562 SHEEP HUSBANDRY, 



sions in the belly, and sometimes in the chest. There has been evident sympathy between 

 the digestive and the cutaneous systems." 



Treatment. — About twelve years since, I purchased 150 fiue-wooled 

 sheep just driven into the county from a considerable distance. I placed 

 them on a farm then owned by me, in another town, and did not see them 

 for about three weeks. One of my men then reported to me that the sheep 

 were amiss — that they were shedding off their wool — sore spots were be- 

 ginning to show on them — and that they rubbed themselves against the 

 fence-corners, &c. Though I had never seen the scab, I took it for granted 

 that this was the disease. No time was to be lost, as I had 700 other 

 sheep on the farm — though fortunately, thus far, the new comers had been 

 kept entirely separate from them. Barely looking into Mr. Livingston's 

 work for a remedy, I provided myself with an ample supply of tobacco 

 and set out. The sheep had been shorn, and their backs were covered 

 with scabs and sores. They evidently had the scab. I had a large potash 

 kettle sunk partly in the ground as an extempore vat, and an unweighed 

 quantity of tobacco put to boiling in several other kettles. The only care 

 was to have enough of the decoction, as it was rapidly wasted, and to have 

 it strong enough. A little spirits of turpentine was occasionally thi'own on 

 the decoction, say to every third or fourth sheep dipped. It was neces- 

 sary to use it sparingly, as, not mixing with the fluid and floating on the 

 surface, too much of it otherwise came in contact with the sheep. Not at- 

 tending to this at first, two or three of the sheep are thrown into great ag- 

 ony, and appeared to be on the point of dying. I had each sheep caught 

 and its scabs scoured off, by two men who rubbed them with stiff" shoe- 

 brushes, dipped in a suds of tobacco-water and soft soap. The two men 

 then dipped the sheep all over in the large kettle of tobacco-water, rub- 

 bing and kneading the sore spots with their hands while immersed in the 

 fluid. The decoction was so strong that many of the sheep appeared to be 

 sickened either by immersion or by its fumes ; and one of the men who 

 dipped, though a tobacco-chewer, vomited, and became so sick that his 

 place had to be supplied by another". 



The effect on the sheep was almost magical ! The sores rapidly healed, 

 the sheep gained in condition, the new wool immediately started, and I 

 never had a more perfectly healthy flock on my farm. Though adminis- 

 tered with little reference to economy, the remedy was a decisive one. — 

 With a vat like fig. 27, (Letter XII,) this would not necessarily be a very 

 expensive method, with sheep recently sheared. But the assaults of the 

 scab usually come on in the spring before shearing time, and it would re- 

 quire an immense quantity of the tobacco decoction to dip sheep with their 

 fleeces on, however carefully it might be pressed out. 



The following is the remedy recommended by Chancellor Livingston : 



" First, I separate the sheep (for it is xery infectious) ; I then cut off the wool as far as the 

 skin feels hard to the finger ; the scab is then washed with soap-suds, and rubbed hard with 

 a shoe-brush, so as to cleanse and break the scab. I always keep for this use a decoction 

 of tobacco, to which T add one-third by measure of the lye of wood ashes, as much hog's-lard 

 as will be dissolved by the lye, a small quantity of tar from the tar-bucket, which contams 

 gi-ease, and about one-eighth of the whole by measure of spirits of turpentine. This liquor 

 is rubbed unon the part infected, and spread to a httle distance round it, in three washings, 

 with an interval of three days each. I have never failed in this way to effect a cure when 

 the disorder was only partial. ... 1 cannot say whether it would cure a sheep infected 

 so as to lose half its fleece."* 



The following remedies are much used in Great Britain : 



No. 1. — Dip the sheep in an infusion of arsenic, in the proportion of 



* Livingston's Essay. Appendix, p. 177. 

 (1042) 



