566 SFORADIC DISEASES. 



veniently effected at and about the lambing season, and if lambs 

 were dipped, great care would have to be exercised that the 

 dip be not too strong, or else the remedy might prove worse 

 than the disease. 



The great question, however, is, can ticks be destroyed and 

 the disease prevented ? and I think I am in a position to answer 

 in the affirmative. 



It must be borne in mind that, as already stated, ticks are 

 only found where the last and previous year's grasses are rank 

 and afford cover for the parasites, and the remedy for the pre- 

 vention of the disease is to eat down if possible, cut, burn, or 

 otherwise remove, during the autumn all the long grasses of the 

 previous summer's growth. 



Putting aside the problem which is yet unsolved, namely, the 

 possibility of the louping-ill organism having to pass one of its 

 stages of existence as a micro-fungus upon some grass (such as 

 the Nardus strida, which is found in great abundance on the 

 poor soil in such localities) before entering the body of the tick, 

 or whether it is hereditary, as it were, in the body of some 

 ticks, leaving the pasture bare, and subsidising it with hay or 

 corn, recommends itself to the careful consideration of all inter- 

 ested in sheep, for it is a fact placed beyond all doubt, that by 

 rendering the pastures bare the covers and hatching-places of the 

 ticks are thus destroyed. In confirmation of this conclusion, I 

 take the liberty of giving the experience of an Ettrick sheep- 

 farmer, Mr. Nichol, Crosslee and Newborough on Ettrick, who 

 was visited by Mr. Brotherston and myself on 24th June 1882. 



Mr. Nichol stated that he entered the farm of Newborough 

 twelve years ago, and that the louping-ill was then very bad. 

 Between Whitsunday term (May 26th) and August he lost ten 

 per cent, of his lambs — thirty-two out of sixteen score — besides 

 several ewes. He thought the farm was not worth having. 

 The parks were all in rough grass. Next year he bought some 

 cattle, and far more the following year ; ate, cut down, and even 

 burned the old grasses ; drained and limed the parks, using six 

 tons of lime per acre to the light and eight tons to the heavy 

 land. He continued to eat, cut, and burn down the grasses as 

 bare as he could, and both the " louping-ill " and the ticks be- 

 came scarcer and scarcer. The third spring after he entered 

 the farm it was very cold and sleety up to and after the 

 " cutting " time. Ticks were very much scarcer than they had 



