488 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
fattened, and if regularly fed they seldom squeal in the pen, but take 
their food, lie down, and fatten fast. They thrive best on cooked food; 
cracked rye is excellent for this purpose. A reasonable allowance of 
potatoes, pumpkins, and other vegetables, with meal and skim-milk, is 
better than feeding on meal alone, to produce a rapid and healthy 
growth of flesh. Clods of fresh earth should be thrown into their pens 
every few days. There is something about the fresh soil grateful to 
their health and thrift. <A visible improvement in the breed of swine 
nas been noticed for the last twenty-five years in all parts of the State; 
the mixture of the Chester White, the Suffolk, and other breeds, having 
produced a finer form, with less offal, and greater disposition to fatten. 
Mr. Verriil’s lectures on the external and internal parasites of domes: 
tic animals, and their effects and remedies, are a valuable contribution 
to the report. Farmers will here find descriptions, with drawings, of 
the numerous insects that annoy and afflict their live stock; as fleas, 
ticks, bot-flies, meat-flies, poultry-lice, &c., with the modes of preven- 
tion or remedy. We extract the following paragraph: 
The best and simplest, as well as safest, wash to destroy fleas, mites, itch-insects, 
mange acari, and all external parasites of men and animals, (and ‘probably the mange 
in horses, ) i is a solution of sulphuret of potassium in water, say two to four ounces toa 
gallon of cold water, varying the strength according to the age and the tenderness of 
the skin of the animal, as the solution will contain some potash, which, if too strong, 
would irritate a delicate skin. There is no da anger in its application, put it has the 
disagreeable odor of sulphuretted hydrogen. This sulphuret of potassium comes in 
the form of greenish or grayish lumps, put up in tight bottles. Itis used in pho- 
cography, and can usually ‘be bought at the principal drug stores. 
Carbolic acid, diluted in water, is also recommended as an excellent 
wash for killing most kinds of parasites. 
Mr. Bissell, of East Windsor, recommends shearing sheep before they 
are turned out to pasture. This prevents a loss of woo! by their shed- 
ding it on bushes, &c., and it is also cleaner aud freer from grit or sand. 
At the discussions before the board, it was held that sheep subdue the 
coarse plants, and sweeten the pasture more than sufficient to compen- 
sate for what they eat. They go better after cattle than before them, 
and destroy the white-weed and briers on the farm wherever they lie. 
On land formerly overrun with the white daisy, since sheep have been 
xept, not a daisy can be found. Sheep bring up a run-down farm sooner 
shan any other kind of stock. They like variety, and if properly fed 
will return more value of flesh than any animal raised in the State. It 
is claimed that in England the amount of grain raised is not diminished, 
but rather increased, by the vast number of sheep maintained there. 
It is assumed that for mutton sheep, now the chief source of profit in 
Connecticut, there is no breed that surpasses the South Downs. They 
are quiet and hardy, yield a good fleece, and are also good mothers, and 
have a free ilow of milk for their lambs; and if in decent condition, 
their lambs will thrive so that increase of growth can be noticed almost 
from day today. <A good ewe will yield four pounds of washed wool 
and one lamb per year. On a farm adapted to the purpose, one hun- 
dred sheep can be kept as cheaply as ten cows, and with much less 
labor. 
The “blind staggers” in sheep has been cured by injecting diluted 
earbolic acid into each nostril two or three times. The cud was soon 
regained, and the usual health of the sheep restored. Physiologists 
have long noticed that, if nutrition is carried too high, by overfeeding, 
Sterility in the animals is the consequence. Alluding tc the loss of 
sheep by dogs, several farmers remarked that, after losing many, they 
placed bells on each one of the remainder of the flock, and since have 
