, he will usually be saved, although nothing else were done. The jugular is the vein that should be opened here, because most blood can be procured from it, and most rapidly procured—circumstances both of immense importance in such acase. ‘lhe sheep should be bled until it staggers and falls. Then comes, as in other similar cases, physic, and this should be liberally 204 DISEASES OF SHEEP. given. ‘Two ounces of Epsom salts, and no ginger with them here, should be administered every second hour until the sheep is well purged, and the purging should be kept up by occasional doses of the medicine for several days. The bowels having been well opened, the Fever Drink Recipe (No, 4, p. 201) should be given morning and night, and the animal turned on shorter pasture, and a partial system of starvation for a while adopted, and strictly pursued. It sometimes happens, as we stated when a similar disease in cattle was treated on, that the stage of inflammatory fever rapidly passes, and one of a typhoid character, and with a tendency to de- composition and putridity, succeeds. There is litile chance of saving the ox in this state; there is scarcely any of saving the sheep; for when he is once down, and foams at the mouth, and looks anxiously at his sides, it is generally all over with him. If, however, anything is attempted, the following tonic mixture is as good as any ;-— RECIPE (No. 6). Tonic Drink for Sheep.—Take gentian root, powdered, a drachm ; ginger, a scruple; spirit of nitrous ether, a drachm; tincture of cardamoms, a drachm. Mix, and give in a little gruel. It is a good practice, when the disease once appears in a flock, to bleed every sheep, and give each a dose of physic and change the pasture. SECTION V. STURDY, GIDDINESS, OR WATER IN THE HEAD. Tus isa very singular, and also a very fatal disease. It commonly attacks yearlings; a two or three-shear sheep is generally exempt from it. The animal becomes dull; separates himself from the rest of the flock; is frightened at the most trifling circumstance, and at the least noise; -he runs round and round, but always in one direc- tion; holds his head on one side: if there is a brook in the field, he stands upon its banks, poring over the running stream, and nodding and staggering, until he frequently tumbles in; or he breaks from his fit of musing, and gallops wildly over the field, but with no certain course, and with no determinate object. Soon his appetite fails, or he evidently feels so much inconvenience when he stoops to graze, that he gives up eating altogether; and then he wastes rapidly away ; he seems to be half stupid, and at length dies a mere skeleton. The disease generally attacks the weakest of the flock. It is in some measure connected with a peculiar state of the atmosphere. It is most prevalent after a moist winter, and cold, and ungenial spring. It usually begins in the spring, continues through the summer, and disappeats as the winter approaches. It is dependent partly on the WATER IN THE HEAD. 205 season, but more on the health and strength of the animal. It may be prevented by good and upland pasture; and is most common in low and marshy ground. It is not contagious, nor does it seem to be hereditary. Having once attacked the animal, and gradual loss of flesh having commenced, the case is hopeless. All medicine will be thrown away in such a case. It is the conse- quence of pressure on the brain by a strange, bladder-like-formed animal; and it would be more for the advantage of the owner to de- stroy the sheep, however out of condition it may be, than to com- mence any desperate and fruitless course of medicine. Various methods have been tried in order to break this bladder, such as hunting the sheep with dogs, and frightening him half to death, throwing him into a gravel-pit, and various other absurd as well as brutal methods. They who pursued this course much oftener succeeded in breaking the animal’s neck than rapturing the bladder. At length some persons bethought them of getting at, and puncturing or removing, this bladder by some operation. They.thrust iron wires or skewers up the nostril, and into the brain, and sometimes succeed- ed in effecting their purpose. If they hit upon the nuisance, and pierced its envelope or skin, they were made aware of it by a greater or smaller quantity of water flowing from the nostril, and they could always tell on which side the hydatid lay, by the sheep inclining his head that way. They could also sometimes tell the precise situation of the bladder; for after being a long time inclosed between the skull and the brain, and pressed upon by both, and pressing upon both of them in turn, not only in consequence of that pressure was a portion of the brain below destroyed and absorbed, but even the bone above was softened, nothing but a yielding membrane sometimes remaining over a particular spot. Some surgeons suggested that this membrane should be punctured, and it was done so with the lancet, or, oftener, by a heated sharp-pointed wire, and thus the creature beneath was wounded and destroyed. Others improved upon this method of operating. A surgeon’s trephine was used, and a circular piece of the skul] taken out at the place where it was softened, and thus the hydatid was bodily removed ; and when this was carefully done, and the bladder was not broken, the hydatid, by slight but sufficiently distinet motion, when put into warm water, showed that it was alive. Both these operations occasionally succeeded, but the instances of failure were so numerous, that the farmer’s interest still required that he should kill every sheep, unless a favourite, or very valuable one, as soon as he was evidently sturdied, and before he had wasted and become unfit for the market. ‘ There may, however, be some prevention, although no cure; and that prevention consists in good, and sufficient, and upland pasture : yet in some untoward seasons even this will not avail with unhealthy and weakly animals. Habitual shelter from the sleet and snow of winter is another and very important means of prevention. The un- feeling —ecnaraa of the sheep to all the inclemency of the coldest 206. DISEASES OF SHEEP. weather is the fruitful source of the majority of the diseases, and of the most fatal ones, to which these animals are subject. This malady is sometimes accompanied by palsy. Every continued pressure on the brain is apt to produce loss of power over some of the limbs; but in this case the palsy is variable: it shifts from limb to limb, and from side to side, and, unlike simple palsy, is generally attended by partial blindness, and by the greatest degree of stupidity, I repeat it again, that no medicine can be of the least avail in de- stroying the b/d, as it is called in some parts of the country: but if either of the operations is tried, one of the purging drinks may be useful in abating inflammation; and whether the skull is punctured or trephined, a pitch plaster over the wound will preserve the sheep from being tortured by the flies. SECTION VI. INFLAMMATION OF TIIE BRAIN. Tus, although a frequent disease of the sheep, and of the same part, and almost as fatal as that which has been just described, is accompanied by such different symptoms, that it is scarcely possible to confound them. Inflammation of the brain generally attacks the healthiest sheep, and of all ages,.and more in hot weather than in the: early part of spring. There is no character of stupidity about this affection, no disinclination to move, no moving round and round without any determinate object: but the eyes are protruding, blood- shot, and bright; and there is an eager and ferocious, not a depressed’ and anxious countenance. The animal is in constant motion: he gallops about attacking his fellows, attacking the shepherd, and sometimes quarrelling with a post or tree; he is labouring under wild delirium, and this continues until he is absolutely exhausted. He then stands still, or lies down for a while panting dreadfully, when he starts afresh, as delirious and as ungovernable as before. The first and the grand remedy is bleeding; and that from the jugular, and copiously, and to be obtained as quickly as possible. The guide as to the quantity will be the dropping of the animal. ‘To bleeding, physicking will of course succeed, and the sheep should be removed into a less luxuriant pasture. This also is one of the dis- eases that should be attacked at its very commencement. Violent inflammation of the brain and. its. membranes will very soon be fol- lowed by serious disorganization; and if water once begins to be formed under the membranes, or effused in the ventricles, the case is’ hopeless. Here also the attention of the farmer should be directed to preventives. One case of goggles may be accidental; but if two or three are seized with inflammation of the brain, the farmer may be. DISCHARGE FROM THE NOSE. 207 assured that there is something wrong in his system of management, and that which, in the majority of cases, is the root of the evil, is too rich pasture, probably succeeding to spare feed. A dose of salts should, therefore, be given to each sheep, and the pasture of the whole should be changed. SECTION VII. COLD, AND DISCHARGE FROM TUE NosE, &c. Hene again, from the cruel and impolitic abandonment of the sheep, hundreds of them are lost during the winter. When they are drenched to the skin by continual rains, or half smothered with snow, and have not even a hedge a yard high to break the biting blast, can it be won- dered that cold and cough should be frequent in the flock; and that it should be severe and unmanageable, and even occasionally run on to inflammation of the lungs, and consumption and death? [am not an advocate for close housing, or too much nursing, Tam aware that we may thus render the sheep unnaturally tender, and niore exposed to catarrh and all its consequences; but I would tell the farmer, that the fleece of the sheep, however thick, is an insufficient protection in cold and wet weather, and an open and bleak situation. The symptoms of catarrh are heaviness, watery eyes, running from the nose. ‘The discharge is thick, and clings about the nostril, an obstructs it, and the sheep is compelled to suspend its grazing almost every minute, and with violent efforts blow away the obstruction. Cough frequently accompanies this discharge; and if there is much fever, it will be shown by loss of appetite and rapid weakness. There is a discharge from the nostrils which sometimes attacks the whole flock, and if it is not attended by wasting in flesh or loss of appetite, the farmer does not regard it; for he knows from experience, that, in spite of all he can do, it will probably last through the winter, and disappear as the spring advances. When, however, he perceives this nasal gleet, he should keep a sharp look-out over his flock, and if there is one that stays behind, or will not eat, he should catch him, and remove him to a warmer situation, and bleed him, and give him the laxative and fever drinks, and nurse him with mashes and hay. If a second or a third sheep should fail in the same manner, he must indeed look about him; there is danger to all, for the inflammation has spread itself from the throat down the windpipe to the air-passages of the lungs, and a very dangerous disease, called bronchitis, is pro- duced. He must move the whole flock to a more sheltered situation. He must move them to a pasture of somewhat different character. He must take them from their turnips or their hay, and give them what other food his farm will afford. He should, if he will take the trouble to do so (and he would be amply repaid for that trouble), bleed them ‘all round, and physic them all. This is strange doctrine to the farmer, 208 DISEASES OF SHEEP. who is accustomed to look on and let things take their course. It is, however, good advice, and he will find it so, if he will but follow it. Yet let him not, in his determination to rouse himself and do some- thing, listen too much to the suggestions of the shepherd or the far- rier. Let him not give any of those abominable cordial drinks, which have destroyed thousands of sheep. Warmth, housing at night, littering with clean straw, and warm gruel if the animal will not eat or drink, are not only allowable, but useful: nay, I would allow a litile ginger or a dittle ale with the medicine ; but not those compounds of all manner of hot and injurious spices, which would kindle a fire in the veins of the animal, if it were not blazing there before. [Experienced sheep-breeders recommend a dose of tar, to be repeated for foul noses; but lest that be neglected, it is recommended as a good precaution, under all circum- stances, to have some saplings or smal] trees hored with a large auger-at proper dis- tances, and the holes to be kept supplied with common salt. Let the edges of these holes be smeared with tar, and thus the sheep in the act of getting the salt will tar his own nose. There can be no doubt that this would be a good and wholesome practice as an item of general management. Few farmers attend as they ought to do, to having their stock regularly and plentifully salted, and there is known to be something in tar and in resinous plants, as pine and cedar, particularly healthy for sheep. —S.] A INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS Is not unfrequently the result of a common cold, not attended to, the disease extending itself to the lungs: it more commonly appears in the spring of the year; its symptoms are dulness, hanging of the ears, quick breathing, cough, and discharge from the nostrils. The animal should be bled freely from the neck —a pint in general will not be too much for a full-grown animal to lose. After this a dose of salts should be given, and should be followed by the Fever Drink (No. 4, p. 201) once a day. INFLUENZA. Sometimes a catarrh assumes an epidemic form, and appears as the influenza. ‘This disease may be distinguished from a cold, or from bronchitis, by the discharge from the nostrils being more profuse and the eyes nearly closed, great uneasiness of the head, and a sudden prostration of strength. Sometimes the animal will run round ina circle, and a rattling will be heard in the windpipe: these symptoms will be soon followed by death. Bleeding should in genera] be abstained from in this disease, but half an ounce of Epsom salts, with one drachm of gentian, should be given dissolved in gruel; but if the sheep purged before, instead of the above the following should be given, and be assisted by good nursing and care :— RECIPE (No. 7). Take prepared chalk, one ounce; catechu, half a drachm ; opium, twenty grains; apirit of nitrous ether, two drachms; gentian, one drachm. To be dissolved in gruel, and given twice a day till the purging ceases; after which the two last ingredients, with a drachm of nitre and ten grains of tartarised antimony, should be given in gruel once a day. BLOWN, OR BLAST. ‘209 SECTION VIII. BLOWN, OR BLAST. Tus is of as frequent occurrence among sheep as oxen, and it's as fatal. ‘The cause is the same, the removal of the animals from poor keep to rich and succulent food. When sheep are first turned on clover, or even on any pasture more nutritious than that to which they have been accustomed, if they are not watched and kept moving during the day, and folded elsewhere at night, they are too apt to overload the paunch, so that it can no longer contract upon and expel its contents: fermentation then ensues, and the extrication of gas: the paunch is distended to the utmost, and the animal is often suffo- cated. The remedy of the farmer is the same here as with the ox — paunching, or thrusting a sharp pen-knife into the paunch, between the hip-bone and the last rib on the left side, when the gas with which the stomach is distended will escape. ‘The objection to this practice - is likewise the same as in oxen—that when a portion of the gas has escaped, the stomach will no longer be firmly pressed against the side, and the wounds in the side and the paunch will no longer ex- actly correspond; a portion of the gas, and of the contents of the stomach too, will then pass into the cavity of the abdomen, and (although the animal may seem for a while to recover) will be an unsuspected source of inflammation, and even of death. The common elastic tube, so strongly recommended by Dr. Duncan, is preferable to the knife: the gas will escape as completely, and without any possibility of danger. It is passed down the gullet into the paunch. The stomach-pump, however, is here likewise a far referable instrument, for, as was remarked when treating of the oove in oxen, the acid fluid which is probably in the stomach may be pumped out, or sufficient warm water pumped in to excite vomit- ing, and thus free the stomach of its oppressive load. If neither the pump nor the tube is at hand, a stick with a knob at the end of ‘it should be passed by the shepherd into the paunch, which, separating the muscular pillars that constitute the roof of this stomach, is far preferable to the knife. When a sheep is first seized with the blown or blast, he will often be relieved by being driven gently about for an hour or two, and put into a bare pasture. In the act of moving, these pillars will be occa- sionally separated a little from each other, and the gas will escape; but the animal must not be gallopped or driven by dogs, lest the sto- mach should be ruptured. The animal having been relieved, or the contents of the stomach evacuated, a purgative should always be administered, and that con.