SHEEP, SWINE, AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 443 



perienced operator cannot perform sucli processes in a harry— 

 the inexperienced one must perform them slowly, or all the 

 time saved will be lost, twenty times over, in having to repeat 

 them for an indefinite number of times. 



" I had a flock of sheep a few years since that were in the 

 second season of the disease. They had been but little looked 

 to during the summer, and as cold weather was setting in many 

 of them were considerably lame — some of them quite so. The 

 snow fell and they were brought into the yards, limping, and 

 hobbling about deplorably. This sight, so disgraceful to me as 

 a farmer, roused me into activity. I bought a quantity of blue 

 vitriol, made the necessary arrangements, and once more took 

 the chair as principal operator. Never were the feet of a flock 

 more thoroughly pared. Into a large washing tub, in which 

 two sheep could stand conveniently, I poured a saturated solu- 

 tion of blue vitriol and water, as hot as could be endured by the 

 hand even for a moment. The liquid was about four mches deep 

 on the bottom of the tub, and was kept at about that depth by 

 frequent additions of the hot solution. As soon as a sheep's feet 

 were pared, it was placed in the tub and held there by the neck, 

 by an assistant. A second one was prepared and placed beside 

 it. When the third one was ready, the first was taken out, and 

 so on. Two sheep were thus constantly in the tub, and each 

 remained in it about ten* minutes. The cure was perfect. 

 There was not a lame sheep in the flock during the winter or 

 the next summer. The hot liquid penetrated to every cavity 

 of the foot, and had doubtless a far more decisive eftect even o\ 

 the uncovered ulcers than would have been produced by merely 

 wetting them. Perhaps the lateness of the season was also favor- 



* This, by a misprint, was published five, in Sheep Husbandry in the 



South. 



27 



