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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



had been talking with a gentleman now staying with Mr. 

 Shorten, of Ipswich ; he was a veterinary surgeon, and he ap- 

 peared to think that the disease arose from the lembs being 

 let out too early in the inorniFig when the dew was on, and 

 when parasitic insects were on the blades of clover and arrass 

 before the aim rose. He said that if they only put the flocks 

 on when the sun was up, they wonld not have the disease ; 

 and he expressed his belief that the real secret was that those 

 parasitic insects which destroyed the lambs were, during the 

 time the dew was on the clover and in wet days, eaten with 

 the food, and that this was the cause of the disease. When 

 he first had his lumbs attacked he went to Mr. Fenn, a veteri- 

 nary surgeon in the neighbourhood, who ha;l a most powerful 

 microscope, and he took the stomach of one of the lambs, and 

 put under it ; and they therein discovered a number of small 

 thread-like worms. Th»y submitted other parts of the stomach 

 to inspection, and could see the same thing everywhere; and 

 Mr, Fenn said the moment the worm or whatever it was got 

 into the stomach, it increased in an astounding degree, by 

 thousands and millions. They could see long strings of eggs 

 ready to be hatclied, and when hatched the worms lived on 

 the animtls, and if their throats were cut there was not the 

 least particle of blood in them. Professor Simonds came down 

 to see him last year, and they killed two or three lambs. 

 These worms sucked the blood, and inserted their heads into 

 the coats of the stomach, and lived on the blood of the animal, 

 which in three or four weeks died from exhaustion, not having 

 strength to stand up against them. The only remedy he ever 

 found cut was the highest possible keep they could have given 

 to them. Professor Simonds recommended him to give two 

 dessert spoonfuls of turpentine and a wine glass of linseed oil, 

 but the remedy was as bad as the disease, for if the lambs had 

 the least cough at the time they dropped down dead at one's 

 feet. The best remedy was the most forcing food, and a piece 

 of colewort was best. He turned his lambs last year into a 

 neighbour's coleworts, and he lost not one afterwards; he 

 believed this to be the best panacea for this disease, because 

 it got rid of the worms, which were the real cause of it. He 

 mentioned the case of Mr.Kudland, who bought a lot of healtby- 

 looking lambs at Ipswich fair, and lost 60 or 70 of them a 

 week aiterwards; he (Mr. Hawkins) bought the ewes, and 

 they were doing well. This showed that it was not good or 

 bad keeping that produced the disease, but that they would 

 lose them under all circumstsnces. He found that his ram 

 lambs, which had had greatest variety of food and had never 

 been in the pastures, were the greatest anfferers, and none of 



them recovered till he got them on the eoleworts. He had no 

 doubts that Professor Simonds's advice to Mr. Gurdon waa 

 wise and judicious, for if onre an animal was attacked with 

 p'eurc-pneumonia, if it were worth £10 or £12 it would soon 

 be reduced to £4 or £5, while there would be a heavy veteri- 

 nary bill to pay, and the animal would require much time to 

 get to its former condition ; therefore if it only realized £7 or 

 £8 it would be better to sell at once. There did not appear 

 any cure of the nose disease if it once got to a certain stage ; 

 if the lungs became hepatised and the air vessels stopped up, 

 the animals must die. The butcher he was convinced was the 

 best doctor in pleuro-pneumouia ; be had never found that he 

 could do so well as by getting the best price he could for the 

 animal before the disease got into the system. His friend Mr. 

 Overman, of Norfolk, had tried the homoeopathic system of 

 curing bullocks ; he saw his brother at the Sinithfield Club, 

 and he told him that out of 50 cases not one had been lost. 

