SHEEP—CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



211 



sometimes are in the hoose of young 

 cattl 



The morning dose should be given on 

 an empty stomach, and the evening dose 

 before the night's feed is given, if the an- 

 imal is housed. 



All the hay should be salted, and some 

 have recommended that even the pasture 

 should be impregnated with salt. This 

 is easily managed. A little plot of 

 ground may be selected, or a portion of a 

 field hurdled off, and salt scattered over it 

 as equally as possible, and in the propor- 

 tion of ten bushels to an acre. Three 

 weeks afterwards the sheep may be 

 turned on it to graze, stocking the ground 

 after the rate of ten sheep to an acre ; in 

 the meantime the field from which they 

 are taken may be brined in the same man- 

 ner. When they have eaten the grass quite 

 close, they may be changed back to the 

 other plot, and so on as often as may be 

 necessary, strewing at each change five 

 bushels of salt per acre on the pasture. 

 The sheep will fatten at a rapid rate if the 

 disease is not too much advanced, and 

 the disease will sometimes be arrested 

 even in the worst cases. 



It must, however, be confessed, that 

 although sheep are often saved from the 

 rot by the use of salt, they have rarely 

 been perfectly restored to their former 

 health. The taint is left ; they are more 

 disposed to receive the the infection from 

 a slight cause ; and, six or twelve months 

 afterwards, they frequently die of hoose 

 or inflamed bowels ; therefore, it will be the 

 interest of the farmer to fatten them as soon 

 as possible, and sell them to the butcher. 

 The butcher will always tell by the ap- 

 pearance of the liver whether the sheep 

 had at any former time been rotted. In 

 some few cases lambs have been procured 

 from ewes thus cured, but they have sel- 

 dom lasted longer than one or two 

 seasons. 



SHEEP, Blindness in. — Sheep are more 

 subject to diseases of the eye that lead on 

 to blindness than many persons who are 

 most accustomed to them imagine. It is 

 a singular circumstance, and not so well 

 known as it ought to be, that if the eyes 

 of a flock of sheep are carefully exam- 

 ined, half of them will exhibit either dis- 

 ease then present, or indications of that 

 which existed at no very distant date. 



Inflammation of the eye, which consti- 



tutes the commencement of the disease, 

 may arise from various causes. Sheep 

 driven fast to a distant market have sud- 

 denly become blind ; those who have 

 been chased about by dogs, have at no 

 great distance of time lost their sight, and 

 especially if, in both cases, they were af- 

 terwards exposed in a damp and bleak 

 situation. The violent driving, while it 

 produced fever, determined an undue 

 quantity of blood to the head; it pressed, 

 or perhaps was effused upon the origins 

 of the nerves of the eye; and the after 

 neglect confirmed the fever, and aggra- 

 vated the mischief. 



At other times, this seems to be an ep- 

 idemic complaint. The greater part of 

 the flock is suddenly afflicted with sore 

 and inflamed eyes, and particularly at the 

 latter end of the year, and when the 

 weather has been variable, yet cold and 

 moist. Some have thought that this com- 

 plaint is infectious, but it is at least epi- 

 demic. A white film gradually spreads 

 over the eyes, which the animal generally 

 keeps closed, while at first a watery fluid, 

 and afterwards a thicker mucous matter, 

 is discharged from them. The film in- 

 creases until the whole of the eye is of a 

 pearly whiteness. If proper means are 

 adopted, and often if nothing is done, in- 

 flammation abates, and the eye begins 

 to clear, usually commencing at the up- 

 per part of the eye, and gradually pro- 

 ceeding downward until the whole of the 

 organ is once more transparent, with the 

 exception) perhaps, of a diminutive spot 

 or two, or a discoloration of part of 

 the iris. Many of the sheep, however, 

 do not perfectly recover the sight of 

 both eyes, and some remain totally 

 blind, either from the continuance of the 

 opacity, or that, while the eye becomes 

 clear, the optic nerve is palsied, the pu- 

 pil does not dilate, and there is gutta 

 serena. 



The first thing to be done is to bleed 

 from the vein at the corner of the eye. 

 There will be the double advantage of 

 bleeding generally and of drawing blood 

 from the inflamed part. The shepherd 

 should take the sheep between his knees, 

 and then, placing the animal with his 

 rump against the wall, he will have full 

 command of him. If he now presses 

 upon the vein with his left hand, about 

 two inches from the angle of the jaw, 



