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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



The summer-fed seeds in each of the precedinK cases 

 will alsvajs bs eaten down cxtreiiaely close ; indeed, in a 

 dry summer, it would to a casual observer appear as if 

 they bad little or nothing to live upon ; yet this appa- 

 rent scarcity may be relieved by means of the addition 

 of the artificial food to which I have before alluded, and 

 which I think may be always profitably employed in all 

 cases of heavy stocking. In speaking of rapecake, I 

 allude to cake made from rapeseed only ; and I have 

 generally found that an addition of linseedcake — say an 

 equal portion of each — might be profitably used after the 

 1st of July, as about that time the lambs begin to eat a 

 little, and it is very important to get them to do so at 

 the earliest possible period, in order to prepare them for 

 weaning, which generally takes place between the 20th 

 and 30th of the same month. It is at this time that the 

 diflSculty commences against which we have so conti- 

 nually to contend. I will suppose the weaning to be 

 concluded by the 25th of July, by, as far as it can be 

 done, removiug the ewes from the lambs for a few days, 

 until the laUer become fairly settled, and return to their 

 troughs. They are then to be taken from the summer- 

 fed seeds, and regularly laid out over the whole of the 

 100 acres of old grass land and clover eddish, which will 

 bs by this time ready to receive them, in something like 

 the following proportions •• — 150 of the weakest and 

 worst himbs upon the clover eddish, and the 300 upon 

 the old pasture, the whole receiving ^Ib. of linseedcake 

 per day, with a few oats, bran, and malt-culm ; or, in 

 short, with any dry artificial food they may incline to 

 eat best, in addition to a few cabbages, four or five acres 

 of which should invariably be grown for this especia. 

 purpose. The early York variety, sown in seed-beds in 

 August, and transplanted early in October on well- 

 manured ridges, will be quite ready for eating by the 1st 

 of August, and is by far the best green fool given them 

 on grass land, till the 10th of September. They may 

 then be turued upon the early turnips, which, by good 

 raanagement, they soon Inarn to eat; after which, in the 

 ordinary course of events, no further difficulty or danger 

 is to be apprehended. There are cases, however, in 

 which good management and the greatest assiduity and 

 attention seem to be altogether of little or no avail. I 

 liave seen large flocks of lambs, apparently healthy and 

 I'iiU of vigour when taken from the ewes, in three to sis 

 -reeks afterwards the most miserable-looking animals 

 inaginable; and in a m'onth later, perhaps, one-fourlh 

 cf them dead, or reduced to a state of wretchedness 

 which no nursing, however careful, can ever over- 

 come. The malady to which I am now about to allude, 

 .".id which for the sake of distinction I will call con- 

 rimption (leaving pleuro-pneumonia, which is alto- 

 rather another and a separate disease, entirely out 

 of the question), is a most insidious, and so far it has 

 i'ppeared to be an incurable disorder. In what manner 

 or at what precise period it is engendered, is at present 

 i\ matter involved in mystery. So long as the lambs are 

 I'.cpendent upon the ewes for their support, they appear 

 to go on well enough, and look healthy and flourishing ; 

 l;ut as soon as they are deprived of that support, and the 

 keeping upon which they are put does not quite agree 



with them, they are attacked with this formidable 

 disease, and die by hundreds. Mr. Jekyll, of Lincoln, 

 a person of great eminence as a veterinary surgeon, and 

 in extensive practice, has favoured me with the following 

 remarks upon this subject : — " The earliest symptom 

 which I have observed has been diarrhoea for one, two, 

 or three days, very soon after which a cough commences, 

 and in a short time becomes very troublesome. The 

 lamb partially loses its appetite ; a large quantity of 

 green frothy mucous is constantly discharged from the 

 nose ; the cough begins to be very distressing ; low and 

 debilitating fever sets in, with a complete loss of appe- 

 tite, great debility and emaciation, under which, and 

 the irritation of the now all but constant cough, the 

 lamb sinks and dies. On making a post mortem ex. 

 amination, the first thing which attracted my attention 

 was the very pale and wasted condition of the muscular 

 structures, while a considerable amount of fat remained; 

 the stomach and intestines were pale, and contained very 

 little food, with water, mucus, and foetid gases; the liver 

 was discoloured, and a little softer than natural; the 

 heart was pale, but otherwise quite healthy; the lungs 

 about their natural size, but marked with singular 

 patches on their surface, while some parts of them 

 appeared natural and healthy. On cutting into the 

 lungs while yet warm, a great number of filaria, small 

 thread-like worms, struggled out of the bronchial tubes, 

 mostly from those parts of the lungs which were in- 

 flamed. When I opened the larger bronchial tubes and 

 the trachea, I found a great number of these intruders 

 moving about with as much rapidity and ease as the size 

 of their strange prison-house would allow : their cease- 

 less vermicular motions appeared exactly calculated to 

 produce great irritation, fever, incessant cough and con- 

 tinuous discharge. As a cure I have tried the internal 

 exhibition of small doses of turpentine with cold gruel, 

 but without success. I have also made them inhale 

 chlorine gas ; and the few on which I experimented re- 

 covered, but it was late in the season, and I think it 

 likely they would have recovered without this. I in- 

 tend, however, to make a further trial of this remedy ; 

 but while a ready means of cure is of importance to us, 

 the cause and a preventive are of much greater. The his- 

 tory and stages through which these pests pass, and 

 how they enter animal bodies, would very much aid us ; 

 but I fear all this is wrapt in a shroud of mystery so 

 deep that science must labour long and perseveringly 

 before she can bring forth the naked facts for the benefit 

 of man. I have observed this affection in all sorts cf 

 seasons and on every variety of land, and under every 

 system of management in this large sheep-breeding 

 district." In closing my remarks on this occasion I 

 must be permitted to observe, that however inconclusive 

 and necessarily imperfect in many respects the paper I 

 have had the pleasure to read to you may be considered, 

 its distribution into those districts where the subject of 

 this evening's discussion may be better and more ex- 

 tensively understood, may lead to an investigation of the 

 circumstances and causes of this most mysterious 

 disease, and prove eventually the means of discovering 

 preventive remedies, if not of curative appliances for it. 



