166 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



with the hand does not spring out again as when the 

 animal is in vigorous health. Looking more closely, 

 the red in the veins in and about the eye seems pale 

 and when you part the wool the skin has lost its 

 pinkness, and if the disease has progressed far it 

 looks white and chalky. There is a disordered diges- 

 tion and perhaps a depraved appetite; the animal 

 may gnaw earth, rotten wood or bark ; there may be 

 diarrhea or constipation. Before death comes there 

 will probably be "blackscours." Old sheep seldom 

 die from stomach worms but are run down in vitality 

 by the pest, while lambs may die in great numbers. 



Stomach worms seldom ever trouble sheep in cool 

 regions and there is some evidence that a tempera- 

 ture of 50 degrees in the soil prevents their develop- 

 ment. Therefore they do not spread through a flock 

 until warm weather, which may come in May and 

 certainly comes in June. Up to that time the lambs 

 are comparatively safe to run with the mothers; 

 after that the idea of the twisted stomach worm 

 must be kept ever in mind. 



It may be well here to call attention to the fact 

 that there are considerable regions in America 

 where fear of the stomach worm is not felt. In 

 Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont 

 there is little or no evidence of Haemonchus infesta- 

 tion. Northern New York and the mountain regions 

 of that section should be almost exempt from danger 

 if flocks are properly managed. Ontario, in Canada, 

 seems nearly without the -dread pest. The writer 

 has seen wonderful flocks in Vermont and Ontario 