- bined oo saga aromatic. ‘The following will be useful :— 210 DISEASES OF SHEEP. RECIPE (No. 8). Physic for Blown.—Take Glauber’s salts, one ounce, and dissolve in peppermint water, four ounces; to this add, tincture of ginger, a drachm; tincture of gentian, a drachm ; boiling water, an ounce. This should be given every six hours, until the bowels are opened, and half the quantity on each of the four next mornings. The same treatment recommended for cattle for this disease is like- wise equally desirable for sheep, the dose being about one-sixth or one-eighth less in quantity. SECTION Ix. THE YELLOWS, OR JAUNDICE. SHEEP are subject to several sad affections of the liver, among which ranks that destructive disease the rot. Jaundice is a less for- midable malady, but often sufficiently destructive. It consists of a superabundant discharge of bile, or an obstruction of the biliary tubes ; and in either case a considerable quantity of bile enters into the cir- culation, penetrates into the capillary vessels, and thus tinges the skin. A superabundant discharge of the bile is the most frequent cause. The liver seems to be a very tender organ in fatted and pampered sheep, aud easily inflamed or put out of order. In the half-starved, half-wild varieties of the sheep, inflammation of the liver and jaun- dice seldom occurs; but too high living exhibits its injurious conse- quences in this organ first of all. _ It is often seen, after sheep have been moved into fair but not too luxurious pasture, that if they have escaped the blown, a yellowness has soon begun to steal over the eyes and the mouth, and the skin generally; and the animal has been dull, and has disliked to move, and has sometimes been purged, but more frequently costive, and the urine has been of a dark yellow- brown colour. The liver could not maintain its healthy state under this injudicious increase of nutriment. When the farmer and the shepherd have either neglected to observe this, or to adopt the proper . treatment, many of the sheep have died in a few days. On examina- tion after death, marks of intense inflammation have appeared every- where, but more particularly in the liver, which has been of a red- brown colour, and double its natural size, and is broken to pieces with the slightest force. If it is taken in time, this is not a disease very difficult to treat. On the first decided yellowness being observed, the animal should be removed to a bare field, and should have the Purging Drink (No. 2, p- 200): half doses of it should also be repeated for several succes- sive mornings, so that the bowels may be kept in a relaxed state. Mercury will not be wanted. Calomel is rarely a safe medicine, and it is a very uncertain one for sheep. A little starvation, and plenty =—_ THE ROT. 2)h1 of purgative medicine, will be all that is required. Should the ani ~ mal appear to be considerably weakened, this drink will be useful :— RECIPE (No. 9). General Tonic Drink.—Take, gentian, two drachms; colombo, one drachm ; gin- ger, half a drachm: give in four ounces of warm gruel. SECTION X. . THE ROT. Tus disease is the very pest of the sheep, and destroys more of them than all the other maladies put together. There are few win- ters in which it may not be safely said that many hundred thousands perish by it. The cause seems to be better understood than it used to be, and on many a pasture that had formerly obtained a fatal cele- brity for rotting sheep, they may now feed securely; yet almost as many sheep die of the rot as there ever did. I shall, perhaps, be able to show the principal reason of this, and arouse my readers and agriculturists generally to the adoption of more effectual preventive measures. The symptoms of the rot in the early stage are exceedingly obscure. There is little to indicate the existence of the disease even to the most accurate observer... This is one cause of the mischief that is done; for it prevents the malady from being attacked when only it could be conquered. The earliest symptom is one that is common to a great many other diseases, and from which no certain conclusion can be drawn, except that the animal is ill, and labours under fever. The sheep is dull, he Jags behind in his journey to and from the fold, and he does not feed quite so well; but these are as much early symp- toms of the staggers as of the rot. This, however, goes on some time, and then a palish yellow hue steals over the skin, easy enough to be seen when the wool is parted, and most evident in the eyelids, and that which is generally called the white of the eyes. The lips and mouth are soon tinged, but not to so great a degree. The sheep does not otherwise appear to be ill. If he does not eat much, he does not lose flesh; on the contrary, ke seems to gain condition, and that for several weeks. Graziers were taught this by Mr. Bakewell. He found that he could save a fort- night or more in the fattening of his sheep for the market by giving them the rot; and he used to keep a piece of wet ground expressly _ for this purpose, and on which he regularly turned the sheep that he destined for the butcher. This may be a useful hint for those farmers who have too much of this disease every winter. It may be hard to be compelled to part with some of the best of their flock, but if they are watchful they may sell the greater part of them without any very 912 DISEASES OF SHEEP. serious loss. The farmer, however, is not always sufficiently watch- ful about this, and too frequently will not believe that his sheep have the rot until the conviction is forced upon him by the loss of some of his flock, and the wasting condition of many more. This thriving period soon passes over, and the sheep begin to waste much more rapidly than they had acquired condition. First, there is a perceptible alteration-in the countenance, —a depressed, unhealthy appearance, accompanied by increased yellowness. ‘The tongue especially becomes pale and livid. The animal is feverish ; the heat of the mouth, and the panting, and heaving of the flanks, and general dulness, sufficiently indicate this. Some degree of cough comes on; some discharge from the nose; or the breath Begins to be exceedingly offensive. The sheep is sometimes costive; at other times it purges with a violence which nothing can arrest, and the matter discharged is unusually offensive, and often streaked with blood. And now the soft mellow feel of the sheep in condition is no longer found, but there is an unhealthy flabbiness; even where there is but little left between the skin and the bone, there is a flabby—a kind of pitty feeling; the parts give way, but they have lost their elasticity, and they do not plump up again: there is also a crackling sound when the loins or back are pressed upon. The farmer knows what this is, and what he is to expect, both in the sheep and the ox: very few of them recover after this crackling has once been heard. At an uncertain period of the disease the sheep usually become what the graziers call chockered, that is, a considerable swelling appears under the chin. If this is punctured, sometimes a watery fluid escapes, and sometimes matter; and occasionally the swelling bursts, and an ulcer, very difficult to heal, follows. The bowels, which are variable at first, become at length very relaxed. A fetid purging comes on of all colours, and which pursues its course in defiance of every astringent. The wool begins to fall off in patches: it is loose all over the ani- mal, and easily pulled off, and there is a white scurfiness adhering to its roots. The disease now still more rapidly proceeds ; and while the sheep loses flesh every day, and every rib and every bone of the back can be plainly felt, his belly increases—he gets dropsical. ‘The end is nct then far off. The progress of the disease is more or less rapid, according to the violence of the attack, or the strength or weakness of the sheep, or the care that is bestowed on him, or the utter neglect to which he is abandoned. ‘The animal occasionally dies in two months after the first evident symptom of rot, but usually four or five or six months elapse before the animal is perfectly exhausted. The farmer is not much accustomed to examine his sheep after death. It would be better for him if he paid more attention to this, for he would discover the nature, and probably the cause, of many a complaint that is committing sad ravages in his flock. The appear- ances exhibited in the sheep that has died of the rot are very singular. THE ROT. 213 There appears to be dropsy, not only in the belly, but all over the animal. Wherever the knife is used, a yellow watery fluid runs out; and the consequence of the existence of this fluid everywhere is, that the muscles, and that which should be firm, honest fat, are yield- ing, and flabby, and unwholesome. When the belly and chest are opened, the heart is pale, and soft, and flabby, and often to sucha degree that we wonder how it could have continued to discharge its duty. ‘The lungs are more or less gorged with blood; and there are a great many hard knotty points, of various sizes (tubercles), in them and on them, some of which have probably broken, and the lungs are full of uleers; or when this is not the case, the lungs are studded with innumerable little knotty points of a dark colour. The principal disease, however, is in the liver, which is much enlarged, often of double its natural size, broken down by the slight- est touch, sometimes black from inflammation and congested blood, and at other times of an unhealthy lividness: but that which is most remarkable, which is characteristic of the disease, is, that its vessels are filled with flues, curiously-shaped things like /’ti/e soles, which are swimming about in the bile in every duct, and burrowing into every part of the liver. Several hundreds of them are sometimes contained in one liver. A few of them may occasionally be found in the upper part of the intestines, but there only. The upper part of the liver is frequently speckled like the body of a toad; indeed this has been so often remarked, that the examiner, if he does not find flukes, and sometimes when he does, looks out for the toad’s liver. The liver is so diseased and corrupted, that if an attempt is made to boil it, instead of becoming hardened, it falls all to pieces, or is in a manner dissolved. Abscesses are oftener found in the liver than in the lungs, and to an extent sufficient to destroy’ the sheep without any other cause. Sometimes there are knots in the liver as well as in the lungs—small, round, hardened lumps— and in a few cases they are so numerous, that it is almost impossible to find a sound part. If the farmer would accustom himself to observe these things, and carefully examine every sheep that dies in the autumn, he would sometimes detect the existence of this disease in his flock before he would otherwise have been aware of it. Nay, he should not confine his examination to this, but should observe the appearance of the inside of every sheep which he may kill for the use of his family about that time. It should be a practice never omitted, and however seemingly healthy the animal may die, whatever quantity of suet may cover the kidneys, if the liver is dappled with white spots, or if the vessels of the liver are thickened, and if there are flukes, however small, floating about in the bile, that sheep was certainly rotted ; and if one sheep is rotted, the greater part of the remainder will probably follow. Aware of this, and at this early period of the disease, the grazier may, either by hastening the fattening process, or shifting the asture, or adopting medical treatment, put many scores of pounds into his pocket, which would otherwise be irrecoverably lost. 214 DISEASES OF SHEEP. This examination of the sheep will lead us to the principal and primary seat of the disease, namely, the liver. Whatis the cause of this affection of the liver is another question, and a very important one. There is a dispute which no one has yet scttled, whether this fluke-worm is the cause or the consequence of the disease. I am very much inclined to think that it is the consequence, although it may and does much ageravate the disease. These parasitical ani- mals, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, fasten upon a part that is diseased, or the vitality of which is weakened. Another disputed point is the,source of these flukes. Are the eggs taken up in the herbage? Does some insect or fly, that is a fluke in one part of its existence, lay its eggs on plants growing in wet pas- tures, or by the side of stagnant water? We have no proof of this, and we never saw the fluke in any other form. ‘Therefore, it is use- less to dispute about that which cannot be resolved. The most pro- bable thing, however, is, that the eggs, whence the fluke is produced, are, like the eggs of many animalcula, floating in the air, so small and pellucid as to be invisible to us; that they are inhaled with the breath, or received with the food, but only find a proper nest, a proper place to be hatched into life, in the liver of the sheep labouring under the rot. These flukes are occasionally found in the livers of almost every domestic quadruped, and so far as it has hitherto appeared, they are in all of them connected with disease. Well, then, what is the cause of this affection of the liver? It is evidently connected with moisture, although it may be difficult to trace the connexion between this moisture and a diseased liver. It is, however, proper to observe, that the eggs of flukes have been found in countless numbers in the biliary ducts on examining the liver of a cothed or rotten sheep in the months of April, May, or June; and it is considered by respectable authority, that these eggs are passed into the bowels, evacuated with the dung, and, their vitality being preserved by the sun and moisture, they are swallowed with the grass by sound animals, who thus hecome infected. Whereas if the eggs had fallen on dry land, their vitality would be destroyed. Although it appears reasonable enough that the infection is produced through the medium of the stomach, yet it would be expected, if the above theory were entirely correct, that by keeping sheep from rot- ting Jand for several years, such land would cease to produce the disease, from the absence of the eggs; which, however, is not found » be the case. It is therefore probable that there are other sources from which the eggs of flukes are derived, besides the dung of sheep. The history cf the rot is plain enough here. It prevails, or rather it is found only, in boggy, poachy ground. On upland pasture, with a light sandy soil, it 1s never seen ; and in gocd sound pasture, in a lower situation, it is only seen when, from an unusually wet season, that pasture has become boggy and poachy. It is also proved to demonstration, that land that has been notoriously rotting ground, has , . . EE ae THE ROT. 215 been rendered perfectly sound and healthy. by being well under- drained, that is, by being made dry. There are hundreds of thou- sands of acres, on which a sheep, forty years ago, could not pasture for a day without becoming rotten, that are now as healthy as any in the kingdom. ; ; absing We can also tell the kind of wet ground which will give the rot. Wherever the water will soon run off, there is no danger; but where it lies upon the surface of the ground, and slowly evaporates, the rot is certain. One part of a common shall be enclosed; or if it has not been drained, at least the hollows ingwhich the water used to stand are filled up, and the surface is levelled: no rot is. caught there. On the other side of the hedge there are these marshy places, these little stagnant ponds, where evaporation is always going forward, and the ground is never dry—a sheep cannot put his foot there without being rotted. These are plain, palpable facts, and they are sufficient for the farmer’s purpose, without his. puzzling his brains about the man- ner in which wet ground produces diseased liver. He may be assured that it has nothing to do with the animal’s feeding on stimulating or poisonous herbs. It has nothing whatever to do with the food. It depends on the wetness or dryness of the pasture. , How is it, then, that when so great a part of the country is under- drained, the