484 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



" nomonic. I have always believed that I could, by the sense of 

 '' smell alone, in the most absolute darkness, decide on the pres- 

 " ence of hoof-rot with unerring certainty. And I had about as 

 " lief trust my fingers as my eyes to establish the same point, 

 " from the hour of the first attack, if no other disease of the foot 

 *' is present. But the heat which invariably marks the earliest 

 *' presence of hoof-rot, might arise from any other cause which 

 " produced a local inflammation of the same parts. 



" When the malady has been well kept under during the first 

 "summer of its attack, but not entirely eradicated, it will almost 

 " or entirely disappear as cold weather approaches, and not mani- 

 *' fest itself again until the warm weather of the succeeding sum- 

 " mer. It then assumes a mitigated form ; the sheep are not 

 " rapidly and simultaneously attacked ; there seems to be less 

 *' inflammatory action in the diseased parts, and less constitutional 

 " disturbance ; and the course of the disease is less malignant, 

 " more tardy, and it more readily yields to treatment. If well 

 " kept under the second summer, it is still milder the third. A 

 " sheep will occasionally be seen to limp, but its condition will 

 "scarcely be affected, and dangerous symptoms will rarely super- 

 " vene. One or two applications of remedies made during the 

 "summer will now suffice to keep the disease under, and a little 

 *' vigor in the treatment will entirely extinguish it. 



" With all its fearful array of symptoms, can the hoof-rot be 

 " cured in its first attack on a flock ? The worst case can be 

 " promptly cured, as I know by repeated experiments. Take a 

 " single sheep, put it by itself, and administer the remedies daily, 

 *' after the English fashion, or as I shall presently prescribe, and 

 "there is not an ovine disease which more surely yields to treat- 

 " ment. But, as already remarked, in this country where sheep 

 " are so cheap and labor in the summer months so dear, it would 

 " be out of the question for an extensive flock-master to attempt 

 *' to keep each sheep by itself, or to make a daily application of 

 " remedies. There is not a flock-master within my knowledge 

 " who has ever pretended to apply his remedies oftener than once 

 " a week, or regularly as often as that, and not one in ten makes 



