98 STATES OP THE RIVER PLATE. 



German and Merino blood. There is no doubt in my 

 mind that, from the habit of excessive confinement, high 

 feeding, dirt, and impure atmosphere combined, the ten- 

 dency has become chronic in their blood ; and a total 

 change of system, and much care, may be required to 

 eradicate it. 



The course I would recommend is, in the first place, to 

 select a genial period of the year, when sweet succulent 

 grass is abundant. Shear the sheep, ' dip ' them thoroughly 

 in Demarches preparation of sulphur and tobacco, or 

 other similar 'dip,' and remove them at once to new, 

 clean ground, which would have to be reserved and 

 fenced off in anticipation of this. In this clean ' potrero ' 

 I should leave them day and night, or, if the situation 

 was inconvenient, bring them into a smaller ' potrero ' 

 not a ' corral ' at night. Pure water to drink at discre- 

 tion, and rock-salt to lick. Shade (of trees, or other) to 

 drive them under during extreme heat of the sun. While 

 the sheep were getting thus a two, three, or four months' 

 run effecting a change in their whole system and puri- 

 fying their blood I would recommend all sheds, racks, 

 and every portion of the ' plant ' where they had been 

 kept, undergoing a thorough cleaning and purifying. I 

 would not allow any sheep to enter on to this ' plant ' or 

 ground for some months. 



I should certainly allow sheep to run in the fresh air 

 as much as possible. I have no doubt, from my own ex- 

 perience, that much greater vigour is attained by animals 

 that are as much in the open air as is practicable, without 

 exposure to extremes of heat or inclemencies of weather. 

 There are few days in the spring, autumn, and winter, 

 when the sheep may not be out grazing the greater part 

 of the day ; and in the summer, early in the morning 

 and in the cool of the evening, with decided advantage ; 