rot should continue to be almost as prevalent as ever? Why is it not so prevalent where the ground has been properly under- drained? ‘There are fields in every well-managed farm in which the rot is never known; there are others in which it still continues to depopulate the flock. The draining may not be equally effectual in both. It might have been carelessly, superficially performed in the one case; or the soil of the two pastures may be very different. The one may be light and porous, and a little draining may effect the purpose: the soil of the other may be heavy and tenacious, and drains not more than a yard asunder would scarcely keep it dry. What is more to the pur- pose, but less thought of, there may be little nooks and corners in the field that have not been underdrained. A few minutes’ trampling upon them will be fatal to the sheep, and one or two of them upon the whole farm will render all the labour bestowed on every other part absolutely nugatory. It is surprising how soon the animal is infected. The merely going once to drink from a notedly dangerous pond has been suffi- cient. ‘The passing over one suspicious common in the way to or from the fair, and the lingering only for a few minutes in a deep and poachy lane. Then it can easily be conceived what mischief one or two of these neglected corners, in which there may be little swamps perhaps only a yard or two across, may do in a farm in other respects well managed, and perfectly free from infection. The disease of the liver terminating in or constituting the rot, is, then, dependent on moisture, and that retained for a certain time on 216 DISEASES OF SHEEP. the surface of the ground, so that the process of evaporation may have commenced: it is also probable that the decomposition of vegetable matter growing on the surface has much to do in producing the complaint. If skeep-breeders would get more into the habit of having oxen to turn upon the aftermath of their low and dangerous pastures, instead of venturing so frequently to send their sheep there, because they cannot afford to lose that portion of the crop, they would not suffer the grievous losses which sometimes almost break them down. The preventive, then, seems plain enough. On good sound ground the sheep need not fear the rot; and other stock should be kept on the farm to pasture on the suspicious or dangerous places. The draining should be effective where it is attempted, and no nook or corner should escape. Can anything be done by way of cure? Probably there may, and a great deal more than the farmer imagines. All, however, depends upon the stage of the disease. ‘The liver may be diseased, but it must not be disorganised; it must not be tuberculated or ulcerated ; and the flukes must not have burrowed too deeply into it. The farmer, from habitual observation of his flock, must have discovered it at the very commencement of its attack, or he must have been made aware of it by the examination of some sheep that died, or that had been slaughtered for the use of his family. Then he may do good. Good is often done without his help. A succession of dry weather will often stop, or at least retard, the ravages of the rot. If moisture be the cause of it, he must remove that cause. He must change the pasture, and drive his flock to the driest ground his farm contains; and besides this, he must give a little dry meat—a little hay. Some have advised to feed the suspected sheep altogether on hay. This is carrying the matter a little too far: for in the prime of the season the sheep will pine for the grass, and rapidly lose condi- tion for want of it. A change to a thoroughly dry pasture will some- times do wonders. At all events, it is worth trying. The animals must, however, be carefully watched, and if it is not evident from their more cheerful countenance and manner, and the diminution or disappearance of the yellowness, that the disease is giving way, advantage must be taken of their present condition, and they must be turned over to the butcher. Let the farmer at least do something: let him either sell them at once, reckoning, and generally rightly, that the first loss is the least; or let him set to work and endeavour to combat the disease: but do not let him stand with folded arms, and suffer the best of his flock to dwindle away one after another. As for the medical treatment of the rot in sheep, there are a great many nostrums, but few, if any, have stood the test of extensive experience. ‘This has partly arisen from a cause which has already been hinted at—the disease not being recognised and attacked before it has made much inroad on the constitution, and when, or perhaps when only, it will yield to medicine. But I believe that with regard THE ROT. 217 to the fairest cases every medicine has occasionally failed, or failed almost as often as it has succeeded. We must in no case despair: the disease has sometimes been suspended, and the sheep has reco- vered. Let not, however, the practitioner be deluded into the use of calomel, or blue-pill, or any preparation of mercury, because the rot is an affection of the liver. Mercury rarely seems to agree with the herbivorous animals in any form. I have seen it do much harm in some affections of the liver, and I have known many animals de- stroyed by the use of it. There is, however, a drug, or, rather, a very common and useful condiment, which I believe has entered into the composition of every medicine by which this complaint has been successfully treated; I mean common sall. The virtues of this substance are not sufficiently estimated, either as mingled with the usual food, or as an occasional medicine. All herbivorous animals are fond of it. It increases both the appetite and the digestion. Cattle will greedily eat bad forage that has been sprinkled with it, in preference to the best fodder with- out salt; and it seems now to be a well-ascertained fact, that domes- ticated animals of all kinds thrive under its use, and are better able to discharge the duties required from them. The consideration of this induced the use of salt in various com- plaints, and especially in the rot, which is an affection of one of the most important of the digestive organs; and it has not deceived the expectations that were raised as to its sanative power. As, however, the rot is a disease accompanied by so much debility, and wasting of flesh as well as of strength, tonics and aromatics are usually mingled with the salt; but first of all the bowels are evacu- ated by some of the usual purgatives, and the Epsom salts are the best. ‘The following prescription should then be tried :— RECIPE (No. 10). Mixture for the Rot.—Take, common salt, eight ounces; powdered gentian, two ounces ; ginger, one ounce ; tincture of colomho, four ounces: put the whole into a quart bottle, and add water so as to fill the bottle. A table-spoonful of this mixture should be given morning and night for a week, and then the following mixture may be given at night, while the former is continued in the morning, and by which the flukes will be destroyed, as the worms in the bronchial tubes some- times are in the hoose of young cattle. RECIPE (No. 11). Second Mixture for the Rot.—Take, of recipe No. 10 (above), a quart; spirit of tur- pentine, three ounces: shake them well together when first mixed, and whenever the medicine is given. Two table-spoonfuls are the usual dose. The morning dose should be given on an empty stomach, and the evening dose before the night’s feed is given, if the animal is housed. All the hay should be salted, and some have recommended that even the pasture should be impregnated with salt. This is easily managed. A little plot of ground may be selected, or a portion of a 218 DISEASES OF SHEEP. field hurdled off, and salt scattered over it as equally as possible, and in the proportion of ten bushels to an acre. Three weeks afterwards the sheep may be turned on it to graze, stocking the ground after the rate of ten sheep to an acre; in the meantime the field from which they are taken may be brined in the same manner. When they have eaten the grass quite close, they may be changed back to the other plot, and so on as often as may be necessary, strewing at each change five bushels of salt per acre on the pasture. The sheep will fatten at a rapid rate if the disease is not too much advanced, and the dis- ease will sometimes be arrested even in the worst cases. It must, however, be confessed, that although sheep are often saved from the rot by the use of salt, they have rarely been perfectly restored to their former health. The taint is left; they are more disposed to receive the infection from a slight cause; and, six or twelve months afterwards, they frequently die of hoose or inflamed bowels: there- fore, it will be the interest of the farmer to fatten them as soon as possible, and sell them to the butcher. The butcher will always tell by the appearance of the liver whether the sheep had at any former time been rotted. In some few cases lambs have been procured from ewes thus cured, but they have seldom lasted longer than one or two seasons. SECTION XI. THE FOOT-ROT. AttnoucH this disease resembles the last in name, it is altogether different in character. It is not so fatal as the liver rot, but it is sadly annoying: it is of very frequent occurrence, and it seems to be increasing. It is, like the rot, peculiar to certain pastures; but there is more variety in this than is found with regard to the rot. There we must have stagnant water, and the process of evaporation going forward. For the production of the foot rot we must have soff ground, and it does not seem much to matter how that softness comes about. In the poachy and marshy meadow, in the rich and deep pasture of the lawn, and in the yielding sand of the lightest soil, it cannot, perhaps, be said that it is almost equally prevalent, but it is frequently found. Soft and marshy ground is its peculiar abode. The native mountain sheep knows nothing about it: it is when the horn has been softened by being too long in contact with some rich and moist land, that the animal begins to halt. This softness is connected with unnatural growth of horn, and with unequal pressure ; and the consequence is, that some part of the foot becomes irritated and inflamed by this undue pressure, or the weakened parts of the horn, too rapidly and unevenly growing, are broken off, and corroding ulcers are produced. THE FOOT-ROT. 219 Although there would not appear to be any great wear and tear of the foot in this soft land, yet the horn becomes so exceedingly unsound and spongy, that small particles of sand or gravel make their way through the softened mass, and penetrate to the quick. It not unfre- quently hippens that injuries of this sort are produced unconnected with and independent of the foot-rot, and they may be cured much easier, but by very similar means. ‘The hardness or the sponginess of the horn depends altogether on the dryness or moisture of the soil in which the animal has fed. Large, heavy sheep, having compara- tively thinner hoofs than lighter ones, are more subject to the disease. True foot-rot more frequently begins from above than below. ‘The horn is rendered softer, weaker, and more luxuriant by exposure to wet: the foot, from being kept wet and cold, is exposed to re-action with any change of weather, and inflammation is thus excited within the foot, which often ends in suppuration, and this occasions those troublesome ulcers that are sometimes witnessed. The first symptom of the disease is the Jameness of the sheep. On the foot being examined, this morbid growth is almost invariably found. The foot is hot, and the animal shrinks if it is firmly pressed. It is particularly hot and painful in the cleft between the two hoofs ; and there is generally some enlargement about the coronet. There is always an increased secretion, usually fetid. and often there is a wound about the coronet discharging a thin, stinking fluid: sometimes there is a separation of the horn from the parts beneath, and that too fre- quently preceding the dropping off of the hoof. In comparatively a few cases the hoofs seem to be worn to the quick at or near the toe. The lameness rapidly increases, and often to such a decree indeed, that the sheep is unable to stand, but moves about the field on its knees. ‘The soft portions of the foot, and sometimes the very bones of it, slough away, and drop off. All this is necessarily attended by a great deal of pain, and the animal shows how much it preys upon him by his moaning, and re- fusing to eat, and ceasing to ruminate, and most rapidly wasting. Irritating fever comes on, and after the poor creature has crept about the field on his knees for a few weeks, he dies from irritation and starvation. Of one thing the farmer may be assured — that the foot-rot is ex- ceedingly infectious. If it once gets into a flock, it spreads through the whole. Some valuable writers have denied this; but there is scarcely a farmer who has not had wofal experience of the trath of it. Even on the dryest soil the greater part of the flock have become lame in a very few weeks after a diseased sheep has come among them. There are, however, some instances in which a sheep with the foot- rot has grazed among others during several months, and no disease has ensued; and some curious experiments would make it appear that under particular circumstances it is difficult to produce foot-rot by inoculation. But these are exceptions to the general rule; and he who ‘trusts to the non-contagiousness of foot-rot will suffer as assuredly as 220 DISEASES OF SHEEP. the man who, deluded by some of the mischievous theories of the day, believes that he may keep a glandered horse in his stable with im- punity. The treatment of foot-rot is simple enough, and, in the early stage of the complaint, usually successful. The foot must be carefully examined, and every portion of horn that has separated from the parts beneath thoroughly removed, and the sore lightly touched with the butyr (chloride) of antimony, applied by means of a small quantity of tow rolled round a flat bit of stick, and then dipped into the caustic. A stronger, and oftentimes a better, application is made by dissolving corrosive sublimate in spirits of wine. Hydrochloric acid is also a very useful caustic for foot-rot. Ifa fungus is sprouting at the place where the horn separates from the foot, it must be first cut away with the knife, and then the root of it touched also with the caustic; or, what is still better, it may be removed by means of a hot iron. It is necessary, indeed, to be rather sparing with the use of the knife throughout the disease. There will seldom, except in very bad cases, be necessity for binding the foot up; indeed, the animal will generally do better without this. It will be seen by the altered colour of the part whether the caustic has been applied with sufficient severity, and the dry surface which will be formed over the sore will protect it from all common injury better than any covering. . To these must be added that reasonable and successful practice of removing the sheep to higher ground. Sheep among whom the foot- rot is beginning to appear are sometimes completely cured by being driven to higher and dryer ground. Some farmers, and with a great deal of advantage, have their flocks driven four or five times daily along a hard road. They thus accomplish two purpcses— they wear away the irregularly formed horn, the unequal pressure of which has irritated and inflamed the foot, and the remaining horn is hardened, and enabled better to resist the influence of the mcist or soft ground. Where the ulceration is extensive, means must be adopted similar to those recommended for the treatment of fowl in the foot in cattle; but in most cases it will be more profitable to the farmer to destroy the sheep that has bad foot-rot, if it is in tolerable condition, rather than rely on a cure that is uncertain, and during the progress of which the animal very rapidly loses flesh and fat. If, however, he is determined to attempt a cure, let him wash the foot well from all grit and dirt, and then cut off every loose and de- tached piece of horn, and every excrescence and fungus, and cover the wound with the following powder :— ; RECIPE (No. 12). Caustic Astringent Powder for Foot-Rot.