SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 513 



section, in all cases, and especially in this, depend not only upon the amount 

 of blood abstracted, but also upon the rapidity with which it is drawn 

 from the veins, the eye-veins are not the proper ones to open. They are 

 so small that the blood flows slowly, and if cut directly across, as is usually 

 done, they soon contract, and the flow of blood is arrested before a suffi- 

 cient quantity has been abstracted. It is better to have recourse at once 

 to the jugular vein. The animal should be bled until an obvious constitu- 

 tional effect is produced — the pulse lowered and the rigidity of the muscles 

 relaxed. An aperient should at once follow bleeding, and if the animal is 

 strong and plethoric, a sheep of the size of the Merino would require at 

 least two ounces of Epsom salts, and one of the large mutton sheep more. 

 If this should fail to open the bowels, half an ounce of the salts should be 

 be given, say, twice a day. 



• In the milder cases which I have mentioned as occurring, in my own 

 flock, I think had I bled more thoroughly, in the very first attack, and 

 given a mild aperient of Epsom salts, most of the sheep would have re- 

 covered. 



Phrenitis, Tetanus, Epilepsy, Palsy, Rabies. — I never have seen a 

 well-defined case of either of these maladies among our sheep, though, 

 in a few instances, something which struck me at the time as somewhat 

 analogous to paralysis or palsy. Palsy is a diminution or entire loss of 

 the powers of motion in some part of the body. I have occasionally 

 seen, in the winter, poor lambs, or poor pregnant ewes, or poor feeble 

 ewes immediately after yeaning in the spring, lose the power of walking 

 or standing rather too suddenly to have it satisfactorily referable to in- 

 creasing debility. The animal seems to have lost all strength in its loins, 

 and the hind-quarters are powerless. It makes ineffectual attempts to 

 rise, and cannot stand if placed upon its feet. 



Treatvicnt. — Warmth, gentle stimulants, and good nursing, might raise 

 the patient, but in nineteen cases out of twenty it would be more econo- 

 mical and equally humane, to at once deprive it of life. 



Colic. — Sheep aie occasionally seen, particularly in the wintei', Iving 

 down and rising every moment or two, and constantly stretching their fore 

 and hind legs so far apart that their bellies almost touch the ground. 

 They appear to be in much pain, refuse all food, and not unfrequently 

 die, unless relieved. This disease is popularly known as the " stretches" 

 and is eiToneously attributed to introsusception of an intestine. Some 

 farmers worry the sheep with a dog, and others hold it up by the hind 

 legs, to effect a cure ! I consider it a sort of flatulent colic induced by 

 costiveness. 



Treatvient. — Half an ounce of Epsom salts, a drachm of ginger, and 

 sixty drops of essence of peppermint. The salts alone, however, will 

 effect the cure, as will an equivalent dose of linseed-oil, or even hog's lard. 



A Female Farmer. — The second premiam for the best cultivated farm hi Litchfield Co., Ct, 

 awarded the past sea.«on to Mrs. Vesta. Hawkins, of Wateilown. 



The farm contains one hundred and sixty acres. It has been under her management for the 

 last ten years. The Committee of Examination say : " It i.s divided the present season into 

 twenty-three acres of meadow, three and one-half corn, six of oats, one and a half of rye, two 

 of buckwheat, a half acre of potatoes, seven acres of wood-land and the residue of pasture land." 

 The produce of the farm for the past season is estimated as follows : fifty tons of hay, two hundred 

 bushels of corn, one hundred and thirty-three shocks of oats, and one hundred and fifty bushels of 

 potatoes. The stock kept on it last .season consisted of twenty-six head, inoludinq si.^" calves, two 

 liorses. and fifty-six siicep. This farm is conveniently laid out in small fields, the fences mostly 

 of rails, all in good repair, and witli the buildings, presenting a neat and tidy appearance. 



(903) 33 lEx. Paper. 



