THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



163 



mortgageable property, so were his rails. He of course only 

 argued upon the supposition that the system had been 

 proved to be valuable. He agreed with Mr. Bailey Denton 

 in considering the brick and iron rail, which was the most 

 costly of the two, the best. With reference to the cost at 

 which they could be laid down, lie had had them actually 

 constructed, and the entire cost of material and labour 

 had been noted. 



The Chairman, in closing the discussion, remarked that 

 they should not encourage in that room the notion that 

 farmers were, for the most part, tiie stupid, benighted race 

 which some persons^chose to designate them. No doubt 

 there were many uneducated formers, as wellaspoorfarmera; 

 and many tenants probably held larger occupations than 

 their means justified. They did not want the Society of 

 Arts to tell them these facts. What they wanted on the 

 part of this Society was to point out the importance of me- 

 chanical principles, and to call to the aid of the farmers the 

 application of those mechanical principles. The position in 

 which this question stood was this: In the first place, far- 

 mers, from the north to the south, and even including the 

 benighted west, were alive to the importance of steam cul- 

 tivation. In the agricultural exhibitions of the country it 

 was found that nothing tended to attract so large an attend- 

 mce as the announcement that a steam engine, working a 

 large number of ploughs, would form a feature of the exhi- 

 bition. At present there were three systems of steam cul- 

 tivation before the country, two of a locomotive characters 

 and the stationary system. There was the locomotive 

 system upon a moveable railway, introduced by Mr. Boy- 

 dell. Then there was the system that had beea explained 

 that evening, of a fi.xed permanent line of rails, And 

 thirdly, there were several forms of stationary engines, 

 acting upon machinery by means of long wire ropes. All 

 these were now before the mechanical and agricultural 

 world ; and they only awaited the getting over of some 

 practical difficulties, which they looked to the engineering 

 talent of the country to surmount. His friend, Mr. Mechi, 

 had opened the discussion in a thoroughly practical manner. 

 The simple question was, whether the saving effected by 

 Mr. Halkett's system was greater than that of horse-power^ 

 orrather, whether the comparison of interest upon the fixed 

 capital invested would show a balance for or against the 

 former. He might be allowed to say that he came intothe 

 room with some prejudice against Mr. Halkett's system, 

 and he was even disinclined to take the chair, lest it should 

 be regarded by his friends as an indication of his approval 

 of the plan ; but he felt bound to say that what he had 

 heard that evening had led him to take a much more favour- 

 able view. If Mr. Halkett wished to win the agricultural 

 mind to his plan, he must show what was the utmost amount 

 of capital necessary to be invested, not only in the first out- 

 lay for the rails, but also in getting the whole system into 

 operation. These were matters which the agricultural mind 

 was apt to overrate, and which, on the other hand, the en- 

 gineering mind had a tendency to underrate, for they knew 

 very well that English engineers were ready to undertake 

 anything, if the mone)- was only found them. In the same 

 way, he believed, the farmers were ready to adopt any 

 change, if it was shown— not merely upon paper, but in the 

 field— that it would pay them. He begged to propose a 

 vote of thanks to Mr. Halkett for his valuable and highly 

 interesting paper. 



The vote of thanks having been passed, 



Mr. Halkett, in acknowledging the compliment, re- 

 marked that he was willing to submit his system to the 



severest tests that could be applied to it. He had invited 

 the examination of the most eminent engineers of the day. 

 amongst others Mr. William Fairbairn and Mr. Amos. He 

 was open to the most searching investigation with reference 

 to cost, and was ready to test his system in any locality in 

 which it might be deemed desirable, in order to prove the 

 correctness of the whole of his statements. 



LECTURE ON "STURDY" IN SHEEP. 



Mr. John (Jamgee was favoured by a large attendance in 

 the class-room of the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh, 

 on Wednesday week, to listen to his remarks on the pre- 

 vention of parasitic diseases of sheep, and of " sturdy" in 

 particular. Mr. Gamgee alluded to the causes of sheep-rot, 

 to the very serious losses resulting from the gre.at preva- 

 lence of filiform worms in the respiratory organs of 

 lambs, and occasionally to the sufferings flocks endure from 

 attacks of the hot, or ceslrus ovinus. In speaking of 

 " sturdy," the lecturer stated that this was a disease of the 

 brain, attended by peculiar symptoms of giddiness, blind- 

 ness, imperfect co-ordination of movement, and partial para- 

 lysis, according to the position which the parasite causing it 

 held in the cranial cavity. The parasite is a bladder worm, 

 the cccnurus cerebralis, usually mistaken for a mere bag 

 filled with water, but which Lecke observed in 1780 to be 

 an animal. The cystic worm, inducing " sturdy," is one of 

 a class to which belong the hydatid in the flesh of measly 

 pigs {cystieercus cellulosce), the hydatid sometimes found in 

 the human body and in various quadrupeds, known by the 

 generic title " echinococcus." All these cysts or bladders, 

 proved to have belonged or to form part of different animals, 

 were at one time supposed to have originated spontaneously by 

 the aggregation of matter, which afterwardsacquired vitality; 

 but, as our knowledge has advanced, more especially since 

 the researches of Ehrenberg in 1830, and of Eshricht in 

 183S, a certainty is established that all worms found in the 

 bodies of animals, however remote they may lodge from the 

 open channels which admit them into the living bodies 

 from without, are the produce of pre-existing parents, and 

 are developed from eggs. Mr. Gamgee described the para- 

 sites, and said that German zoologists and veterinarians had 

 caused dogs to swallow the hydatids from the brains of 

 sheep, with the effect of filling the dogs with tapeworms. 

 A few rings of the latter being given to lambs, the eggs had 

 passed through the body to the brain, and produced all the 

 characteristic features of " sturdy. There appears to be no 

 doubt that " sturdy" prevails among flocks of sheep in pro- 

 portion to the number of dogs moving about pastures and de- 

 positing tapeworms. Mr. Gamgee has found that wher- 

 ever lambs can be kept without dogs, " sturdy" is unknown ; 

 but in mountain districts, and wherever dogs are indispens- 

 able, the malady decimates the flocks. Dogs that destroy 

 hares and rabbits are very likely to become subject to tape- 

 worms, and the deposit ofthe rings of the latter proves injurious 

 to the sheep. Mr. Gamgee propo3es, as a method of prevent- 

 ing " sturdy'"— which, he believes, will prove infallible, 

 if properly carried out— segregation, as much as possible, 

 of lambs and yearling sheep from dogs ; destruction of the 

 tapeworm of the dog, by the periodical use of vermifuges, 

 such as garlic, kousso, and male fern. The fact that only 

 lambs become affected with "sturdy" has long been known; 

 and that is easily explained, inasmuch as old sheep do not 

 allow of the penetration in their bodies of the tapeworm eggs. 

 Mr Gamgee alluded to instruments for the cure of 

 "sturdy," and concluded by stating that he hoped farmers 

 would adopt the method which science unerringly suggested 

 for the prevention of so formidable a complaint. 