—Take verdigris; bole armenian; and sugar of Jead, equal parts. Rub them well together, until they are reduced to a fine powder. This should be sprinkled over the sore, and a littie dry tow placed upon it, and bound neatly and firmly down with tape. The animal should afterwards stand in a dry fold-yard for four-and-twenty hours. THE FOOT-ROT. 221 On the next day the tape should be removed, and if the surface is tolerably regular, it may be touched, as already directed, with the butyr of antimony; but if any fungus remains, the powder must be applied another day. The fungus no longer continuing to grow, a light dressing with the butyr should be continued every second day until the animal is well. Some prefer a liniment or paste to the powder, and it is made by mixing the powder with a sufficient quan- tity of honey. ‘The farmer may use which he pleases; but a firm and equable pressure being produced by the tape is the principal thing to be depended upon. The sheep-master should as carefully avoid the ground producing foot-rot, as that which causes the fatal affection of the liver; and he should attempt the same method of altering the character of the low and moist ground by good underdraining. The effect of this, how- ever, is far from being so certain and beneficial as with regard to the rot. The water which would stagnate on the surface may be drained away with tolerable ease, but the soil cannot be rendered hard and dry, or, if it could, that would not be an advantageous change. The sheep might not have the foot-rot, but the ground would be compara- tively unproductive. If the farmer intends to drive his sheep a considerable distance to the market or fair, he will prepare them for the journey by a few days’ removal to harder and firmer ground, or, perhaps, by driving them a short distance, daily, on the still harder public road. The farmer should not only take his sheep from light sandy soil in long-continued dry weather, because they would starve there, but because then alone that soil would give them the foot-rot: its yielding nature will not sufficiently keep down the growth of horn, and many a particle of sand will insinuate itself into the soft and spongy horn, and produce inflammation. For the same reason he should avoid dry old pasture at the season when the dews are heaviest, because then moisture would most abound there. In grounds that are disposed to give the foot-rot, the farmer would find it advantageous to have the hooves of his sheep rasped or pared once every fortnight or three weeks. This is not often done, but it appears reasonable, and would not be very expensive. In uninclosed or mountainous countries, where the sheep have particular tracts, gravel might be scattered in sufficient quantity to wear and harden the horn. {This disease is among the greatest scourges to which sheep are liable in America, but writers generally regard it as not difficult to be cured, J. R. Speed, of Caroline, Tompkins county, New York, found a valuable merino buck much afflicted with it, and not having at hand the ingredients recommended in the Complete Grazier and other books, he “took down that cure-all among farmers, my bottle of spirits of tur- pentine, and with a feather applied it to the parts affected quite plentifully twice or three times in the space of three days, (keeping him on a dry floor), when I found a perfect cure had been effected.” 19 * 222 DISEASES OF SHEEP. Mr. Jewet, of Vermont, speaking on ample experience, says—“ The foot-rot is an infectious disorder which locates between the hoofs, and unless immediate attention is rendered, it operates under the horns of the hoof, It is more easily cured in the winter, or where the infection freezes. If thoroughly seated, it cannot be entirely eradicated from the flock in warm weather, unless they are permitted to run in a fresh pasture where there is no exposure after the treatment, which is this—first, the foot must be pared if infected, and all the ulcerous matter removed ; then apply with a swab, zig, or water strongly saturated with pulverised blue vitriol. When tho- roughly done, the rot will he removed, and the foot will be healed in four or five days. Jt is very important that the diseased animals should be separated from the flock. Fine-woolled sheep, and those that have long hoofs, are much more subject to the rot, and more troublesome to cure. It spreads by inoculation only, and rages worse in low wet grounds. It is important that they should be examined every week until cured, which will require three or four thorough examinations, where the ulcer: ation is confirmed. By using a trough, the description of which you have in the cut below, the foot can be examined with ease; and where there is a large flock, there is a great saving in time and labour. The figure represents a trough which will conveniently hold two sheep, with their feet uppermost. The frame simply consists of a plank about six feet in length, in which four legs are fastened eighteen inches long. Six arms are extended from the upper side of the frame, which supports the side-boards A A, six feet long and thir- teen inches wide, and forms a trough about one foot in width at the top and four inches at the bottom. This trough should stand near the door of another dry yard, where the sheep must remain an hour orso after the application of the vitriol, which should be applied between the toes of every foot. By the assistance of this apparatus, three men can go over from three to four hundred sheep in a day. Another very simple remedy is recommended hy T. Baynes, of Wilmington, Dela- ware. ‘Take a few bushels of lime, and put it near some place where the sheep have to pass, say the bars, and as it is natural for sheep to jump, take notice where they alight, and place the lime there about three inches deep. This did effectually cure my flock in about a week. The lime should be fresh and slacked, and not less than three inches deep; if deeper it might take the hair off the leg above the hoof.”— Cultivator. The lime might be more conveniently and perfectly applied by means of the trough, of which a drawing is given, for the examination of sheep. —S.] ‘THE SCAB.) > 223 SECTION XII. THE SCAB. Tis is a most troublesome and infectious disease, and generally to be attributed to bad management. Sheep that have been too much exposed to the inclemency of the weather, or that have been half- starved, and thus debilitated, are most subject to it. The forest sheep are particularly liable to the scab. It is first discovered by the animal eagerly rubbing himself against every post, or gate, or bank, or, if the itching is very great, tearing off his fleece by mouthfuls. He looks thin and ragged ; and if he is caught, there will appear on various parts, and particularly along the back, either little red pustules, or a harsh dry scurf. The pustules speedily break, and the scurf succeeds. The roots of the wool are matted together by it, and portions of the fleece come off with almost the slightest touch. No one ever doubted the infectiousness of this disease, or suffered a scabbed sheep to enter his flock without dearly rueing it. Every post, or stone, or tree, against which it has rubbed itself, seems to be empoisoned. Every sheep that comes in contact with it is infected. The itching of the eruption preys upon the sheep almost as rapidly as the foot-rot. A scabbed sheep is a poor hungry-looking, half- starved creature; his fleece is spoiled, and he is useless for the butcher. Sheep proprietors used to be fond of various lotions for the cure of scab. Some applied a strong solution of tobacco, others a solution of sal ammoniac, and others one of corrosive sublimate. If these are ever used, they should not be made too strong, for many an animal has been destroyed by them all. Not more than a quarter of a pound of tobacco should be boiled or infused in a gallon of water, nor more than an ounce of corrosive sublimate, and which should be previously dissolved either in muriatic acid or spirit of wine. The sal ammoniac rarely did much hari, but on the other hand it more rarely did good, and when used with the corrosive sublimate seemed to impair its powers. There are those who have preferred a solution of arsenic to either of the others. It is as efficacious as any of them, but it is by ~ far the most dangerous. A great tub or vat used to be procured, and half filled with either of these solutions, and the sheep put into it one by one, and well rubbed and washed until the fluid had evidently penetrated the fleece, and come into contact with every part of the skin; but even where these lotions succeeded, they gave a peculiar coarseness and harshness to the wool, which very much decreased its value. The scurfiness likewise did not soon come off; or when it did, patches of the fleece separated with it, and left the skin bene,th it red, and chapped, and ulcerated. 224 DISEASES OF SHEEP. An ointment is far preferable, for it softens the scurf, and detaches it from the wool, and saves the fleece, and heals the chaps and ulcers of the skin, and promotes the future growth of the wool. The mercurial] or blue ointment in a greater or less degree of strength is commonly used; and if .used with caution, the real strength of it being previously ascertained, it has generally a good effect; but when bought from too many druggists, the quantity of mereury is so varia- ble, and so many tricks are played with it, that the shepherd scarcely knows how to use it, and too often salivates, and even destroys, some of his sheep. If the mercurial ointment is to be used, it will be of advantage to the farmer, especially if he has many scabbed sheep, to make it him- self, and that he may very easily do if he has a wooden pestle and a large mortar or iron pot. RECIPE (No. 13). Mercurial Ointment for Scab.—Take crude quicksilver, one pound; Venice turpen- tine, half a pound; spirit of turpentine, two ounces. These should be rubbed well together for five or six hours, until they are perfectly united; and that will be known by a little being taken and rubbed with the finger on a piece of glass. If not the slightest globule can be detected, the Ac/ling of the mereury is com- plete; but if the smallest shining particle can be seen, the substances are not sufficiently mixed. When this is completed, four pounds and a half of Jard should be added, and the more rancid it is the better: for it more readily combines with the mercury, and gives it additional power. This lard may be well rubbed with the mixture of mereury and turpentine on a square slab of marble; or it may be melted, and, when about the temperature of new milk, added to the other ingre- dients, and the whole stirred together until the ointment becomes stiff. If the ointment is made during the summer, it will perhaps be too fluid to be thoroughly rubbed into the sheep. It may penetrate among the neighbouring wool, or run off and be lost. When this is the case, one pound of the lard should be omitted, and a pound of black resin substituted. A great deal depends on the manner in which the ointment is ap- plied. It should extend to every part that is in the slightest degree affected, and it should be gently but well rubbed in. The wool should be carefully parted on the middle of the back, from the poll to the tail, and a little of the ointment rubbed in all along the channel thus ex- posed. If the disease is slight, another furrow may be made on either side, at the distance of two or three inches, and more rubbed in; but if it appears to be inveterate, the divisions should be made at two inches distance from each other, and over every part that is affected. A second dressing may be applied four days afterwards, if. the sheep continues to rub itself, but it would not be safe to proceed farther. If the sheep should yet rub, a milder ointment should be resorted to, which may be repeated every second day with perfect safety until the animal is cured. Indeed I should be very much disposed to use the THE SCAB. 225 miider ointment from the beginning, because I could go on to the very end, without any fear of unpleasant consequences; and although the cure is effected more slowly, the process is safer and surer. RECIPE (No. 14). Mild Ointment for Scab.—Take flowers of sulphur, a pound; Venice turpentine, four ounces; rancid lard, two pounds; strong mercurial olatment, four ounces. Rub “them well together. Flowers of sulphur must be used, and not the common black sul- phur: that is the refuse of the sulphur, and is almost inert, except it derives any power froin the arsenic which is generally in combination with it, and that would be a dangerous power. ‘There are several instances of animals being destroyed by the use of the black sulphur in ointment, which had been empoisoned with arsenic. This ointment may be used at any time of the year; but the mer- curial clntment is not safe in cold or wet weather. ery bad cases the following powerful ointment may be em- ed :— RECIPE (No. 15). Take white hellebore, three ounces; bichloride of mercury, two ounces; fish-oil, twelve pounds; resin, six ounces; tallow, eight ounces. The two first ingredients to be mixed with a part of the oil, and the other ingredients to be melted and added, Prevention is here again better than cure, and the practice of smear- ing, and especially in cold and exposed situations, is very commend- able. It is not a certain preventive, but it renders the animal less likely to take the infection, and it is very comfortable and useful to the sheep in protecting him from the cold, and hindering the wet from penetrating to his skin. | RECIPE (No. 16). Smearing Mixture.—Take a gallon of common tar and twelve pounds of any sweet grease. Melt them together, stirring them well while they are cooling. Here, as in dressing for the scab, the wool should be parted in rows from the head to the tail, three or four inches asunder, and the mixture rubbed carefully with the finger at the bottom of each row. The smeared fleece will not fetch so much per pound, but the increase of weight, generally in the proportion of five to four, will more than _ compensate for the diminution in price. The usual time for smearing is in October, and the sheep are hardier and warmer, free from ver- min, and generally free from scab; and this being the case, they evidently thrive better, are sooner fit for the market, and weigh heavier. It will be evident enough that every precaution ought to be taken to prevent the re-appearance of this disease. _ Every rubbing-place of every kind should be thoroughly washed with chloride of lime, and every sheep that begins again to ferret immediately separated from the flock. The scab appears under an exceedingly virulent form in some mountainous parts of the country, and particularly in Scotland Mr. Stevenson, in his communications to the Highland Society, thus de- 2296 DISEASES OF SHEEP. scribes two varieties of if. The first he curiously calls red-water, an improper term, and more especially as the same name is given to another disease to which sheep are subject. He says, ‘* This disease commonly makes its appearance about the beginning or end of winter, and first appears about the breast and belly, although at times it spreads itself over other parts of the body. It consists in an inflam- mation of the skin that raises it into blisters, which contain a thin, reddish, and watery fluid: these continue for a short time, break, and discharge their matter, and are followed by a blackish scab. *‘ When the sheep are exposed to cold or wetness, the skin heing fretted, makes the blisters rise; or they often arise from cold affecting the animal internally, thus producing a slight fever, which throws out these vesicles on the body.” The diseased sheep should be put into a fold by himself. A little blood should be taken, and the blisters slit up, and a few drops of the infusion of tobacco put into them; a quarter of an ounce of sulphur should also be given on six successive mornings. A dose of physic should follow. The parts affected should also be daily washed with _ lime-water. A more violent eruption is called the wildfire, probably from the rapidity with which it spreads. It is more infectious than the scab, or, probably, it is one of the worst species of scab. The nitre and sulphur should here also be given internally, and the lime-water ap- plied externally. [The frequency of this loathsome and highly contagious disease induces us to add the following from the Cultivator :-— Among sheep, there is no disease so common, or productive of so much injury, certainly not in the United States, as the scab, or as it is called by some, the itch. A sheep affected by this disease is restless, rubbing itself violently against posts, fences, or whatever is in its way; biting and tearing out the wool with its teeth, and exhibiting every sign of intense irritation. On examining the sheep, the skin will be found red and rough, with usually an extensive cutaneous eruption, or an accumulation of small pimples or pustules, some of which have broken, and the matter discharged has formed patches of crust or scab, from which the common name of the disease is derived. The fleece on a sheep diseased with the scab will be irregular in its growth, and the quality inferior; and if the complaint is severe, or long-continued, the health is impaired, and the animal pines away rapidly, till re- leased by death. The rot may be more immediately fatal, and produce greater losses in Europe, but here the scab is more injurious, perhaps, than