226 



SHEEP— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



possible. 14. Separate all those that are 

 weak, thin or sick from those that are 

 strong, in the fall, and give them special 

 care. 15. If any one of your sheep is 

 hurt, catch it at once and wash the 

 wound ; and, if it is fly-time, apply spirits 

 of turpentine daily, and always wash with 

 something healing. If a limb is broken 

 bind it with splinters, but not tight enough 

 to interfere with the circulation of the 

 blood. 16. Keep a number of good 

 bells on the sheep. 17. Do not let the 

 sheep spoil their wool with chaff or burrs. 

 18. Cut tag-locks in early spring. 19. 

 For scours, give pulverized alum in wheat 

 bran; prevent by taking great care in 

 changing dry for green feed. 20. If one 

 is lame, examine the foot, clean out 

 between the hoofs, pare the hoof if un- 

 sound, and apply a wash of carbolic acid. 

 21. Shear at once any sheep commencing 

 to shed its wool, unless the weather is too 

 severe, and save carefully the pelt of any 

 sheep that dies. 22. If sheep are given 

 pine boughs once or twice a week, they 

 will create appetite, prevent disease, and 

 increase their health. 23. Their general 

 health during the grazing season will be 

 promoted by giving the sheep tar, at the 

 rate of a gill a day for every twenty 

 sheep. Put the tar in a trough, sprinkle 

 a little fine salt over it, and the sheep will 

 consume it with eagerness. 24. The best 

 sheep to keep, both for wool and mutton, 

 is the American merino, 



SHEEP, Catarrh in.— The following is 

 asserted to be a sure cure for this disease. 

 Take a quill from a hen's wing, immerse 

 the feather end in spirits of turpentine, 

 run it up the nostril of the sheep the 

 Avhole length of the feather end, and 

 twist it round before withdrawing it; wipe 

 it off clean each time before immersing. 

 One application will cure ordinary cases ; 

 the second or third, at intervals of two or 

 three days, will cure the worst. 



SHEEP, To Fatten for Winter.— Other 

 things taken into consideration, large 

 sheep fatten more easily and profitably 

 than small sheep, and full grown animals 

 than those that have not reached maturity. 

 Two-year-old wethers are the most profit- 

 able to fatten, and it is a matter of con- 

 siderable surprise that so few of our 

 farmers breed them. Sheep will fatten 

 readily in winter on good clover hay 

 alone ; we do not mean the dark looking, 



burnt-up stuff, commonly called by that 

 name, but what an American farmer would 

 call " hay," cut when in full bloom, and 

 cut in such a manner as to retain all its 

 juices before they are turned into woody 

 fibre, and of a good green color. A 

 sheep of say 120 lbs. live weight, will 

 consume 21 lbs. of clover hay per week, 

 and increase in weight 2 lbs. Allowing 

 that it would ordinarily consume 10 lbs. 

 to keep it in good stationary condition, 

 an expenditure of 7 lbs. of hay extra will 

 produce 1^ lbs. of mutton, worth, in the 

 spring, 10 cents, so that the extra feeding 

 is literally realizing to the farmer at the 

 rate of nearly $30 per ton for his hay. 

 No other stock, we think, will give such 

 a return for the trouble of fattening as 

 this. 



If it is desired to fatten sheep rapidly, 

 the addition of a small quantity of oats to 

 their food will be of great service; a 

 gallon of oats once a day, among twenty 

 sheep, will be a great help to fattening. 

 Fattening sheep do not require very warm 

 quarters — in fact, they will not bear close 

 confinement, but their quarters must be 

 dry, well ventilated, and abundantly lit- 

 tered with clean straw ; they must be fed 

 regularly, kept quiet, have access to 

 water, and an occasional taste of salt. It 

 will be found that when the weather is 

 very cold they will require to consume 

 somewhat more food than at other times, 

 in order to counteract the waste of sub- 

 stance used in generating heat for their 

 bodies, otherwise they will lose instead of 

 gaining on cold or stormy days. 



SHEEP, To Protect from the Gad Fly. 

 In August and September this fly lays its 

 eggs in the nostrils of sheep, where they 

 are hatched, and the worms crawl into 

 the head, and very frequently they eat 

 through to the brain. In this way many 

 sheep are destroyed. As a protection 

 smirch their noses with tar. Lay some 

 tar in a trough or on a board, and strew 

 fine salt on it — the sheep will finish the 

 operation. The tar will protect them, 

 and what they eat will promote their 

 health. 



SHEEP, Rheumatism in. — This disease 

 consists in a peculiar inflammation of the 

 muscles of the body very frequently causing- 

 considerable pain when they 'are called 

 into action. It is usually caused by ex- 

 posure to cold, and sometimes shifts from 



