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268 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



slacked lime,* slack it, and then fill the trough nearly full of water.* 

 Through this drive the flock several times from one field to the other un- 

 til the lame ones manifest much suffering. Repeat this once a week the 

 first summer that the disease appears, putting in fresh lime each time.- 

 This does not appear to cure the hoof- ail, but it keeps it under ; the sheep 

 keep their condition, and show little lameness. The second or third sum- 

 mer of the disease, three or four such applications usually answer for the 

 entire season. Some use dry slacked lime, as the same trough-full will 

 then answer for several applications. The trough in this case must have 

 a roof over it. I never have tried the last method. If the dry lime will 

 get sufficiently between the toes and it is said to it will answer the 

 purpose where it touches more effectually than even the liquid, but it 

 would not be so likely to penetrate into cavities. Some who use the lime 

 remedy, pare the feet once pretty thoroughly prior to the first application, 

 but afterward neglect them. Others neglect paring entirely, i. e. beyond, 

 shortening the toes once a year, as is practiced with all fine-wooled flocks. 



Fig. 70 is an improvement on the 

 more common arrangement exhib- 

 ited in fig. 69. The dotted lines 

 enclose good-sized yards in the cor- 

 ners of two adjoining pastures. 

 Two drivers can yard the sheep in 

 one of these, and drive the sheep 

 from one to the other any number 

 of times, without chasing them 

 about a large field. The labor can 



therefore be performed much more rapidly, and it requires less force. A 

 couple of active fellows would yard and submit a flock of two or three 

 hundred sheep to the process in less than an hour. When the sheep are 

 first yarded, if there are any very lame ones, draw them out and place 

 them in one of the small pens (a, b.) Their feet can be examined, arid if 

 necessary a little extra pains taken with them, by paring, cauterizing, etc. 

 Each sheep as treated is put into the other small pen, where it can be re- 

 tained until the flock is discharged, and then removed to a separate pas- 

 ture from the others, if considered desirable. 



Where two yards are constructed, as in fig. 70, it is obvious that the- ar- 

 rangement can be made elsewhere as well as in the corner of two fields, 

 though if the sheep are wild, it may require a few rods of wing fence (in 

 the place of the dividing one between the fields, as seen in figures 69 and 

 70,) for the more convenient cornering of the sheep to yard them. Thus 

 one euch apparatus might be made to conveniently answer for a whole 

 farm, though thousands of diseased sheep were scattered in different flocks 

 over it, and may be placed at a spot where water, etc. are convenient. 



Where lime and water are used, the sheep must be driven through the 

 trough slowly and quietly as otherwise the lime will be scattered over 

 their wool, into their eyes, &c. If the lime is fresh. burned and highly 

 caustic, it would be likely to destroy their eyes. Indeed, pure fresh-burned 

 lime sometimes will take the hair off from their pasterns and shanks. It is 

 better, therefore, to use it when somewhat re-carbonized by exposure to 

 the air. 



Wood ashes are said to produce the same effect with lime. It is claimed 

 that sheep kept on lands where the timber has been recently burned, 

 (" new clearings,") will recover from the hoof-ail. Query : If this be true 



* To be added to, from time to time, if the number of sheep run through is largo enough to waste it mata 

 riafiy, before they ore sufficiently treated. 