all other diseases put together. The scab is one of the most infectious of diseases, and if introduced into a flock, unless the diseased animals are immediately removed, the farmer may de- pend on the whole flock being infected, and both sheep and wool greatly lessened in value. The shoulders and back are the places first usually affected ; but unless check- ed, it will spread until the whole surface is diseased, or the animal perishes; or such is the usual course of the disease. The infection seems to spread in two ways; by actual contact with diseased animals, or by means of the places where infected sheep have rubbed themselves or lain, As pay for sheep infected with scab and sold for sound cannot be collected in Europe, or may be recovered. much attention is paid to . » 7igg F; THE SCAB. 227 the time that elapses after the infection, before the disease appears, About tho twelfth day, it is stated by Youatt, the pustules begin to appear, and the rubbing of the animals shows the irritation has commenced. In four days more the pustules, break, and the matter escaping forms the crust. “After it was found that the itch in the human race was caused by an insect, a. species of acarus, it was supposed that similar cutaneous diseases might arise from the same source. M. Waltz, a German, was the first to establish this point and fully investigate its character ; and numerous subsequent examinations have proven the correctness of his opinion. He found that the scab, like, the itch, mange, &c., is caused by animalcule; that the irritation caused by his burrowing in the skin forms the pustule, and that when this breaks, the acarus leaves his habitation, and travels to another part of the skin, and thus extends the disease, or it may be left on the rubbing post, or the wool of an animal coming in contact. When one of these acari is placed on the wool of a sound animal, they quickly travel to its roots, where the place of burying themselves is shown by a minute red point. About the sixteenth day the pimple or pustule breaks, and if the acari is a female, it appears with a mul- titude of young. These immediately set to work on the skin, bury themselves, and propagate, until the poor animal is irritated to death, or becomes encrusted with scab, M. Waltz satisfactorily traced the parasite through all its changes, and by experiments discovered alJ] its ‘modes of action and method of infection. He found that when the male acari was placed on a sheep, it burrowed, the pustule was formed, but the itching and scab soon disappeared without the employment of amy remedy, Such was not the case where the female acari was placed on the sound skin; as with the breaking of the pustule, from eight to fifteen little ones made their appearance, M. Waltz found that the young acari kept in a dry place dried and crumbled to dust, but when old, that it would retain its life through the ‘whole winter, thus proving the necessity of not relying on the season for their destruction, but on preparations of active medicine when the disease shows itself. Of the origin of these insects we of course can know nothing ; it is enough that we are certain when they make their appearance, they can be met and destroyed. Various remedies have been recommended for the cure of the scab; but although the sheep acarus is very different in form, size, and colours from the human acarus, the application that will destroy one will prove fatal to the other. The remedy is the destruction of the acarus. A strong decoction of tobacco, of hellebore, or a solution of arsenic, will cure ; but the difficulty with washes is, that the burrowed insect sometimes goes untouched, and unless the washing is repeated, some are apt to escape, and the disease is con- tinued. Owing to this, it has generally been deemed a safe and more expeditious mode to use the mercurial ointment. When used too strong it will salivate lambs orewes. Where the cases are very bad, the ointment may consist of one part of mercurial ointment or unguentum, with three parts lard; but for ordinary cases of scab, one part of the mercurial ointment to five of lard will be sufficiently powerful. The wool should be separated, a small quantity placed on the skin, and carefully rubbed in. The extent of the application and the quantity used will depend on the spread of the disease, from half an ounce to two ounces being demanded. A decoc- tion of tobacco or hellebore will cure, but as before remarked it may be necessary to repeat the washing. Arsenical applications are. effectual, but dangerous, unless great care is used. Where an animal has been washed, or ointment applied, infection is generally prevented; but whenever the scab appears, and is supposed to be cured, examinations at the end of every few days should take place, particularly if any ters m - 228 DISEASES OF SHEEP. syinptoms of itching or irritation appear. The sheep-grower should pay strict atten tion to the health of his animals, and such care and attention will be abundantly repaid. Below we give the figures of the acari, that produce the scab as delineated by M. Waltz:— i) 0b at pb ‘a = Soa Ss 43% eS =) xe = = 5 = He & K SS =I e\\ Re PC Fig. 28. e4 ~ (Fig. 28), the female of 366 times the natural size, larger than the male, of an oval form, and provided with eight feet, four before. and four behind; a the sucker; }b55 the four anterior feet, with their trumpet-like appendices; c¢ the two interior hind feet; dd the two outward feet, the extremities of which are provided with some long hairs, and on other parts of the legs are shorter hairs. To these hairs the young ones adhere when they first escape from the pustule—e, the tail, containing the anus and vulva, garnished by some small hairs. (Fig. 29). The male on its back, and seen by the same magnifying power; a the sucker; 5555 the fore-legs, with their trumpet like appendices, as seen in the female cc, the two hind legs, with the same appendices and hairs; d the rudiments of the abdominal feet ; e the tail.—S.] SECTION XIII. LICE, TICKS, AND FLIES. Sueep, and especially if they are neglected and poor, are often sadly annoyed by these vermin. ‘They frequently precede the scab: the dreadful itching which they occasionally cause, prepares for or produces the scab, or they multiply most rapidly when the skin is fouled by the scab. The sheep-louse is too well known to every shepherd: it is of a brownish or reddish colour, with a flat body, and_ three leos on either side: the tick has a large round body, and small *¢ {> : bhIGB,sETC; 229 chest and head, which he buries deep into the skin, and by means of which he holds so fast as to be with difficulty: torn off. ‘The lice are propagated by means of eggs or nits: the origin of the tick is not so _ well understood. They are both injurious to the wool, and also to the health of the animal, from the ,constant irritation which they produce. | ‘The louse is more injurious than the tick. The tick only buries his head in _the skin; the lice burrow, ana form their nest in or under it. They. collect together, and a scab soon rises, whence a glutinous matter _proceeds. The scab continues: to increase until itis of the size of a . Sixpence, and undermines and destroys the roots of the wool, and the fleece comes off in patches. The itching then becomes intolerable, _and the sheep rub themselves eagerly against every thing within their reach, and tear off the wool by mouthfuls. The lice are thickest about the throat and under.part of the neck, and when this is the case, it has sometimes happened that the sheep has been seriously injured, ~ or even destroyed in'a very curious way. He bends his head down _as closely as he can to get at the vermin, and then some of the wool -entangling itself about the teeth, the head becomes fixed, and the - animal is said to be brid/ed. If he is not observed and relieved, the head will be held until the muscles are seriously injured, so that he . can no longer comfortably bend his neck to graze, or until he is abso- lutely destroyed. Many washes have been invented to destroy these insects, but few ,of them have perfectly succeeded.. That which seems to have the _ best effect is thus composed :— RECIPE( No. 17).. Arsenical Wash for Sheep Lice.—Take arsenic, two pounds ; soft soap, four pounds: dissolve in thirty gallons of water. The infected sheep should be immersed in this, the head only being _kept out; and while he is in the liquid, the fleece should be well -tubbed and moulded, so that the wash shall penetrate fairly to the skin. When taken out of the tub, the fluid should be pressed as thoroughly as possible out of the fleece, which will then do for another of the flock; and the sheep should be kept from cold and wet for a few days. Other persons prefer the following lotion :— RECIPE (No. 18). Mercurial Wash for Sheep Lice.—Take corrosive sublimate, one ounce; spirits of wine, two ounces; rub the corrosive sublimate in the spirit until it is dissolved, and ' then add—cream of tartar, one ounce; bay salt, four ounces: dissolve the whole in _ two quarts of water, and apply a little of it with a small piece of sponge wherever _ the lice appear. These washes, however, are not always ‘safe, and they are very troublesome in their application. The ointment which I have te- commended for the scab is more easily applied, and more effectual. _ It may be rendered more fluid, and consequently more easily rubbed in, by oe mixed with an equal weight of neat’s-foot oil; and it 1230 DISBASES:-OF SHEEP. \should:be as carefully applied over every part as ‘it would bé in the act of ‘smearing, for the vermin will speedily collect and burrow in any spot which the ointment may not have reached. quig The tick is many times as large as the louse, but-not’so frequently » found. When not gorged with blood it is flat, but when bloated it is round, and brown or black, and varies in size from a pin’s head to a small bean. When one of them -fastens ‘itself upon the sheep, it ‘seems.to retain precisely the same situation for some weeks, or even months, and yet the young ticks are found round the old ones, resem bling numerous red ‘points, but. becoming brown as they increase in size. They, too, select the sheep that is debilitated by want of pro- per nourishment or by disease. page . 3 The tick is more frequent on some grounds than on others. On some farms, even although badly managed, it is seldom found; on _ others it is scarcely to be got rid of, evenialthough the sheep should be healthy. It would seem as though it»were bred in the ground, and that one part only of its existence is‘sperit'on the sheep. Some shepherds set diligently to work, and'pick them‘off. This, however, is an-almost endless task. Others dress the sheep with’ turpentine, _ which usually destroys them; but the ‘scab.ointment is the surest remedy, as well as preventive. ha Bs ‘ The sheep is tormented by two species of ‘flies. »The one endea- vours to lay its eggs on the muzzle, and thence, speedily hatched by . the moisture and warmth of the breath, the animaleule, or larva, creeps up the nostril, and finds its way into the frontal sinuses, or some of the cells above the nose, and there fastens itself, and lives and grows, until it becomes a large worm: it then creeps again down the nostril, assumes the form of a grub, burrows in the earth, and in due time appears in the form of a fly. It is only during the time of the depositing of the egg that the sheep are disturbed or injured, and . then they may be seen huddling together on the barest part of the pasture, with their noses close to the ground, and by continual shaking _ of the head and stamping, endeavouring to prevent the depositing of the egg. When the little worm has reached its destined situation, it “seems no longer to trouble the animal; and these bots are found in ~ the heads of some of the largest and fattest sheep. This is the des- tined place of this worm, and nature would not make it destructive, or even much annoying, to the animal by which it is to be supported. Another species of fly, or perhaps several other species, are far more troublesome and injurious. At some uncertain time after shear- ing, and seemingly oftener occurring to those that were early than to _ those that were later sheared, the sheep widl be struch with’ the fly. This will be discovered by the uneasiness of the animal. It is not the itching’ of scab, for it is before the usual appearance of that dis- .ease, and when the sheep was shorn there was not the least appear- ance of it. The sheep will hang down their heads, stand for awhile as if listening, then bow up their backs, violently shake their tails, Stamp furiously with their feet, gallop away for a short distance, and \ : : b - — a ee @aa PACES, ETE; =; 231, then turn round and try to bite the affected part. The tail is evidently the part oftenest attacked. On being caught, there will probably be found little lumps or bladders on various parts, but particularly about the tail; and if these are pierced, they will be found to contain numerous little maggots. If there are any sores about the animal made in the shearing, they will become full of maggots in different stages ‘of maturity, and these vermin will crawl through the wool, over almost every part of the body» ~ In warm weather they are peculiarly annoying and destructive. I have seen them spreading from the root of the tail to the head of the sheep, deepening every sore, eating even through the sound skin in various places, and penetrating to the very entrails. ~ A sheep struck by the fly should not be neglected a single day, for the maggots will sometimes do irreparable mischief in a very short space of time. ‘The wool should be cut off round the places where the maggots seem principally to prevail, and they should be carefully picked out: but this will not effectually destroy them; for many will eraw! far away out of the reach of the looker. Some ointment or pow- der must be applied, which wil] at the same time heal the sores and destroy the maggot. An application of this kind may be obtained in some of the preparations of lead. ‘The-following will be very useful :— RECIPE (No. 19). Fly Powder for Sheep —Take white lead, two pounds; red Jead, one pound; and mix them together. While one man holds the sheep by the head, let another have a dredger or pepper-box containing some of the powder in his right hand, and a stick in his left: let him introduce the stick near the tail of the animal, and draw it gently along the back as far as the head, raising the wool, and scattering in the powder as he proceeds. Then let him dip his hand in some of the coarsest whale oil, and smooth down the wool again, smearing the whole of the fleece with the oil. ’ This will not only destroy the maggots, but prevent the future attack of the fly. There are few flies that will approach anything that smells strongly of this oil: it would, therefore, be a good practice to smear the sheep with a little of it after shearing. No injury could possibly be done to the wool, but, on the contrary, its growth wou be promoted. If, however, the flies have made any deep wounds or ulcers, some of the powder should be mixed up with tar, and the ointment gently rubbed on the sores. [Judge Bostwick, of Delaware county, N. Y., dips his lambs in a decoction ot to- baceo, just strong enough to kill the ticks in a minute or two. One man takes the lamb by the forelegs and head, and dips him in the vessel so as just to leave the head out. It is then raised and held over the kettle while another presses the liquor out of the fleece back into the kettle. Maggots originating from fly-blows on wounds, may be prevented by dressing the wound with tar, and may be destroyed by an application of honey, when spirits of turpentine would prove ineffectual. — 8, Sa 232 DISEASES OF SHEEP. SECTION XIV. SORE HEADS. Tus disease is connected with, or often produced by, the striking. of the fly, and especially in woody countries. Next to the tail, the nead is the part most frequently and seriously attacked, and in defend- ing themselves from their tormentors, the sheep are continually striking their heads with their hind feet, until at leneth a considerable sore or ulcer is formed. No sooner is this. done, than the fly perse- cutes the poor animal with tenfold fury, anxious to lay its eggs on or near the wound; and the ulcer will often spread so farand so rapidly, as to be very difficult to heal, and occasionally it will destroy the, sheep. r The first thing to be done is to procure a cap or covering for the head, made of soft leather, or of brown paper, if leather cannot be procured. This should be cut so as to protect the whole of the head, and yet not to come too close to the eyes. ‘Then the following oint- ment must be prepared :— ee RECIPE (No. 20). Grit Ointment for Sore Heads —Take black pitch, two pounds; tar, one pound; flowers of sulphur, one pound. . Melt them in an iron pot over a very slow fire, stirring to- gether the ingredients as they begin to melt, but carefully watching the compound, and removing the pot from the fire the moment the ingredients are well mixed, and before they begin to boil, for they would then rapidly swell to an extraordinary ex- tent, and the whole mass would run over into the fire. While this ointment is warm and soft, it should be thickly spread upon the leather, and the cap fitted to the head. If this be done in the evening, when the fly begins to cease to torment the sheep, the, animal will be quiet, and the ointment will gradually cool, and stick close to the head. Some spread the ointment over the head without the cap, making a kind of charge, a few flocks of wool being scattered over the top, of it; and if it should be somewhat too liquid for this purpose, it is stiffened by the addition of a little yellow resin. It is difficult, -how- ever, to confine the ointment to the sore when it is thus applied, and it is very apt to run over the eyelid and the face, to the great annoy- ance of the animal. { In some parts of Scotland there is another disease of the head that, is speedily fatal. If the sheep are suffered to rest for the night near the summit of the Grampians, or the hills of Galloway, the head will become enormously swelled, and ulcers will break out, as if the animal had been bitten by a venomous reptile. A great portion of the scalp often comes off, and the animal generally dies. ‘The shepherds there call it the head-z//, and the malady is kept from spreading only by removing the flock from these elevated and dangerous spots. The cause of this disease is uncertain: probably it is produced by the eat- ing of some poisonous plant. ——~ DIARRH@A, OR PURGING. 