THE ROT. 215 



been rendered perfectly sound and healthy by beini^ well under- 

 drained, that is, by beinor made dry. There are hundreds of thou- 

 sands of acres, on which a sheep, forty years ago, could not pasture 

 for a day without becoming rotten, that are now as healthy as any in 

 the kingdom. 



We can also tell the kind of wet ground which will give the rot. 

 Wherever the water will soon run off, there is no danger ; but where 

 it lies upon the surface of the ground, and slowly evaporates, the rot 

 is certain. One part of a common shall be enclosed ; or if it has not 

 been drained, at least the hollows in which the water used to stand 

 are filled up, and the surface is levelled : no rot is caught there. On 

 the other side of the hedge there are these marshy places, these little 

 stagnant ponds, where evaporation is always going forward, and the 

 ground is never dry — a sheep cannot put his foot there without being 

 rotted. These are plain, palpable facts, and they are sufficient for 

 the farmer's purpose, without his puzzling his brains about the man- 

 ner in which wet ground produces diseased liver. 



He may be assured that it has nothing to do with the animal's 

 feeding on stimulating or poisonous herbs. It has nothing whatever 

 to do with the food. It depends on the wetness or dryness of the 

 pasture. 



How is it, then, that when so great a part of the country is under- 

 drained, the rot should continue to be almost as prevalent as ever? 

 Why is it not so prevalent where the ground has been properly under- 

 drained'? There are fields in every well-managed farm in which the 

 rot is never known ; there are others in which it still continues to 

 depopulate the flock. 



The draining may not be equally effectual in both. It might have 

 been carelessly, superficivilly performed in the one case; or the soil 

 of the two pastures may be very different. The one may be light 

 and porous, and a little draining may effect the purpose : the soil of 

 the other may be heavy and tenacious, and drains not more than a 

 yard asunder would scarcely keep it dry. What is more to the pur- 

 pose, but less thouorht of, there may be little nooks and corners in the 

 field that have not been underdrained. A few minutes' trampling 

 upon them will be fatal to the sheep, and one or two of them upon 

 the whole farm will render all the labour bestowed on every other 

 part absolutely nugatory. 



It is surprising how soon the animal is infected. The merely 

 going once to drink from a notedly dangerous pond has been suffi- 

 cient. The passing over one suspicious common in the way to or 

 from the fair, and the lingerinsT only for a few minutes in a deep and 

 poachy lane. Then it can easily be conceived what mischief one or 

 two of these neglected corners, in which there may be little swamps 

 perhaps only a yard or two across, may do in a farm in other respects 

 well manajjed, and perfectly free from infection. 



The disease of the liver terminating in or constituting the rot, is, 

 then, dependent on moisture, and that retained for a certain time on 



