13 



of this manure with lime in the compost heap, and a frequent cleansing 

 of the yard, would be far better, so far as the sheep are concerned, than 

 to allow it to accumulate. The lime would not only serve to kill the 

 eggs of parasites in the manure, but would add fertilizing material to 

 it. Manure so treated would be a better fertilizer, and would also be 

 less apt to infect sheep when spread upon the fields. The compost 

 heap should never be where the liquor from it can be washed by the 

 rains into water which the sheep drink. As the manure from these 

 yards may prove the source of infection, sheep should never be pastured 

 on fields recently enriched with it, unless there is absolute certainty 

 that the previous treatment of the manure has destroyed all the em- 

 bryos of the parasites. As frequently urged in the text, every means 

 should be taken to supply sheep with pure water. Although experi- 

 ments show that sheej) have other means of getting parasites than from 

 the water they drink, yet this is at times a very fertile scource of infec- 

 tion. The use of drinking-troughs into which water runs or is pumped, 

 and rapidily running water, seem best suited to meet the requirements. 



The grain food should be fed from cleanly swept troughs or floors. 

 Hay should be put in racks, as feeding from the ground is not only 

 wasteful but tends to infect with parasites. Salt should be supplied in 

 boxes placed where sheep can have ready access to it. The mixture 

 of a small proportion of finely powdered sulphate of iron with the salt 

 is allowable at times. 



Pastures, which are ordinarily uncared for further than to provide 

 fences for securely confining the sheep, need careful supervision. Wet 

 swails, bogs and swamps should either be fenced out or drained. Past- 

 ures which are overstocked, and in which a flock of sheep is kept con- 

 tinuously, are the most fertile sources of infection. Not only do the 

 sheep become more frequently infected where they are compelled to eat 

 the grass close to the ground, but the chances of their being compelled 

 to graze on an infected area are largely increased by keeping them 

 ranging over the same ground of limited area week after week. Old 

 sheep stand such treatment much better than young ones. For the lat- 

 ter, those fields which have not been pastured on by older sheep are 

 better. The practice of feeding the sheep over fields from which the 

 crops are removed is a good one, not only for the sheep but for the 

 fields. These remarks, of course, apply more strictly to fenced farms 

 and not to unfenced sheep ranges, but even on these certain portions 

 of the range can be reserved for the lambs. The practice of allowing 

 lambs, after they are old enough to wean, to feed after older sheep is 

 also a source of infection. 



The relation of the dog to sheep husbandry is too important to be over- 

 looked. Were it not that the definition of parasite excludes such ani- 

 mals as can be considered beasts of prey, the dog would be placed at 

 the head of the list of parasites as being the most destructive. Though 

 this be unmistakably apparent to a large majority of sheep-owners, 