233) >| SECTION XV. DIARRH@A, OR PURGING. cf Tue full-grown sheep is almost as subject to purging as is the lamb, but it is not so difficult to be cured, nor is it so fatal. A sheep can scarcely be turned into fresh pasture in the spring without begin- ning to scour, and especially when warm weather is succeeding to: cold, and the grass shoots rapidly; but this in most cases is bene- ficial rather than injurious. It rouses the digestive organs to full and healthy action, and the sheep that scours a little when first turned into the meadow or on the marsh, is sure to thrive more quickly after- wards. The purging, however, must not be too violent, nor continue too long. The looseness caused by feeding on young succulent grass, seldom Jasts more than-a few days; butif it ‘should continue longer, the sheep must be removed to inferior pasture, and a little hay allowed them if they can be induced to eat it: some dry sound old seeds should also be put before them, and the following powder administered :-—= RECIPE (No. 21). Astringent Powder for Sheep.—Take prepared chalk, a quarter of an ounce; ginger, half a drachm ; catechu, powdered, half a drachm ; powdered opium, two grains. Give this in a little gruel] once or twice daily until the purging abates, A favourite remedy with some farmers, and succeeding in slight eases, but inefficacious in severe ones, is-suet boiled in milk. Others give a very curious medicine: it:consists of the lime dug out of an old wall, and mixed with tar. What good purpose the tar can’ an- Swer, I cannot conceive, and the lime would be superseded by the prepared chalk recommended in the last recipe. When the disease abates, the sheep must not be turned out again on their former pasture, but on the best old grass land which the farm will yield; and even then, a little good hay and corn should be daily allowed them. ) The farmer should be careful that he does not confound the conse- quence of the diarrhea with costiveness, When there is much mu- cous discharge, it is very sticky, and adheres to the wool under’ the tail, and glues it to the rump, thus forming a mechanical obstruction to the passage of the dung. The sheep straining very hard, careless observers have supposed that he was costive, and have given him a strong dose of physic, and thus added fuel to the fire. There is but one form of the disease under which all hope is pre- cluded, and that is when it is connected with chronic cough or con- firmed hoose. That animal may be patched up for a little while, but he will most assuredly perish. It is necessary to make a distinction between diarrhaa and dysen- tery, “a vad being attended with considerable fever end the evacua- 234 - DISEASES OF SHEEP. tions are often slimy and bloody, and the disease sometimes terminates fatally ina few days. It sometimes follows diarrhea, but is gene- rally produced by change. of food or pasture and exposure to bad weather. Lambs are rather more liable to the disease than sheep, and it has been found to attack them very frequently on coming from tow lands tohigh. The treatment should consist in giving mild laxa- tives, such as— RECIPE (No. 22). i incall _ Take linseed-oil, two ounces ; powdered opium, two grains ; to be mixed with lifti- seed tea. Linseed and oatmeal gruel should be given several times a day, and the second day the medicine No, 21 should be administered. ' SECTION XVI. INDIGESTION AND DEBILITY. Bap management, and that alone, causes the appearance of these complaints in a flock. When sheep have been over-driven, and ex- cessively wearied; or ewes have had twins, and have afterwards been kept with their lambs on scanty pasture, where there was. not enough even for the mother; or have yeaned very early, before there was any flush of grass; or, during the winter, have not yet been sup- plied with a proper quantity of hay or corn—in all these cases, the sheep are apt to pine away. ‘They do not seem to relish their food, but wander over the field picking a little here and there, the belly being tucked up and the back bowed. |. fa, The remedy for this is simple enough.if the sheep have not been neglected too long. It is plain that the powers of digestion are weakened or suspended, and the object to be accomplished is to rouse them once more to their proper tone and action. A mild purgative should lay the foundation for this. Half the Purging Drink (No. 2, p- 200) should be given, and this followed up by tonics or stomachies. Some farmers content themselves with giving a little good caudle for two or three successive days, and with general good effect, except that its sweetness is objectionable. - The followimg mixture will be preferable :— RECIPE (No. 23). Tonic Drink for Debility—Take gentian and powdered caraway-seeds, of each an ounce ; Colombo and ginger, of each half an ounce. Pour a quart of boiling water upon them, and let the infusion stand three days, well stirring it every day. Then pour off the clear liquid, and bottle it foruse. Give a table-spoonful daily, in a little gruel, mixed with an equal quantity of good ale. Repeat the half-dose of physic a week afterwards,.and put the sheep on fresh and good pasture. a SEE BLINDNESS. *' 235 omsd of tape SECTION XVII. ee BLINDNESS. Sater aremore subject to diseases of the eye that lead on to Ljind+ ness than many’ persons who are most’ aecustomed to them imagine. It is a singular circumstance, and not so well known as it ought to be, that if the eyes of a flock of sheep are carefully examined, half of them will exhibit either disease then ‘present, or indications: of that which existed at no very distant date. - Inflammation of the eye, which constitutes the commencement of the disease, may arise from various causes. Sheep driven fast to a distant market have suddenly become blind; those who have been chased about by dogs, have at no great distance of time lost their sight, and especially if, in both cases, they were afterwards exposed in a damp and bleaksituation. The violent driving, while it. produced fever, determined an undue quantity of blood to the head: it pressed, or perhaps was effused upon the origins of the nerves of the eye; and the after neglect confirmed the fever, and aggravated the mischief. _ At other times, this seems to be.an epidemic complaint. The greater part of the flock is suddenly, afflicted with sore and inflamed eyes, and particularly at the latter end of the year, and when the weather has been variable, yet cold. and moist. Some have thought that this complaint is infectious, but it is at least epidemic. A white film gradually spreads over the eyes, which the animal generally keeps closed, while at first a watery fluid, and afterwards a thicker mucous matter, is discharged from them. The film increases. until the whole of the eye is of a pearly whiteness. If proper means are adopted, and often if nothing is done, inflammation abates, and the eye begins to clear, usually commencing at the upper part of the eye, and gradually proceeding downward until the whole of the organ is once more transparent, with the exception, perhaps, of a diminutive spot or two, or a discoloration of part of the iris. Many of the sheep, however, do not perfectly recover the sight of both eyes, and some remain totally blind, either from the continuance of the opacity, or that, while the eye becomes clear, the optic nerve is palsied, the pupil does not dilate, and there is gutta serena. The first thing to be done is, to bleed from the vein at the corner of the eye. There will be the double advantage of bleeding generally, and of drawing blood from the inflamed part. The shepherd should take the sheep between his knees, and then, placing the animal with his rump against the wall, he will have full command of him. If he now presses upon the vein with his left hand, about two inches from the angle of the jaw, and opposite to the third grinder, he will see it rise as it descends from the corner of the eye, and runs along the cheek. He should puncture it about an inch or rather less from the eye. Some shepherds recommend that the blood should be suffered : 2386 DISEASES’ OF '|SHEEP. to run into the eye, but this is a ridiculous notion. It must do harm rather than good. Next give the Purgative Drink (No. 2, p- 200), and repeat if ne- cessary, in three or four days.. .No ethos medicine will be required. No stimulating application should be made to the eye. It is too often the practice ainong shepherds to. apply sugar or salt, or white vitriol: but this. worse than: uselessly. tortures. the, poor animal; it increases the inflammation, and causes blindness where it- would. not otherwise have occurred. A drop or two of the vinous, tincture: of. opium may be introduced into the eye, two or three times daily; or a tea-spoonful of laudanum may be added toa half pint of water, and the eyes frequently washed witl» it, It will be quite time enough to think of stimulants if the eye should remain cloudy after the. inflammation has subsided, and then the fols lowing is the strongest that can be permitted. RECIPE (No. 22). Lotion for Cloudiness on the Eye. — Take corrosive sublimate, folit grains; nd it down with spirit of wine, half an ounce ; and add water, a pint. Although, perhaps, it would be prudent to send the sheep decidedly and confirmedly blind to the butcher, lest they should perchance be drowned in a ditch, or somé serious accident should occur to them, yet it is pleasing to observe how well they shift for themselves, and what little harm comes to them. For the first few days they aré awkward and tonfused, but, after that, they keep to their own walk, and take with the others, or even by themselves, the accustomed way home; and, some one ‘of the flock takes the blind sheep under his protection, and is always at his side in danger, and tells him the way that he is to go by many a varied and intelligible bleat. [Grub in the head of sheep, is a troublesome disease in some parts of the Vaited States. The editor of the Cultivator, Vol. X., says :—The Grub in the head of a sheep, is the larva or maggot of a fly. which deposites its egg in the nose, generally in the month of August. The egg soon hatches, and the young maggot soon makes its way up into the cavities called the frontal sinuses, where it Spey its growth, causing constant irritation and disease, and not unfrequently death. Arrived at its growth, it falls to the earth, enters it, and in a short time emerges a perfect insect or fly, ready to commence the career of re-production and destruction. We formerly lost many sheep from the .grub, and could find no cure for them, or but very partial ones» after it became evident they were diseased. Our course was preventative. About the time the fly made its appearance, which is easily known by their exhibiting great alarm, running from one part of the field to another, with their noses close to the ground, &c., we caught one sheep, and with a wooden spatula, or flat stick, rubbed the nose with tar. We then placed tar at the bottom of our salting troughs, over which the salt was sprinkled, and this brought their noses frequently in contact with the tar. This course we found.a great preventative. Sheep, during the period they are exposed to the attacks of the fly, should have access to a ploughed field, or if such is not convenient, a few furrows should occasionally be opened in their pastures for their benefit. Inhaling the dust, or rubbing their noses in it, renders the mucus dis- FRACTURES, ETC. 237. agreeable to the fly, or enables the sheep to expel the larva when deposited. With these preventatives, we have rarely lost a sheep from the grub, and think, that in most cases, they will be effectual. — S.] SECTION XVIII. FRACTURES, WOUNDS, AND BITES. Ir is not often that the sheep gets a broken bone by any fault of his own, but the shepherd is sometimes a brutal fellow. If he is a youngster, he is too frequently designedly mischievous; and in the strugele between a sheep and the dog a leg has now and then been broken. ‘The treatment of fracture below the elbow or the hock is easy enough. The'broken limb must not be roughly stretched or handled, but the divided edges of the bone must be brought gently and as perfectly opposite, and close, and fitting again to each other as possible, and kept together by some strips of adhesive plaister or pitch spread upon Jeather wound round the part. Over this splints should be placed, reaching a little beyond the joint, above and below, and these confined with more plaister, or with waxed thread. A little lint or linen rag should have been previously placed under the end of the splints, to prevent them from excoriating or injuring the part beneath. ‘This being done, the leg should net be meddled with until the bandage becomes loose, which will be in about ten days. The splints must be replaced once, and at the expiration of another ten days the edges of the bone will generally be found to have united : the animal, however, should be kept for a little while longer as quiet as possible, and if the bone is not quite firm, the strips, without the splints, should be once more bound round it. Sometimes considerable swelling will take place after the splints have beén employed. ‘They may have been put on a little too ticht, or they do not press equally. They should not, however, be taken off at once, for the bones beginning to unite may again be separated during the removal of the bandages; but, with a sharp and strong pair of scissors, two or three notches should be cut through the edge of the bandage above and below. This will generally afford suffi- cient room for the re-establishment of the circulation, and the swelling will subside, without the fracture having been disturbed. If it should be a compound fracture, that is, if a portion of the bone should protrude through the skin, either the setting of the bones must be deferred until the wound is healed, or the bandages must be so applied, that the wound can be readily got at for the purpose of dress- ing. This, however, is so difficult a matter, that it will be prudent to destroy the animal that has a bad compound fracture. a 238 DISEASES OF SHEEP. ' Sheep are far oftener subject to wounds than they ought to be, from the ferocity of the shepherd’s dog, encouraged by his brutal master needlessly to worry the fiock. They are too frequently seriously Jamed, and the ears almost torn from their heads. ‘lhe proprietor of sheep should never forgive wanton cruelty of this nature. The treatment of wounds in-sheep is very simple, and consists mostly in avoiding the burning irons and caustics, of which the far- rier, and sometimes the shepherd, are too fond. The first thing is to clean the wound thoroughly with a sponge and warm water, and to remove those parts which are much lacerated, or in a manner torn off. If it is a simple cut wound and the edges are not far separated, all that will be necessary to be done will be to apply daily a little tincture of alocs, and to cover the part that the flies may not deposit their eggs on the sore. If it is a wide and gap- ing wound, the edges of it must be brought as nearly and accurately together as possible, and confined by one or two or more stitches passed through them with a crooked needle and: waxed thread, and which the shepherd should always earry with him, The only dress- ing wanted here will be the tincture, of aloes, with occasional foment- ations if there is much inflammations, but the wound should be more carefully covered from the flies, either by a bandage or pitch plaister, or for a small wound, a little ter will answer. LG No dependence is to be placed on the accounts which are given by some authors of the udders of the ewes being sucked by snakes. The reptile has never been seen thus employed; but sheep are sometimes bitten by the viper, and a few have been destroyed by the swelling having been neglected, and inflammation widely spreading. It is difficult at/all times to. discover the accident. Whenever a sheep is lamed, the affected limb should be well examined; and at other times, if he is evidently ill, and the illness accompanied by local or general swelling, careful search should be made into the nature of the mischief. ‘The wound inflicted by a viper will be very small, but there will be swelling and heat about it, and a great.deal of ten- derness. Cay ’ 5 The best application is oil of turpentine, which should be well rub- bed over and around the part; while a quarter of an ounce of harts- horn, and four ounces of sweet oil, may be given to the animal, and repeated in half an hour if the part should continue to swell, or the sheep appear to be seriously ill. Some shepherds, when they sus- _ pect an accident. of this kind, rub the part well with an onion, and doubtless with considerable effect: the turpentine, however, is more effectual, and shiould be obtained as speedily as possible. GENERAL OCAUDIONS. 