188 SHEEP DISEASES: 



In-hreeding is a predisposing cause to disease, at least in a 

 relative point of view or outside certain limits, and those limits 

 are regulated by the vigour or otherwise of the animals engaged. 

 Where the male and female are alike vigorous and structurally- 

 perfect the evil effects of in-breeding may be postponed ; but 

 even here, if it is carried too far, defects will crop up and they 

 vnW increase rather than diminish in each svicceeding genera- 

 tion. A diffusion of fresh blood is a good thing in more senses 

 than one, and he who neglects Nature's demands in this respect 

 must be prepared to pay the penalty. A plan adopted by Mr 

 Fletcher Menzies is, I think, an exceedingly simple and good 

 one. It is based on the well-known fact that sheep depastured 

 on large tracts of land do not wander very far a-field, but confine 

 themselves to comparatively limited areas ; and consists in shift- 

 ing the rams to fresh tracts every two or three years thus, 

 given three rams placed at three different points one year, 

 they are so interchanged in location each succeeding year that 

 at the end of the third year each section of the flock has been 

 served by a different ram. 



Exhaustion of Males. — In no case should a ram be asked to 

 do more than he is capable of doing in this respect, for if he is 

 overtaxed the breeder must be prepared for the consequences in 

 the shape of uncertain crops and weakly lambs. 



Exposure to cold and wet is both a predisposing and excit- 

 ing cause of disease ; and of all the different kinds of cold, that 

 dependent upon east winds is the most depressing to animals, 

 and the most inimical to the growth of vegetables : of the east 

 wind it may be said, that 



Desiccate itself, 

 It shrivels up and dries the membranes, 

 Drives back the stream of blood 

 And blanches hand and cheek 

 Of all who are exposed 

 Unto its baneful power. 



Extended is its influence 

 E'en to vegetation. The young 

 Green shoots in one short night 

 Are withered, crisped and browned, 

 Till not a semblance lives 

 Of their identity. 



Yes, this is one of the banes of the flockmaster and the most 

 disheartening of foes to the shepherd who has in the early 

 spring been watching the growth of the young grass in some 

 specially favoured spot and has been calculating what a nice bite 

 he will shortly have for his lambs and ewes ; but, too often in one 

 short night his hopes are dissipated, and in place of seeing his 

 lambs thriving he picks them up cramped and stiffened, and in 



