SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



ter " The Distemper" and others again call it the " Grub in the Head" at- 

 tributing the evil exclusively to the presence of these parasites. The 

 latter, as I shall hereafter show, is an entirely erroneous hypothesis. 



The winter of 1846-7 was one of these " bad winters," and the d^ 

 struction of sheep in New-York, and some adjoining States, was very ex 

 tensive. Some flock-masters lost half, others three-quarters, and a few 

 seven-eighths of their flocks. One individual within a few miles of me lost 

 five hundred out of eight hundred another nine hundred out of one 

 thousand ! But these severe losses fell mainly on the holders of the deli- 

 cate Saxon sheep, and perhaps, generally, on those possessing not the best 

 accommodations, or the greatest degree of energy and skill. 



I lost about fifty sheep during this winter, and never having seen any de- 

 scription of the pathology of this disease, its diagnosis, its lesions or, in 

 short, any attempt to ascertain its specific character or proper classifica- 

 tion in our ovine nosology I shall attempt to supply some of these omis- 

 sions. Not dreaming then of a publication of this kind, my notes were 

 only taken for private reference, and were not as full as they should be for 

 a veterinary treatise. I might supply some of these omissions accurately 

 from recollection, but do not consider it proper thus to endanger the accu- 

 racy of records, which as far as they go, I think may now be implicitly re- 

 lied on. My post-mortem examinations were made at intervals snatched 

 from other pressing engagements. This fact, and certain preconceived 

 views which I subsequently found erroneous prevented me from making 

 those examinations, and more particularly the records of them, as minute 

 and extended as could be wished. I then sought only to convince myself 

 of the true nature and character of the disease. 



In detailing the results of my experience in the premises, I conceive it a 

 duty to frankly state the whole facts. The records of mismanagement and 

 error, are often as useful, nay, more so, than those of successful manage- 

 ment, and it is a pitiful pride which prevents any man, who pretends to 

 communicate information to the public, from giving that public the bene- 

 fit of his examples which are to be avoided, as well as those which are to 

 hv followed. 



Up to February, my sheep remained apparently perfectly sound, and 

 they were in good flesh. Each flock had excellent shelters, were fed re- 

 gularly, etc., and although sheep were beginning to perish about the coun- 

 try, my uniform previous impunity in these " bad winters " led me to en- 

 tertain no apprehensions of the prevailing epizootic. About the first of 

 February, my sheep went into the charge of a new man, hired upon the 

 highest recommendations. A few days after, I was called away from home 

 for a week. The weather during my absence was, a part of the time, very- 

 severe. The sheep-house occupied by one flock containing one hundred 

 sheep, was, with the exception of two doors, as close a room as can be 

 made by nailing on the wall-boards vertically and without lapping, as is 

 common on our Northern barns.* One of the doors was always left open, 

 to permit the free ingress and egress of the sheep, and for necessary ventila- 

 tion. A half dozen ewes which had been untimely impregnated by a 

 neighbor's ram, were on the point of lambing, and it being safer to confine 

 the ewes in a warm room over night, the shepherd, instead of removing 

 them to such a room, confined the whole flock in the sheep-house every 

 night, and rendered it warm by closing loth doors ! After two or three 

 hours, the air must have become excessively impure. On entering the 

 sheep-house, on my return, I was at once struck with the fetid, highly of- 

 fensive smell. A change, too, slight but ominous, had taken place in the 



* Boards in these cases shrink so as tc leave slight cracks between them. 



2H 



