246 AGRICULTURAL REPORT 



introduces it here by any voluntary n^^k, or even unintentional carelessness, will 

 deserve and receive the execrations of all posterity. The disease, though not 

 regarded as identical to human small-pox, is very closely analogous to it in 

 every particular, and is equally contagious. Almost everything touched by 

 the animal diseased will, during a period not yet determined, communicate the 

 malady. The shepherds who handle the diseased sheep are required to change 

 their clothes and cleanse their hands before they go among healthy sheep. 

 The fields, the trees, and fences which have been rubbed against, the yards 

 and stable?, and even the grass and roads trodden by sheep laboring under this 

 malady are believed to retain and spread the contagion. It is not likely to 

 be introduced among our American fiocks by clothing, pelts, wool, or other 

 inanimate substances, Avithout a very extraordinary train of circumstances — 

 unless, indeed, a shepherd who had handled it should bring his infected cloth- 

 ing to this country and in that clothing handle American sheep. Perhaps such 

 a specimen of stupidity or wantonness is beyond the bounds of probability. 

 But it is very clearly the duty of every inhabitant of this continent to abstain 

 from importing live sheep from any country where the sheep small-pox pre- 

 vails or has prevailed at a recent date. A swift-sailing steamer would bring 

 sheep from Europe during the incubatory state of the malady. 



HOOF-ROT 



This is a soreness commencing in the cleft of the foot, and which gradually 

 extends into it, and disorganizes all its structure. The application of almost 

 any caustic will, in an early or mild stage of the disease, eradicate the ulcer, 

 so far as it is brought into direct contact with the caustic and kept in contact 

 with it until its curative qualities exercise their full effects. But the gi-eat 

 difficulty is, that among one hundred sheep every ulcer cannot be or is not so 

 carefully uncovered by the knife, or kept so free from filth, that its entire sur- 

 face is cauterized. And if such a surface of the smallest extent is protected 

 from the caustic by a covering of horn or filth, then the seeds of the future 

 malady and contagion are left in a soil where they are sure to be productive. 

 Or let us suppose that every particle of ulcerous surface in the foot is touched 

 by a mild, caustic, like blue vitriol, and then immediately plunged into wet 

 grass, or into moist manure, or washed by blood spirting from the wounded 

 parts, would there be any probability of a radical cure under any of these cir- 

 cumstances 1 Experience answers none. The difficulty of eradicating hoof-rot 

 from a large flock, under the rough surgery and haste of the farm, can then 

 be fully understood. The writer of this has had hoof-rot at four different pe- 

 riods on his farm, and at least five thousand sheep afiected by it, all of which 

 were cured, and lie has a right therefore to speak with some confidence. 



For mild cases of the malady, blue vitriol is decidedly the best remedy ; for 

 severe cases, butter of antimony. The writer has twice cured a flock completely 

 by one application of the former. In the first instance, each sheep had its 

 feet thoroughly pared for the purpose of exposing every part of the flesh in 

 the least afiected by the disease. The sheep was then placed in a tub of satu- 

 rated solution of blue vitriol and 7iot water three or four inches deep, and held 

 there by the neck by an assistant. A second one was prepared in the same 

 way and placed beside the first one in the water. When the third was ready, 

 the first was taken out, and so on. Each stood at least ten minutes in the 

 solution, which was kept constantly hot by dippiog out and replenishing from 

 the boiling kettle. The sheep were then placed in a dry situation, and they 

 proved to be completely cured. This w.is at the opening of winter. Many 

 years afterwards a flock of lambs were treated in the same way, except that 

 as five could stand in the tub of hot solution together each remained in it from 

 twenty to twenty-five minutes. This, too, was at the opening of winter, and 



