244 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



TREATMENT. 



Make^3ome good strong soap-suds, with which wash off 

 the ear, and then anoint with the sulphur ointment. Give 

 this a thorough trial, and if a cure is not eftected, apply a 

 very little of the mercurial salve once a day, for two or three 

 days. Omit for about the same period, and apply again. But 

 it will rarely be necessary to use this salve. 



VERMIN. 



This is a very appropriate connection in which to intro- 

 duce the subject of vermin, those pests which, in some form 

 or other, torment every class of the animal creation. Here- 

 tofore, vermin have generally been supposed to infest only 

 the horse which was very poor and in bad plight generally ; 

 but during and since the late war, we have known them to 

 trouble a great many animals in excellent condition. In such 

 cases they hav^ probably been only the offspring of chance 

 comers, originally bred elsewhere. 



On poor, mangy horses, these pests do undoubtedly breed. 

 They are one of the curses which attend bad stabling, foul 

 air, filth, and negligence. Although they may appear on 

 horses that run in pasture, in nine cases out of ten they are 

 bred in illy-managed stables, and are almost invariably the 

 associates of impurities and squalid poverty. They always 

 evidence a lack of proper currying, and negligence in respect 

 to keeping both the horse and stable clean. 



They are generally worse in the early spring, just before 

 the hair is shed; but, unless removed, they often cling to 

 many old carcasses all the year. Old horses are more troubled 

 with them than the young and vigorous. They are the tor- 

 ment especially of the colt, during his first winter, and many 

 a poor, thin, half-dead yearling has been reduced to that con- 

 dition by these crawling nuisances. To' their presence the 

 farmer may often trace the lean unthrifty condition of his 

 colt, that is otherwise inexplicable. 



In some cases they are the ofifepring of disease, and too 



