80 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



them upon cow's milk ; it is too rich for them, and 

 produces a most fatal kind of constipation, through 

 the accumulation of curds in the bowel : the only- 

 chance of dealing with which is to administer plenti- 

 fully a weak solution of Epsom salts, until, if the 

 case go well, the concretion dissolves. This disease 

 old farmers call " skit," and attempt superstitiously 

 to cure it by hanging a circlet of green withes round 

 the patient's neck. If you do decide against this 

 Spartan plan of clearing off the weaklings, you can- 

 not do better than nurse them with a baby's bottle, 

 having an india-rubber top to suck at. This is far 

 preferable to the usual clumsy fashion of a soda- 

 water bottle with a quill through the cork, which the 

 shepherd has to pull at himself every two minutes as 

 it fails to draw. 



During lambing season the heaviest ewes, and 

 especially those whose udders are filled, are put 

 in pens by themselves at night. They are, more- 

 over, kept in after parturition for a day or so, unless 

 it be beautifully fine. The shepherd must be lively 

 and about, as ewes often require assistance. But 

 see there ; that's unfortunate. Do you notice that 

 young ewe with a dark stain of some oozing liquid 

 on her wool behind and down her thigh, of catchup- 

 like consistency and colour? In summer it were 

 the indication of maggots' sad work : it has a 

 different, but unhappy, meaning now. Let her be 

 caught at once. Here it is : the shepherd finds pro- 

 truding just an atom of a decaying limb — the 

 foetus itself, dead and foul, is drawn forth by the 

 merest touch. In another hour the ewe had slipped 