 Mr. Gurdon would add to what he said before, that he was 

 inclined to think that pleuro-pnuemonia might be treated, but 

 it was the farmer'a entire ignorance, and the ignorance 

 of scientific men of the nature cf the disorder, which 

 prevented its being treated successfully. He should like to 

 know what was the commencement of the disorder. He should 

 like to see some course adopted to trace the disease in every 

 possible stage, and find out what the first stage was, and what 

 was the nature of it. From what he heard, the animal's 

 standing with its head out, its eye wild, and refusing to eat, 

 were the first intimations. Now he should like to kdl an 

 animal in that st»te directly ; but it could not be expected 

 thst a single individual could bear the expense of such experi- 

 ments, which he wanted to see carried out by the Royal So- 

 ciety on a large scale. He should like that Society to consi- 

 der whether it was not worth while for tbera to vote some 

 considerable sum for experiments on this subject. He wished 

 to see a hospital where these animals could be treated ; the 

 moment one was seized it should be killed and examined, the 

 same with an animal getting round, and beginning to feed, and 

 even an animal which had been with it, and shown no symp- 

 toms cf disease, should be also killed ; by these means they 

 might discover when and where the disorder commenced, and 

 all possible experiments should be tried to gain information on 

 the subject. 



It will be admitted that the men of Hadleigh spent a very 

 instructive evening, and one which would weii bear the " morn- 

 ing's reflection." 



THE PRESENT STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN ENGLAND. 



On Tuesday evening, the 8th of November, an able lecture 

 on "The Present State of Agriculture in England," was de- 

 livered at the Hall of the Scarborough Institute, by John Dent 

 Dent, Esq. R. H. Tiudall, Esq., presided. 



Mr. Dent commenced bia lecture by observing, that we 

 could not wonder at the interest which, through all time, had 

 been felt in agriculture, when we remembered that God bad 

 given man the earth for his subsistence, and that the conse- 

 quent labour had been the source of every human blessins;. 

 The soil, which to sloth would only yield thorns and thistles, 

 was to give the waving corn and the abundance of harvest as 

 the reward of well-directed iudustry. Hence the Christian 

 moralist and philosopher of every age had found no happier 

 illustrations of divine truth, and no readier vehicle of in- 

 struction, than those which he could gather from the simplest 

 operations of rural affairs. More than any others, the English 

 po'^ts, statesmen, and philosophers hud mace agriculture the 

 recreation of their leisure, and had looked upon it as the main- 

 stay of the nation to which they belonged. George the Third, 

 and the present Q,ueen, had alike encouraged and enjoyed the 

 labours of the farm ; while the most practical statesman of 

 modern times, Sir Robert Peel, had not merely been a con- 

 tributor to the Royal Agricultural Society's Journnl, but had 

 earned out great improvements at Drayton Munor, with the 

 same business-like spirit which had distinguished his political 



career. Still, interesting as the culture of land is to every 

 class — to the merchant, the trader, and the artizan, as well as 

 to those who are more directly occupied in it, such are the 

 prejudices of the farmers, and many of the landowners of 

 Eugland, that we have no correct returns of agricultural pro- 

 duction, and must content ourselves with a glance at opera- 

 tions, without being able to tell accurately their results. 

 Drainage had been the great improvement of modern days, 

 and had worked the most triking alterations in the strong 

 lands, rendering turnip culture and sheep farming possible 

 where bare fallows before were the rule. Mr. Dent gave a 

 sketch of the systems of Mr. Smith, of Deanston, and Mr. 

 Parkes, and quoted an extract from Capt. Blyth's work on water 

 meadow?, written during the Commonwealth, to show that 

 even then there were some who understood the true principles 

 of the subject, viz., that the object of the drains should be to 

 remove the spring-water at the point where it meets the rain- 

 fall, and stagnates under the surface ; and that by placing 

 drains at a depth of four feet, this would generally be best 

 effected; and that so a warm, sound bed would be left, 

 through which the rain-water might percolate, and the roots 

 of plants gather all the nourishment which comes down from 

 the atmospriere. The benefits arising from claying and marl- 

 ing the fen soils of Lincolnshire, and the improvements of the 

 sands of Norfolk, the heath and the wolds in Lincolnshire, 

 and the breaking up of the downs in the South of England, 

 were then sketched as excellent examples of the exertions 