239 SECTION XIX. GENERAL CAUTIONS. I win conclude this account of the diseases and treatment of sheep with a few general observations, which may be useful to the farmer ae well as the veterinary surgeon. ) It is an old maxim, and.a most excellent one, that prevention is in every case far better than the cure; and) there cannot be the least doubt that by a little attention, and the exercise, of common humanity towards these useful and neglected animals, there need not be) half the diseases, and scarcely a fourth part of the deaths that occur... Tn ‘the first place the farmer should look more than he does to the actual state, and health, and comfort of his flock. Instead of riding or walking in among them-every day, and, ina manner, making every animal pass muster before him, he frequently contents himself with looking at them from a distance, or perhaps he does not look at. them at all for many a day. 1] ) He deserves to be unfortunate who, in the lambing season, is not early and late among his ewes. Many a ewe is Jost by rough hand- ling; many more by not receiving: the requisite assistance in difficult parturition: many a lamb is deserted by its mother; many a one pal- sied by lying on the cold wet ground, and many more through want of being frequently and carefully suckled. , The owner will be induced by a:regard to his own interest to take into due consideration many a circumstance connected with the season and state of his flock, that would never enter into the mind of the looker-on, but on which the comfort, and thriving, and perhaps the very life of the sheep depend. Many a lamb dies for want of a little shelter in an inclement season; but many more die when the winter is mild, and the spring is early. In the one case they are lost from cold and starvation: in the other from being in too high condition, and having too much milk. The shepherd will often go on in the same regular way whatever be the state of the season: it is the pro- prietor alone who will have sufficient consideration to allow additional food and shelter in the one case, and in the other to stock as hardly as may be, before and during the lambing. The proprietor alone will consider as much as he ought when he should suckle, and feed, and shelter the weakly; and keep back and prevent the suckling, and milk the dam, and stock hard, the lambs being thriving and the wea- ther kindly. These are affairs about which the generality of lookers- on scarcely concern themselves, and into which the best of them will not enter so anxiously as the master. The most important circumstance to be attended to at all times, and particularly at the lambing season, is shelter,—not confinement, but shelter from the searching north and east wind. There should not be a lambing-field without a shed in it, or at least without some place 240 DISEASES OF SHEEP. surrounded with brushwood faggots on the north and east sides at least, if not all round; and into which the weakly lambs and ewes may be driven, and in stormy weather the whole flock may take re- fuge with manifest advantage. Next in importance to shelter stands food. The animal may be stinted in his growth, and prepared for scab by starvation; or he may be inevitably destroyed by over-feeding, or by sudden change of food. The unhealthy seasons for sheep, putting the rot for a moment out ‘of the question, are. not the winter, when no grass grows,’ nor the summer, when it is all burned up, but the spring and the autumn, when there is plenty, and too much to eat. They contrive to live, if not to fatten in the two former seasons, but they perish from excess or change of fvod during the latter two. There is one disease, however, which is caught, or the foundation for which is laid in the summer, and that is. the rot; but from what has been stated with regard to this disease, a proper system of hus- bandry, and attention to little unsuspected, but most dangerous, nooks and corners, would materially limit the ravages of the rot. ° The grand fault in the management of sheep, and of all domestic animals, is, that the farmer pays so little personal attention to them, and pursues one undeviating course, the same that he learned from his father, whatever be the state of his flock, and whatever the state -of the season. ‘To this must be added—the most absurd, and the ‘most injurious of all —a spirit of fatalism ; a submission, not without repining, but without an effort to avert them, to many and serious dosses, which a little care and personal trouble might have prevented. wut ? ON THE DISEASES OF SWINE. Ir is only very lately that any persons have condescended to take into consideration the maladies of swine, and they are little under- stood. The diseases that have been recognised are not numerous, but they are exceedingly fatal; and that fatality is increased by the difficulty of managing these unruly animals. ; The most frequent disease, and as fatal as any, i; — INFLAMMATION OF THE LENGS. This complaint is known among the breeders and fatteners of swine by the term of rising of the lights. There seems to be a peculiar tendency in every malady of this animal to take on a highly inflam- matory character. It is the consequence of the forcing system that is. adopted in the fattening of the hog. It resembles the b/ood or inflam- matory fever of oxen and sheep,—a general and high degree of fever, produced on a system already strongly disposed to take on intense inflammatory action from the slightest causes. Every little cold is apt to degenerate into inflammation of the lungs in the fatted or fat- tening hog; and so many cases of this sometimes occur in the same establishment, or the same neighbourhood—in fact among those who are exposed to the same exciting cause, that the disease is mistaken for an epidemic. ‘There is no doubt that when this heaving of the lights begins to appear in a herd of swine, a great many of them are sooner or later affected by it, and die. It is the cough or cold that is epidemic, but it is the plethora and inflammatory state of the animals that cause it to be so general as well as fatal. The early symptom is cough. A cough in a hog is always a suspi- cious circumstance, and should be early and promptly attended to. The disease is rapid in its progress. The animal heaves dreadfully at the flanks; he has a most distressing cough, which sometimes almost suffoeates him, and he refuses to eat. The principal guiding symptom will be the cough getting worse and worse, and becoming evidently connected with a great deal of fever. In many cases congestion takes place in the lungs, and the animal dies in three or four days: in others he appears for a while to be getting better; but there is a sudden relapse, a frequent dry husky cough comes on, there is little appetite, rapid wasting, and the hog dies in a few weeks, evidently consumptive. 21 (241) he 242 DISEASES OF SWINE. The first thing that is to be done is to bleed, and the most conve- nient place to bleed the hog is from the palate. If an imaginary line is drawn from between the first and second front middle teeth, and extending backward an inch-along the palate, and the palate is there cut deeply, with a lancet or fleam, plenty of blood will be obtained. A larger quantity of blood, however, can be abstracted from the vein on the inside of the fore-arm, about an inch above the knee. ‘The application of cold water with a sponge will generally stop the bleed ing without difficulty, or at least so far arrest it, that no harm will be done, if it should continue a little while Jonger. An assistant may easily open the mouth sufficiently for all this by means of a halter or stout stick, but beyond this the swine is an awkward patient to man- age. He will struggle obstinately against every attempt to drench nim, and the inflammation may be aggravated by the contest. It will, therefore, be necessary in the majority of cases to endeavour to cheat him by mixing his medicine with his food. Here we must recollect the nature of his stomach: it is not of that insensible character and difficult to be acted npon or nauseated as in the cow and the sheep, but it approaches as nearly as possible to the structure of that of the human being; and we must adapt our medi- cine accordingly. The emetic tartar must be omitted from our Fever Medicine, or it would sadly vomit the patient. The following may be given :— RECIPE (No. 1). Fever Medicine for Swine.—Take digitalis, three grains; antimonial powder, six grains; nitre, half a drachm. Mix, and give in a little warm swill, or milk, or mash. Jn the greater number of cases the animal will readily take this: but if he is so ill that nutriment of every kind is refused, he must be drenched. ; This should be repeated morning, noon, and night, until the in- flammation is abated. A purgative should quickly follow, and we have those for the hog which are mild as well as effectual, and from which no danger can result. The Epsom salts may be given in doses of from one to three ounces, and they will communicate a not un- leasant or unusual flavour to his broth or swill. If this inflammation of the lungs in the hog rivals in the speed with which it runs its course, and in its intensity and fatality, the blood, or inflammatory fever of oxen and sheep, no time should be lost in adopting the proper measures, and the bleeding should be copious, and the medicine given In doses sufficiently powerful. When the disease lingers on, and the dry husky cough remains, and the animal is evidently wasting, medicine will be in a manner useless, and warmth and cleanliness, and food that has no heating quality, affurd the only chance of cure. APOPLEXY AND INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN In distilleries, and where many hogs are kept, and too well kent : i MEASLES. 243 this is a very destructive, and not unfrequent malady. If the swine had been carefully observed, it would have been seen that they were making a more than usually rapid progress, but there was at the same time a laziness, or heaviness, or stupidity, about them. A dose or two of physic would have removed this, and not have interfered with the fattening ; indeed they would have thriven the better after it. If this, however, has been neglected, the apoplexy will probably be established. The swine, in the act of feeding, or when moving across the sty, will fall suddenly, as if struck with lightning. He will be motionless for a little while, and then convulsions will come on, strong and dreadful: the eyes will seen protruded, the head and neck will swell, and the veins of the neck will be brought into sight, not- withstanding the mass of fat with which they may be covered. In the midst of his struggles the animal will be perfectly unconscious. He will often die in a few minutes, or should he recover, he wilt be strangely exhausted, and some internal injury will be evidently done, so that he will afterwards be very subject to returns of these attacks either of apoplexy or of fits. The course here is plain enough. He should be bled, and bled copiously. Indeed the blood should be suffered to flow as long as it will. Two or three ounces of Epsom salts should then be given; the quantity and the heating character of the food should be diminished, and a couple of drachms of sulphur given daily in the first meal. When apoplexy or fits have once appeared in a sty, they spread like wild-fire. There is nothing contagious in them, but there is the power of sympathy acting upon animals become too disposed to in- flammation and fever. The most forward of them should be disposed of as soon as possible. The habit of fits once established cannot easily be broken, and the only way to prevent the continuance of much annoyance is, to sepa- rate those that are oftenest affected from the rest, and to fatten them as soon as possible. MEASLES. This is an inflammatory disease, not always indeed discovered during the life of the animal, but plain enough after death, and very considerably diminishing the value of the carcass. The red and pimpled appearance of the skin, or of the cellular substance between the flesh and the skin, sufficiently marks the disease. It shows that there has been general inflammation, either resulting from the fatten- ing process being carried too far, or, much oftener, from the animal having too suddenly been taken from poor keep, and suffered to have as much as it will eat of highly nutritious and stimulating food. The measles are very seldom or never fatal, but the disease may generally be recognized by the pink blush of the skin, or of some parts of it, and by the hog rubbing himself more than usual, while the skin is free from pimples and scurf. The remedy would be a less quantity : * 244 DISEASES OF SWINE. of food, or of not so stimulating a character, and occasional doses of Epsom salts or sulphur. MANGE. Few domesticated animals are so subject to this loathsome disease as the hog if he is neglected and filthily kept; but in a well cleaned and well managed piggery it is rarely or never seen, unless some, whose blood from generation to generation has been tainted with it, should be incautiously admitted. A mangy hog cannot possibly thrive well. His foul and scurfy hide will never loosen so as to suffer the accumulation of flesh and fat under it. Except it is hereditary, it may, although with some trouble, be perfectly eradicated. The first thing to be done is to clean the hog well; without this all external applications and internal medicines will be thrown away. ‘The animal must be scrubbed all over with a good strong soap-lather, and when he is well dried with wisps of straw he will be ready for the ointment, and no better one can be used than the Mild Ointment for Scab in Sheep (Recipe No. 14, p. 225). A little of this should be well rubbed all over him every second or third day; but at the same time internal medicine should not be omitted. There is no animal in which it is more necessary to attack this and similar diseases constitutionally. RECIPE (No.2). Altcrative Powder for Swine.—Take flowers of sulphur, a quarter of an ounce; ZEthiop’s mineral, three grains; nitre, and cream of tartar, half a drachm. Mix, and give daily in a Jittle thickened gruel or wash. This, like the scab in sheep, is a very infectious disease, and care should be taken to scour the sty well with soap, and afterwards to wash it with a solution of chloride of lime, as recommended at page 225. The rubbing-post, that useful, but too often neglected article of furniture in every sty, should particularly be attended to. SORE EARS. There are very often troublesome cracks and sores at the back of the large lop-ears of some breeds. If there is any disposition to mange, it is most evident about the ears of these animals, and the mischief is sadly aggravated when brutes in human shape set every ferocious dog at the stray pig, the favourite hold of which is the ear. The Healing Cleansing Ointment for Cattle (Recipe No. 10, p. 53) will most readily heal the sores. PIGGING. The sow usually goes with pig four months, but there is more irregularity in her time than in that of any other of our domesticated quadrupeds. A week or ten days before her pigging she should be separated from the rest, otherwise the young ones would probably be devoured as soon as they are dropped; and if she shows any dispo- sition to destroy them, or if she has ever done so, she should be care . QUINSY. 