SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 445 



the European diseases is only delayed here for more artificial systems of 

 feeding, breeding, or perhaps more artificial systems of Agriculture af- 

 fecting the aliment of the sheep, or other and unexplainable causes, time 

 alone must determine. 



If we look for these differences in the observable differences of climate, 

 we find no satisfactory solution of the problem. The.climate of England 

 is essentially different from our own — but that it is a favorable one for the 

 healthy development of all the animal tissues, her large, strong, long- 

 lived population, as well as her well-developed animal kingdom, abun- 

 dantly attest. The atmosphere of England is a moist and humid one, and 

 moisture is thought to be one of the necessary predisposing causes of both 

 rot and hoof-ail. Of the origin of the former disease, Mr. Youatt 

 remarks : * 



" The rot in sheep is evidently connected with the soil or state of the pasture. It is con- 

 fined to wet seasons, or to the feeding on ground moist and marshy at all seasons. It has 

 reference to the evaporation of water, and to the presence and decomposition of moist veget- 

 able matter. It is rarely, or almost never, on diy and sandy soils and in dry seasons ; it is 

 rarely wanting on boggy or poachy ground, except when that ground is dried by the heat of 

 the summer sun, or completely covered by the winter rain. In the same fann there are cer- 

 tain fields on which no sheep can be turned with impunity. There are others that seldom 

 or never give the rot." 



Mr. Youatt continues his descriptions of these predisposing conditions 

 at great length, and his final conclusion is, in substance, that the miasmata, 

 or gases exhaling from the decomposition of vegetable substances, are the 

 causes of the rot. Mr. Spooner adopts the same views ; indeed, they are 

 universally received among scientific veterinarians. 



If these views are correct, the evil lies not in a generally humid atmo- 

 sphere, but in a generally or temporarily humid soil ; and that they are 

 true quo ad hoc, is proved by the fearful ravages of the disease in the 

 driest atmosphere of Germany, in the clear, dry atmosphere of the South 

 of France, and under the torrid skies of southern Spain, where rain does 

 not fall for months. 



Boggy or fenny soils, where decaying vegetable substances are con- 

 stantly exhaling their gases, are to be found in all parts of the United 

 States — more or less, in every township, and almost every school distiict 

 of New-York and New-England. Sheep pasture on such lands, promis- 

 cuously with other stock, in every county — and, in the latter States, at 

 least, with entire impunity from the rot. 



Humidity of soil is also stipposed to be the most prominent cause in 

 originating hoof-ail, or producing it otherwise than by contagion. Mr. 

 Youatt and Professor Dick attribute the disease most often to the effect 

 of sand and dirt forced into the pores of the hoof, when macerated by 

 moisture. The following is the lan^uaffe of Professor Dick: 



" The finest and richest old pnstures and lawns are particularly liable to give this disease, 

 and so are st)ft, marshy and luxuriant meadows. It exists to a greater or less extent in every 

 situation that has a tendency to increase the growth of the hoofs without wearing them 



away The different parts of the hoof, deprived of their natural wear, gi-ow out of 



their proper proportions. The crust, especially, grows too long ; and the overgrown parts 

 either break otf in irregular rents, or by overshooting the sole allow small particles of sand 

 and dirt to enter into the pores of the hoof. These particles soon reach the quick, and set 

 up the infiammation already described and followed by all its destructive effects."! 



The same writer assigns another cause for it — inflammation induced by 

 an improper bearing of the foot, caused by the unnatural growth of the horn 

 on wet pastures. 



Mr. Spooner attributes the disease to decaying vegetables — " roots and 



' Youatt on Sheep, p. 451. t See Dick, quoted by Youatt, p. 527, 528. 



(845) 



