FARMERS' REGISTER 



277 



hillierto nameless, but most desolatinnr disease, I 

 will lake ihe liberty lo call it the venter vacuus, or 

 hollow belly ; a malady, by the way, far more de- 

 structive to our poor sheep, than even the hollow 

 horn is to our most wo-begone, skoleton-looking 

 cattle. 1(" tlieir unfeeling masters could every now 

 and then feel a lew twinges of it, they would, at 

 least, be taught that sympathy (or their domesti- 

 cated brute animals, which all men naturally feel, 

 who are not themselves much less humane than 

 both reason and duly require them to be. 



A small portion of our larmers boldly assert that 

 we ourselves are the sole cause of this deadly dis- 

 ease ; and thai nothing is more simple and cheap 

 than the means by which it may be always and 

 entirely prevented — to wit : dry shelters to protect 

 them Irom bad weather; daily Ibod oC good long 

 Ibrage, with some grain, pease, or a due portion oC 

 such roots as they will eat; and salt sprinkled on 

 tar, twice or thrice a week. Others, constituting, 

 J believe, a considerable majority, would seem as 

 strenuously to maintain, that their sheep are wiser 

 than their masters in regard to shelters ; that arti- 

 ficial ones make them unhealthy; and that brows- 

 ing upon pine, cedar, and holly bushes, to warm 

 their stomachs, with poverty grass and broom- 

 straw lo give them the necessary distention, is lar 

 belter lor them, than lo save them the material 

 trouble of catering for themselves, without which 

 they are apt to become too lazy and plethoric. 



But all badinage apart, I would most earnestly 

 ask every man among us who owns sheep, if it is 

 not highly important to tliem all to settle forever, 

 and as speedily as possible, this difference of opi- 

 nion in reerard to their proper management? The 

 unanswerable proofs of the best practice are, and 

 have long been, within the reach of every one who 

 will take the trouble lo examine them with a mind 

 open to conviction. For if foreign publications on 

 the subject should be objected to as unsuitable for 

 us, enough and more than enough from the high- 

 est practical authority in our own country can be 

 found to satisfy even the most skeptical. There 

 are many of your correspondents who could exhi- 

 bit these prools, if they would only spare as much 

 time as to write them out for your Register. But 

 lest this method should savour too much of " book- 

 farming" (or some ofour brethren, I will respectfully 

 suggest another mode, in all cases where the com- 

 munication cannot be made from the writer's own 

 experience. For instance, when we go to our re- 

 spective courts, as it is the Virginia fashion for 

 nearly three-fourths of us to do on every court- 

 day, business or no business, instead of spending 

 the greater part of our time in those worse than 

 useless political party wranglings, where all are 

 clamoring together and none listening, let only 

 one or two men in each county endeavor to ob- 

 tain, from their (i'iends and acquaintances, answers 

 to the following questions : 



Do you, or do you not, shelter your sheep from 

 bad weather during winter and early spring? 



Do you leed them well (i-om November until 

 April ? 



What id the average weight of their fleeces, 

 and what the average loss of grown sheep and 

 lambs within that period? 



I presume that lew would refuse to reply to such 

 inquiries ; and if their answers were arranged in 

 a tabular form, as they might be, very concisely, 

 such elalements (unless I grossly err) would exhi- 



bit so striking a difference between the results of 

 the opposite modes of treatment, as would not 

 only astonish even those who suppose this differ- 

 ence to be greatest, but would forever banish all' 

 doubt fi-om every mind, unless it was of ihat stu- 

 pidly obstinate character upon which neither lacts" 

 nor arguments can make any irai)ression. I pray 

 you, sir, to endeavor to prevail on some of your 

 friends lo give you some such statements as I 

 fiave taken the liberty to suggest. 



If 1 may judge by what I myself know, and 

 have heard from authority in which I fully con- 

 fide, the average annual loss in our state, of 

 unsheltered and poorly fed sheep, has rarely, if 

 ever, been less than about 15 per cent. This last 

 season, I am confident, it has been greater; while 

 the fleeces of all such sheep, from the time of my 

 earliest recollection, have not averaged more than 

 three or three and a half pounds. With this state- 

 ment, which 1 admit to be somewhat conjectural, 

 although not entirely so, I beg j'our readers to 

 contrast the communication of Mr. L. A. M. of 

 Tompkins county, N. Y., in the 'Albany Culti- 

 vator' (or this month (April.) He states that he 

 "commenced the last winter with 535 lambs, and 

 that up lo the 21st of February he had lost but 

 two; both of which were mortgaged" (as he 

 says) " lo the crows belbre foddered season com- 

 menced." This farmer, be it remembered, both 

 shelters and feeds his sheep with great care. To 

 his statement I beg leave to add one which was 

 published several years ago, in the Richmond 

 'Enquirer,' (i-om a Mr. Hill, of Caroline county, 

 Va., a gentleman of unquestionable veracity. As 

 well as I recollect, it was made two years (ollow- 

 ing ; and in each year the fleeces of his sheep, to 

 which he paid great attention, averaged upwards 

 of six pounds. The three best flocks, by far, that 

 1 myself ever saw, were, one in Prince William, 

 one in King George, and one in Essex. All were 

 sheltered and well led from the commencement of 

 cold weather to the end of it; and the last men- 

 tioned flock was housed every night throughout 

 the year, in an old tobacco-house, which was 

 swept out every morning. These sheep were un- 

 commonly fine, and might well have been com- 

 pared with any that I have ever heard of in our 

 country. 



To conclude, I beg you, my good sir, to remem- 

 ber that this communication, like all the others 

 which I have ever made for your paper, is sent 

 solely pro bono publico, and not for self-gratifica- 

 tion. I submit it therelbre entirely to your owq 

 judgment to determine whether it can render any 

 service or not ; (or I never wish to occupy even so 

 much as a square in your Register, unless I can do 

 some good by it; and of this you must judge ra- 

 ther than Your old Iriend, 



James M, Garnett. 



Essex, jfpril lOth, 1840. 



EPIDEMIC AMONG HORSES. 



From tlie Carolina Planter. 



A disorder is prevailing extensively among 

 horses throughout the souihern states — in North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, it is very 

 general, and we understand liarther west. 



The s\ niploms are an irritability of the whole 



