REPORT ON FOOT-ROT IN SHEEP. 33 



tion, we are inclined to believe the contrary, and will state a few 

 facts that have come under our own eye. We have already said 

 there are some rich pastoral farms in Peeblesshire where foot-rot 

 prevails annually, and where hard heathery stock-farms lie con- 

 tiguous, the sheep always intermixing, and yet a case of foot- 

 rot never occurs on the latter. Again, on a hard heathery stock- 

 farm on which I acted as shepherd for some time, four of the 

 rams got unmanageable during close time, and were shut up 

 in a small enclosure surrounded with a high wall ; the ground 

 was soft and potchy, and they all became seriously affected with 

 foot-rot, and a cure could not be effected whilst in that situation. 

 They were turned out to serve the ewes on the hill at Martinmas, 

 veiy lame, and greatly reduced in condition, but not a single sheep 

 was affected on the hill ; and when the rams were taken in, they 

 were quite sound, though no treatment was employed, except that 

 on the day they were turned out to the hill the loose crust was 

 all cut pointedly off, and the diseased parts of the hoof anointed 

 with the butter of antimony. It should be observed that the 

 rams did not catch the disease from infection, as foot-rot was 

 never known to exist on the farm before. The cause was my 

 own mismanagement in confining them in a small, wet, potchy 

 enclosure. On the same farm in a following year the rams got 

 unmanageable in the month of October, and could not be con- 

 fined from want of proper fences. Pasture was taken for 

 them in an old grass park, the home farm of a gentleman, a 

 few miles distant. In the course of two weeks the whole lot, 

 eight in number, became seriously affected with foot-rot. They 

 were brought home very lame, and turned to serve the ewes at 

 Martinmas. Not a single sheep caught the infection on the hill ; 

 and again, the rams, when brought in, were all nearly recovered. 

 I could multiply instances of a similar nature to prove that sheep 

 are not so liable to be infected with foot-rot, at least on what is 

 termed dry hard land, as some writers would, lead one to believe. 

 But I think these few facts are sufficient. They also prove that 

 nothing is more essential in effecting a cure than a change to 

 dry hard pasture. It is, however, argued on the other hand by 

 the advocates of infection, that an experiment on hard land, such 

 as described, is not a fair criterion, as sheep are not liable to be 

 affected with foot-rot on such soil ; but, on the other hand, we 

 don't know how a trial of the infectiousness of the disease could 

 be made on soft grassy land where foot-rot usually abounds, as it 

 would be difficult to determine whether the disease proceeded 

 from infection or from the natural exciting causes of the pasture 

 and soil. One fact, however, has struck me regarding pasture 

 subject to foot-rot, and it is certainly in favour of non-infection. 

 I have often seen both the fore feet of sheep seriously affected 

 and in the very worst stages of the disease, and the hind feet re- 



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