308 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



ease on the ranges it is absolutely necessary that all 

 old corrals and bed-grounds be either burned or disin- 

 fected. Posts near such places and also tree trunks 

 where the affected animals may have rubbed and thus 

 left a starter for a new outbreak, should be well treated 

 with strong solutions of the dip. Like all such troubles 

 it is a case of eternal vigilance, and the wideawake 

 sheepman dips his herd each spring, no matter whether 

 the sheep show signs of the disease or not. The dip- 

 ping is good for the sheep, they are rid of all ticks and 

 such insect pests for the time and as a general thing 

 the growth and staple of the wool are improved by the 

 operation. 



Lip and Leg Ulceration. This disease is local in its 

 geographical extent at present, being confined to cer- 

 tain well-defined areas in Wyoming and Montana, where 

 it has existed for many years in a mild form, but finally 

 through shipping and moving the herds about, on the 

 ranges, it became epidemic over a considerable area. 

 These areas have been quarantined and by co-operative 

 work between the Bureau of Animal Industry and the 

 board of sheep commissioners of each state is in a fair 

 way to be stamped out. 



The disease, like scab, does not always kill the ani- 

 mal affected but lowers its general condition and keeps 

 it in poor flesh. It is a highly infectious disease, 

 sheep apparently picking up the germs on the range 

 as they feed. Ranges having a great deal of cactus, so 

 that in feeding the animals get their lips and noses 

 pricked, are the most dangerous, for the disease seems 

 to be carried from one sheep to another by the deposit 

 on the feed of the pus or discharged matter from the 

 sores, on the animal's body, legs or lips. On such ranges 

 it is difficult to eradicate. 



