THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



281 



Ai^aiii : " Some sui)po3e that moat depeuJenea iu the cwn 

 of this diseaje is to be pkced upon the removal of the sheep 

 into dry situations, keeping them warm aud sheltered, and 

 giving them dry food in the yard." By keeping sheep thus 

 uuder cover every night on dry chopped hay, com, &.\, the 

 disease was prevented in Bo-emia, " in the wet and fatal 

 year 17i)9;" and similar cases are quoted in this country in 

 favour of this plan. 



Our next quotation is from Young'd writings : " In Diu- 

 phinc, feeding in the dew is found to rot sheep more thaa 

 anything, on which account they do not let them out of fold 

 till the the sun b.as exhaled it Silt is the pieveutive ; 

 3 lbs. to forty shtep." — Yuumfs Travels vol i, p. 427. 



The last old work we snail quote is " Lawrence'* New 

 Farmers' Calendar" (fifth edition) : " The rot in sheep U, or 

 rather is occasioned by a dropsy su'i generis, common to sheep 

 and rabbits, and, I believe, to deer. I have had young rabbits 

 affected with it, when the lymph and water have distilled from 

 their mouths and noses ; and on disjc ;tiou, I have found it 

 filling up the entrails, and even cxtravasated iu the chest aud 

 belly ; the liver also full of flukes, as in sheep. Sheep, it is 

 well known, acquire this fatal disease from superabundant 

 moisture of food or wet lodging, from perspiration obstructed 

 by cold, from distress and low keep, and various other causes. 

 Sheep are a species which require dry countries, dry lodging, 

 aud food, if succulent, rather of a warm and spiritous, than a 

 cold and watery nature. They are not the stock for clayey or 

 or unsound soils. An incipient rot may be stopped, and 

 the sheep restored, by being taken up to dry lodging, and 

 drying absorbent keep ; but the disease confirmed is obviously 

 incurable. Sainfoin, burnet, or lucem hay, straw, green 



broom, pine tops, juniper, worniR'ooJ, the mints, thyme, sage, 

 tue, carduus, with ground malt, peas, or oats and bran, or 

 chaff, in which may be mixed hay ; or common salt, willow 

 or oak bark, according to symptoms, the aniuiah' scouring, or 

 otherwise, are the remedies." " Turnips," adds the same 

 author, " from their watery nature, are our worst winter food 

 for a'.'.eep." 



Such is what some of cur best authorities of the olden time 

 tell us about rot in sheep. The views which were expressed 

 fifty aud a hundred years ago, it will be perceived, are those 

 of the present day amongst the gieat bulk of farmers, both as 

 regards the cause of the disease, its prevention, and its cure. 

 Having recently had occasion to visit a large portion of the 

 two divisions of the United Kiugdcm, we found this conclu- 

 sion verified in the opinions expressed both by farmers and 

 butchera. It was interesting tj us to witness how faithfully 

 the old traditionary account had been banded down to the 

 present generation. At the middle of the last and commence- 

 ment of the present century, the cauaes assigned for rot were 

 considered unsatisiactory. Nevertheless, those causes in- 

 volved matter of fact which could not be denied ; and just so 

 do we find things at the present day. The same causes are 

 assigned, because the same matteiS of fact exist ; but they arc 

 not considered satisfactory. We have our healthy salt 

 marshes, our salt and other condiments, mixed with dry food 

 as preventives. So had our forefathers ; but it requires no 

 great amount of common sense, now any more than it did 

 then, to perceive in all this much that will not bear criticism 

 by practical men, when brought to the bar of Experience, as 

 we shall show in another article. \^. B. 



ON THE BEST PERIOD OF THE ROTATION, AND THE BEST TIME OF YEAR, 

 FOR APPLYING THE MANURE OF THE FARM. 



BY EDWARD WORTLEY, RIDLINGTON. 



With 30 many different systems of farming as are not only 

 seen, but required, it would be a difficult task to point out, in 

 one brief rule, " the best period of the rotation" at which to 

 apply the manure of the farm. It may therefore, perhaps, be 

 pardoned, if I at once briefly describe my own practice re- 

 lating to the application of manures, and some reasons for 

 adopting it. 



The occupation to be referred to in this paper consists of 

 430 acres, 200 acres arable, and farmed throughout, though 

 varying from heavy clay to what is commonly called good 

 turnip land, on the five-field system — viz., 1st year, roots; 

 2nd, barley, oats, or wheat; 3rd, seeds (once mown, gene- 

 rally) ; 4th, oats or beans ; 5th, wheat. I have found on both 

 descriptions of land, that this is a far more successful rotation 

 than the four-field system. It allows the turnips and clovers 

 to be repeated at longer intervals. Swedes, by being alter- 

 nated with other roots, can be thrown ten or fifteen years 

 apart. It gives a stock-breeding farmer the valuable use of 

 his seeds iu the winter months — until Christmas on heavy 

 land, and till March on light laud ; and it gives a much 

 greater probability of securing a full and healthy crop of 

 wheat than when that crop is taken after clover-brush. For 

 many years I have noticed the loss of the wheat plant during 

 winter, from the turf lifting after severe frosts, where it has 

 been sown after seeds, and alto from the ravages of slugs aud 

 wireworms. When these casualties occur in the winter. 



mildew is, unfortunately, generally found to succeed in the 

 summer. 



As soon after harvest as the stubbles have been properly 

 cleaned by scarifying or forking, as required, the land intended 

 for maugold-wurtzel and cabbage, or kohl-rabi, is manured 

 with twenty loads of good rotten manure per acre ; and the 

 remainder of the manure on hand is directly applied to the 

 one year- old seeds, after the rate of about sixteen loads to the 

 acre. No farmyard manure whatever is used for swedes or 

 common turnips, nor for coleseed, experience having satisfied 

 me that superphosphate of lime is more economically used in 

 their production, aud that farmyard manure can be applied 

 with greater advantage to other crops, and that, too, at a 

 much more convenient time — viz., on the one-year old seeds 

 for the last two grain crops in the rotation. No doubt, man- 

 gold and cabbage also can be grown without farmyard ma- 

 nure. Indeed, I had a very heavy crop last year, from no 

 other application than six cwt. of the London Manure Com- 

 pany's mangold manure per acre. But, knowing the very 

 hungry nature of mangold and cabbage, and always so plainly 

 seeing in the lighter corn crops following their growth their 

 great exhausting powers, I think the land intended for them 

 should always receive an autumn dressing of good farmyard 

 manure, and, in addition, six cwt. of superphosphate of lime, 

 or some other equivalent, in the spring. 



When those portions of the root fallows requiring farmyard 



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