DAILY MANAGEMENT OF LAMBS AND TEGS. 147 



due to too much corn, too many roots in an unripe, rotten or other 

 unhealthy condition, or to something injurious in the hay or chaff, 

 though an internal chill may cause it. The farmer and shepherd 

 should at once look into the matter, determine the cause, and 

 rectify the diet. If the roots are rotten or unripe, while the other 

 food is good, the cause may be expected there, and some portion 

 should be withdrawn, and the deficiency made good by bulky 

 dry food, such "as hay or chaff. If the roots are good it generally 

 points to something wrong with the corn or cake, which may have 

 been heated at some time, or become mouldy. This is frequently 

 the cause, and when it is, requires correction. Mouldy hay may 

 cause it. We had a strange personal experience of poisoning 

 on one occasion when the whole of the ewe flock was affected. 

 The ewes were suckling lambs, which were fortunately old enough 

 to eat food in addition. The sheep suddenly lost the use of their 

 hindquarters, the milk dried up, and they scoured badly, the 

 fleeces being covered with coppery scum and no little mucus. There 

 appeared every likelihood of their dying. The shepherd, finding 

 them in this state, gave them more chaff, which, fortunately, 

 they were unable to eat. It appeared that the shepherd, when 

 on the way to the hay stack, passed by where a stack of wheat 

 was being threshed, and noticing what he thought was an agree- 

 able smell from the chaff blown out of the machine, thought it 

 would be an excellent food for the sheep. The sheep ate it freely, 

 with the result mentioned. The sheep were given castor-oil, 

 and then fed on rich linseed cake, split peas and sweet hay, and 

 recovered, not one being lost ; about half the sheep could get up 

 in the course of two days, and all of them within a week. The 

 lambs were shut away from their mothers, and suffered very little, 

 the drying up of the milk probably saving them. The milk gradu- 

 ally came back. The injurious matter in the chaff consisted of 

 the seed-heads of stinking camomile (mayweed) and wild marigold. 

 Mayweed often causes sore noses to sheep feeding on stubbles. 

 The stubble pricks the noses of the sheep, and poison gets into 

 them, causing festering sores and (sometimes) gums. Such sheep 

 are best isolated and fed on easily eaten foods. A contagious 

 form of sore nose is much more to be dreaded, especially where 

 sheep gnaw roots, as the contagion is caught as the sheep go from 

 root to root. Sore noses and mouths prevent the animals from 

 getting a proper amount of food, and they lose condition, the 

 effect on a whole flock being a very serious loss. Sore noses, from 

 whatever cause originating, should be regarded with suspicion, 

 and sheep affected should be withdrawn from the flock and isolated 

 at once. Bad cases should be bathed, and cooling ointment applied 

 The farmer should handle a few of the sheep at least once a week 

 to see whether they are in an improving or a retrogressive condition, 



