312 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



or gorging with grain. And in some regions, among 

 the class of sheepmen who feed sheep in winter, 

 nearly all diseases are of this origin. 



Now as to the chance of cure. For external para- 

 sites cure is easy and cheap. For scab, lice, and 

 ticks there is the dipping bath, and this has been 

 carefully explained in another place. Foot-rot is 

 also of rather easy treatment. 



These things are matters requiring timely and 

 prompt treatment and are no cause for alarm 

 whatever except as scab breaks out in the winter 

 time in the middle of the feeding season, when it 

 is costly to dip and the sheep have serious setback 

 therefrom. Indeed, it is not just proper to class 

 these external parasites as diseases, any more than 

 fleas on a dog's back, though they produce disease 

 if left unchecked. 



The matter of internal parasites is much more 

 serious. Nine-tenths of all the troubles of sheep 

 east of the Missouri Eiver are caused by some form 

 or other of these plagues, or by a combination of 

 them. We will presently give to them some atten- 

 tion in detail. 



Derangements of the digestion, caused by too 

 much or too little food, or by food of improper 

 quality, are often hard to diagnose. For example, 

 recently a neighbor of the writer came to him for 

 advice. His wethers suffered from some brain dis- 

 order; they turned around and around in small cir- 

 cles, acting stupefied ; they lingered a few days and 

 died. These sheep had come from the same range in 