245 fully watched, a muzzle should be put upon her, and her little ones should be smeared with train oil and aloes as soon as possible. The teats of the sow will sometimes swell, and hard knots may be felt in them as in the garget of cattle. The treatment should be nearly the same except that bleeding is scarcely requisite. A dose of physic, however, is indispensable. ‘The Garget Ointment for Cattle (Recipe No. 24, p. 69) may be rubbed with advantage into the teats, which should be carefully wiped or washed before the young ones are per- mitted to suck again; indeed they will not suck while any unusual smell remains about the teats. ‘The milk should also be gently but well pressed out of the diseased teats. When it is wished to spay a breeding sow, in order that she may be put up for fattening, it may be done while she is suckling. T'he young pigs may be cut at three or four weeks old: they should never be suffered to suck longer than two months; and they may be rung as soon as convenient after weaning. No hog should escape ringing, even if he is destined to Jive in the sty. It is the only way to keep him quiet, and will contribute materially to his thriving. QUINSY. This disease in the hog is compounded of sore throat and enlarge- ment of the glands of the throat, and is something like strangles in the horse —inflammation and enlargement of the cellular substance between the skin and muscles under the lower jaw. The progress of the malady is rapid, and the swelling is sometimes so great as to prevent the breathing, and consequently to suffocate the animal. To a skin so thick as that of the hog it is useless to make any external application. The patient should be bled; two ounces of salts should be given, and half-ounce doses repeated every six hours, until the bowels are well opened ; while warm weak wash, or milk and water, should be occasionally poured into the trough. It is not often a dan- gerous disease if remedies are early adopted. {Governor Vance, of Ohio, now in Congress, has been very observant of the dis- eases to which domestic animals are subject in that State and the west. These sheets having heen submitted to his inspection, he answered :-— Washington, January 22d, 1844. I have looked over the sheets enclosed relative to the diseases of hogs, and am convinced that what is termed ‘‘ quinsy” in these sheets is the same disease we were conversing about the other evening at Mr. Seaton’s. By careful attention to the early stages of this disease, if it is the same that afflicts our swine in the west, it will be found that they will become stiff in all their limbs, and will move with as much difficulty as a foundered horse, and with almost the precise symptoms. When this is the case, we know of no cure but a thorough cleansing and opening of the ducts or holes in the inside of the fore-legs, which will give free respiration : this, with ashes and sulphur mixed with salt, or incorporated with the food, will generally effect a cure. 21 * 246 DISEASES IN SWINE. Kipney-Worm.—There is a fatal disease amongst our swine in the west, called the Kidney-Worim, which causes a weakness in the back, and finally a falling of the hind quarters, which they will drag around for months, until they become the most loathsome objects that you can conceive of. Arsenic in small portions, mixed with their food, will generally prove effectual, if given in the first stages of the disease; and the best preventive medicine is ashes and sulphur mixed with their salt; for hogs require as regular salting to keep them healthy and in good condition as do cattle or horses. — 8.] COSTIVENESS. This is not an uncommon complaint of the confined and fattening hog, and is easily removed by the Epsom salts, or by five grains of calomel being given in a little of the animal’s favourite food. It will be dangerous, however, to push the calomel beyond the second or third dose, for the hog is very easily salivated. ‘The bowels having been well opened, a dose of the Alterative Powder (Recipe No. 2, p. 244) given every fourth day will be very beneficial, and will hasten 7 the fattening of the styed hog that exhibits any disposition to cos- | tiveness. ll Sometimes, however, this costiveness is produced by — INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS, | which is attended by considerable pain, heat and tenderness of the _ abdomen, with a quick pulse, and other symptoms of fever, and some- times by fits and insensibility. The treatment should consist of copious bleeding, oily laxatives, clysters, warm fomentations to the abdomen, and, if the animal is not too large, warm baths. w INDEX. Page Page Abortion, the cause and remedy, 72 | Blown, nature and treatment of, Absorbents, account of the,.. 31,33] im cattle,.........+- pense 1 After-pains, the treatment an 196 sheep,....3.+-- 209 Age of cattle, how known by the Bones, the structure and use of, 19 A SE 21 | Bowels, inflammation of the, in —_— teeth} 7 OPTS 20)/°° cattle. yi 2026 GU) ae 59 Aloes, seldom used for cattle and Brain, account of the, bOBS 354 24 Beemer eee Pt. 44 inflammation of the,.... 56 Alum whey, prescription for,.. 64 in sheep,....s+s 206 Angle-berries, account of, .... 122 SWINE, see ees 242 Apoplexy in swine, .......... 242 | Bruises, treatment of, ........ 119 Arteries, account of the, ...... 26 | Bull-burnt, treatment of, ..... ® 127 Astringent drink, ..... 61, 64, 200 | Bulling, how to produce,...... ib. Bullock, age of the, ......+40% 21 Belly, wounds in, treatment of, 117 Bile, account of the,..... ... 32 | Calf, description of its natural obstruction of the, ...... 55| growth in the womb,......- 36 Black-foot, description of the,.. 141 early treatment of the, .. 132 leg, the nature and treat- bed, protrusion of the,.... 74 PREM OT. 2 FIG 0 en 82 | Calves, the diseases of,......++ 131 quarter, ditto,.......... ib. cordial, an excellent one, 134 water, the treatment of,. 66 | Calving, treatment of the cow, Bladder, inflammation of the, in before, during, and after,... 71 Ra 94 symptoms ofitsapproach, 73 ee ib. difficult treatment of, .. ib. - stone in the, ........ 96 | Cancer of the eye, ......... -» 99 Blain, nature and treatment of. 80 Blast, nature and treatment of, OS | ae 101 ———— in sheep, ...... 209 Bleeding, when necessary, .... 42 manner ofperforming, 43 from the navel string, 133 of sheep, Vv .5.'. 2. 193 from wounds, treat- mbat of, Fes. 117 Blindness in sheep, ........+. 235 Blister ointment, a recipe for,.. 57 Blovud, account of the. Ib. Honiofey 54.2 2:5 mantel ae 85 Circulation, account of the,.... 25 | Diuretic drink for cattle, ..... 69 Clatting of the ewes, reecom- Downfall in the udder, ..... ~« 68 MGUGEd se a vee yo eRe .- 195 | Draining, under, the importance Cleansing after calving, nature of 76 Clue-bound, nature and treat- ment of, Coagulation of the milk in lambs, 198 Wold, in’ cattle Oh. tee as gi. ws A6 SHEED, coches sake Sa 207 peculiarly dangerous to young lambs, 2000... ib. Condition, high, danger of,..... 72 Consumption, from the hoose,.. 49 Cordials, drink for cattle, ..... 79 cautions with regard to themes. ee wea 49 Corrosive sublimate employed in too great quantities, is poison- BrG, 2a Tee a Sere aera are Bp ait Costiveness in calves, treatment Dijin sto tae weaeeu. SH «13d cattle, on,...... o9 — lambs, treatment of, .... 135, 201 swine, treatment Sb? Veh as 241 Cough drink for cattle,a, -...-. 46 in calves, nature and treatment of;. \}. a; «=2 137 cattle, nature and treatment of,. see importance of immediate AT attention to,-+..ci- 47 —— in sheep, nature and treatment of,..+..+.+- 207 in swine, nature and treatment of,.«..).--- 241 Cow-pox,nature and treatment of, 128 Crackling, under the skin, na- ture of, 85, 212 Croton Tiglii, its use as an oc- casional purgative,....+-+-. 44 Debility in sheep, on, 234 Diaphragm, an account of the, 28 eoeoer ewes terre eo 8 eoree ese ee ; Form of cattle, the proper, .... Of, Qos Frais hod atthe ae 215 reasons of its ac- casional failure, ib. Dropping, after calving, nature and treatment of, ici jaar os 77 Dysentery, on the, in cattle,... 62 Mars; sore;in hogs,.. s.gqunden . 244 Epidemic catarrh, on,........ 48 of 1840 and 1841,... treatment of,.... im sheep,....-+. 93 iA” PIP Se ae ae ab. Epsom salts, the best purgative for cattle and sheep, ...... . 44 Ewe, the proper treatment of, while:in,lamb,+./s). tp eee 194 Eye, diseases of the, in eattle,. 97 inv ShEO PS fas 6-0 235 — cancer of the,.......... «39 inflammation of the,..... 98 —— lids, diseases of the, ..... Falling down of calf-bed, .. 75, 196 Fardel-bound, nature and treat- Pen ty Oe 5; «jaja Biolate mele sige ae pea Fat, account of, 22 | Feeding, general observations on, 249 | Feet of oxen, the proper form of, 22 ——— wounds in,...... 116 Fellon, om, Hees: os vig once » ol | Fever drink for cattle,..... 46 Fistulous withers in oxen, ... 115 Flies on sheep, treatment of, .. 230 | Flukes in sheep, deseription of, 213 Fetus, account of the,...... «(48 | Hlogigrot, thes: 5 .(2 0). .jeheaige le 218 — highly infectious, 219, 222 : — treatment of the,..... 226 | . . | Fore-arm, description of the,... 22 2 INDEX. Foul in the foot, treatment of the, 123 Fox-glove, poisonous for cattle, 112 Fractures, treatment of,...... éoR21 —_— In sheep, rite » 237 Gall lambs, what,........-. oe 197 Garget, onthe, ..........2.6+ 68 ointment for cattle,... 69 Gargyse, nature and treatment of, 80 Gastric juice, account of the, . . 31 Giddiness in sheep, nature and treatment of, .......2eeeees Glands, description of the,..... 34 Glauber salts, a purgative for 2 eee Goggles in sheep, nature and treatment of, ...........00% 206 Grub, the, in sheep, .......+-- 236 Gullet, account of the, ........ 29 Hair, account of the,.......-. 23 Haw, inflammation of the, .... Hawkes, nature and treatment Head, description of the,...... 20 Healing ointment,........+.. 53 Heart, account of the, ........ 25 Heifer, age of the,...... «... 21 Hellebore, black, the root of, the er - 46 Hemlock, poisonous for cattle, . 112 Hock, description of the,..... - Hoose in calves, nature and treat- 0 ee - 137 cattle, nature and treat- EE eer 46 Hoove in cattle, nature and treat- MIGUt Of, ..000.00~na See 101 sheep, nature and treat- ES ERED. | ROT 207 Hornet, treatment of the stings of, 114 Horn, broken, treatment of, ... 118 Horns, the, connected with the age, Humanity towards the sheep en- BOE CSW aildid bah aic rerewe 239 Hydatid on the brain, in sheep, 204 Hydrophobia in cattle, the nature and treatment of, ......+.+. 130 Indigestion, on, in sheep, ..... 234 Inflammation, external, wi bandy 40 Inflammation, internal,....... 4 ——_——_—— theory of, ...... 40 of the bladder, in Gattles oie + 6s 94 NECK, Cen ini mt tn ib. bowels, in cattle, 09 — swine, 246 brain, in cattle,. 56 sheep, - 206 swine,. 242 CY Cys econ evens 98 kidneys in ¢.ttle, 66 liver in cattle,.. 53 Jungs, in cattle,. 50 sheep. .. 208 —_—__—_ swine,.. 241 Inflammatory fever, in cattle,. on uid sheep, -+.+eeee- 203 Influenzayjon, ....02 ose seseee AT in sheep, .++-s+eee- 208 Intestines, an account of the,.. 31 Iodine ointment,.....++++ Perio | Jaundice, account of, in cattle,. 55 sheep, .+e+ssee- 210 FOtn fofelllon yi. icvisicidie 9, WS Bile y pre wounds in the, treat- PBCUE Bi neaisis. «0a 114 Joints, humours about the, .... 118 Kidneys, account of the,...... 35 — inflammation of the, . 65 Lacteals, account of the,...... Lambing, the assistance which should be rendered in,...... 194 signs of danger in,.. 195 season, the duties of,. 194 ewes should be sheltered then, 194 Lambs, young, the diseases of,. 198 the attention they re- quire when dropped,. 196 Leech bites, treatment of, ..... 114 Leg, fore, description of the,. ot. ae hind, description of the,.. ib Lice on cattle, how to destroy,. 126 sheep, how to cn fe 222 Linseed oil, a good purgative,.. 44 Liver, account of the, 32 inflammation of thee xine Oe Locked jaw in cattle,......... 110 eee eens 250 Lungs, inflammation of the, 50, 208 Mad-itch in cattle, the cause of, 141 Mange in cattle, nature and treatmeont.of). Wes eeewrrewnns 125 swine, nature and treatment of,.... 244 -—— ointment, the best, ....-125 Manyplus, account of the,... 29, 30 Measles in swine, nature and treatment, off. a. d%.2e% paww-a4o Medicines ahonts be pivencis ina iflinid form) 18h Bi. ows torrie 30 Mesentery, account of the,.... 32 * Milk, coagulation of the, in the lamb’s stomach, .... 000 «ow 198 fever in cows, nature and treatment of). . 76, 140 should be zlldrawn at each MINN sien eal oeewey 70 how to dry a cow of,..... 124 Murrain, nature and treatment Clee sie sud apa bababa nS tae clase e Oye) Muscles, account of the,...... 24 Navel-string, bleeding from the, 133 Neat cattle, number of, in each RAEC dons racrvaeth AA DEMs ove tele, asa i 37 Neck, description of the,...... 21 Nerves, account of the,....... 24 Nose, discharge from the, in SHECP jis clare W's) ol s)a ld piel wide ewe BOF Omentum, account of the,..... 35 Over-feeding, danger of, ...... 83 young lambs, dan- ger of... ++ woe 197 Ox, advantages from the use of $hevaes 243 ee ways ae —- machine for shoeing the,.. 151 —- shce, description of the,... 102 —— skeleton of the; #s........ 38 —— teams, compared with horse- LEMS a Ase Saw'ss eee . 146 — treatment of the, ........ 162 —— useful in teams. for ‘ia Ay cht aot Mian aba al bie irre 148 —- yoke for the, Nescription of, 165 Pancreas, account of the, ..... 33 Paunch, account of the,... INDEX. Paunching, account of,... 103, 209 Pelt of the dead lamb should never be the shepherd’s perqui- BILE). mayen. eouncie ola renvenstineianes Periostcum, description of the,. 20 Peritoneum, account of the,... 35 Perspiration, account of the,... 34 Pestilential fever, nature and treatment of}, laziest sti are os ate Phrensy in cattle, on, ...... «wae Physicking, the object and e:- PECL, OF searenys den belle 2 shane 45 Pigging, directions concerning, 244 Poisons of cattle, account of the. 112, 138, 441 Pregnancy, account of, ....... 395 Presentation, natural,in calving, 73 ——_—_—_—— unnatural, means to be adopted, 73, 195 Protrusion of the womb, treat- MICUIE Of ya ase sthhbe etek erm ore i! Proud flesh, treatment of,..... 115 Pulse, account of the, -.....+. 26 Purgatives, the best, ...... 44, 140 when useful,. wale somal doses of, «s+ «aie 207 Purging in calves, treatment of, 132 — cattle, treatment of,. 61 —- drink,........... 47, 200 for cattie, strong, 61 sheep, -.++++ 233 a ws Quarter evil, nature and treat- inent of, ..<,-,./91 Et teaver ie Sette ee Quey, age of the, ........ come | Quinsy in swine, nature and treatmicnt «Ofgwilsie%,s/bidiews sia wa eee Rabies, in cattle, nature and treatment Wit wiinaxsssenovdpen » sasieO Read Mr., his instrument for WOOVEs+ 6 vase eeeereeeeecace 104 patent pump re- commended, . 106 Red-water in cattle, ......... 6S important difference between its varie- Mes: \cocneadon eel in sheep,« +» | Rennet, account of the,....... 31 Respiration, account of,....+++ 27 INDEX. 251 Reticulum, account of the,.... 29 | Staggers,.....cscesseucceues 58 Rheumatic drink, ......... 52, 53 | Staggers in lambs,.........+. 201 embrocation, ...... 52 | Stone in the bladder, &c...... 96 Rheumatism, description and SEAMS. 's «20s vv a. cce etee gies soko treatment of,.......00..05: Sturdy in sheep,......... vee 204 Rot, the nature ’and treatment of, 211 | Swimming in the head,....... 58 Rottenness in cattle, on, ...... 63 | Swine, diseases of,........... 241 Rising of the lights in swine) . 241 | Syringe, Read’s patent veteri- Rumen, account of the,....... et MARY . eaidee st eas ven Geen ad 104 Ruminants, their distinguishing characteristics, ae 19 | Ticks in sheep, ....6..+0000 230 Rumination, account of,...... 29 | Trembles, cause of the,......- 138 — account of the,..... 140 Salt, the use of it for cattle and . See 44, 208, 217 Scab, the nature and treatment OMIM as as d's nste vce 223 ointment, the best,...... 224 Scouring-rot in cattle, on the,.. 62 SE eee 34 ES eee 45 Shape, inflammation of the,... 96 Sheep, diseases of,....... 168, 193 hg 168 ——— different breeds of, their characteristics,.. 175, 182 —their value,..... 182 number of, in each State, 187 Sore heads im sheep,.........- 232 Gare im @ane,.......... 244 teats in COWS, .......... 70 — - . oe CY | 9 Tumours about the joints, .... 121 Rel ehtetes a hat cto turchete esi ol ara = ware as 36 Water in the head in sheep,... 204 Wool, growth in each State,... 187 value of different fleeces, 182 Woollen goods, manufactures of, in the United States,....... 179 Womb, scirrhous state of its en- trance prevents calving, .... 72 - operation for,... 75 Inversion Of. fess 74 Wounds im catthes i's stswate' ots 114 sheep. issn aie <6 237 Vellows, . 0.20330. wa ae 55 in sheep, ..'s . aaa -. 210 THE END. = _* a ery er 2) ee a ie ne EG ke wis oe. 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