THE GEKESEE FARMER 



271 



ROT IN SHEEP. 



YouATT says: — -"The rot in sheep is probably the 

 produce of ground whivh has been lately wet, and 

 then the surface exposed to the action of the air. — 

 The grass and other plants, previously weakened or 

 destroyed by the moisture, become decomposed or 

 rotten; and in that decomposition certain gasses or 

 miasmata may be developed that cannot long be 

 breathed, or scarcely breathed at all, by the sheep 

 without producing rot." Hogo says: — " Feeding on 

 land which has been formerly or is at the time pas- 

 tured by cattle, is an exciting cause of rot; and the 

 rank grass of a deep green color, springing from the 

 spots on which they drop their dung, is likewise vast- 

 ly deleterious; as is also that kind which rises round 

 the borders of their foot marks, after being soaked 

 in stagnant water. This last cause aflects, not indi- 

 viduals, but whole parcels; and in general, any mis- 

 fortune or shght disease which has for a while inter- 

 rupted the animals thriving on all soft tathy pastures 

 Ls almost sure of introducing the rot" And Clater 

 says: — " Rot prevails, or rather is found, only in bog- 

 gy, poachy ground. On upland pasture, with a light 

 sandy soil, it is never seen ; and in good sound pas- 

 ture in a lower situation, it is only seen when, I'rom 

 an unusually wet season that pasture has become 

 boggy and poachy. It is also proved to demonstra- 

 tion, that land that has been notoriously rotthig 

 ground, has been rendered perfectly sound and heal- 

 thy by being well under drained, that is, by being 

 made dry. There are hundreds of thousands of acres, 

 on which a sheep, forty years ago, could not pasture 

 for a day without becoming rotten, that are now as 

 healthy as any in the kingdom. We can also tell the 

 kind of wet ground which will give the rot. Wher- 

 ever the water will soon run otl" there is no danger; 

 but where it lies upon the surface of the ground, and 

 slowly evaporates, the rot is certain. One j^art of a 

 common shall be enclosed ; or if it has not been 

 drained, at least the hollows in which the water used 

 to stand are filled up, and the surface is leveled; no 

 rot is caught there. On the other side of the hedge 

 there are these marshy places, these little stagnant 

 ponds, where evaporation is always going forward, 

 and the ground is never dry — a sheep cannot put his 

 foot there without being rotted. These are plain, 

 palpable facts, and they are sufficient for the farmer's 

 purpose, without his puzzling his brains about the 

 manner in which wet ground produces diseased liver." 



The prevention of the rot is of prodigiously more 

 consequence than the cure; and must be achieved by 

 every method which will render the soil dry and the 

 herbage sound. Whatever tends to improve the 

 value of pasturage, and the general health of sheep, 

 tends also to prevent the rot Thorough draining, 

 the extirpation of weeds, the increase of the choicest 

 grasses, the reclamation of all waste corners and bog- 

 gy spots, the promotion of uniform cleanness and 

 sweetness throughout all the area of a farm, the care- 

 ful exclusion of sheep from eveiy field and lane where 

 they might be likely to encounter dead herbage or 

 putrid puddles, and the keeping of cattle stock to 

 eat all the aftermath of low and dangerous pastures, 

 and to consume all esculent herbage anywhere which 

 might be Bomewhat hazardous for sheep, are eminent 



preventives, and may be regarded tis essential to suc- 

 cess. Draining alone, without due regard to the dry- 

 ing of the deep suh.soil and of every nook andsquare- 

 y.'ii'd of the ground, may not, in even the most favor- 

 able situations, be sufficient. A very httle more than 

 the average amount of rain upon heavy and tenacious 

 land, no matter how regularly underlaid with ordina- 

 ry drains, or only a few minutes' tramping upon some 

 undrained or neglected nook of a field, all whose oth- 

 er area is perfectly dry and sound, may defeat very 

 elaborate precautions, and give rise to very disas- 

 trous rot. " It is surprising,"' remarks Ci.atek, "how 

 soon the animal is infected. The merely going once 

 to drink from a notedly dangei-ous pond has been 

 suOicient, — the passing over one suspicious common 

 in the way to or from the fair, and the lingering onlj 

 for a few minutes in a deep and poachy lane. Then 

 it can easily be conceived what mischief one or two 

 of these neglected corners, in which there may be 

 little swamps perhaps on'y a yard or two across, may 

 do in a farm in other respects well managed, and per- 

 fectly free from infection." 



One of the best known means both of prevention 

 after contact with infected ground and of cure in the 

 early stages of the actual disease, is the use of com- 

 mon salt. This substance, besides ^''I'omoting the 

 general health of domesticated animals, and aiding 

 the salubrious qualities of their sound food, both 

 counteracts the putrefactive tendency of dead and 

 fermenting herbage, and kills the eggs and the young 

 of all such small animals as flukes. The natural pres- 

 ence of salt disarms wet pastures of all the power 

 which they would otherwise posse.-s to create the rot; 

 and the artificial administration of it, regularly and 

 judiciously along with food, protects sheep from dan- 

 ger in many an occasional situation or during many a 

 critical season in which they might otherwise be over- 

 whelmed with infection. "Salt-marshes, or lowlands 

 by the sea-side or on riversides near the sea, which 

 districts are alternately waslied by high-tide sea war 

 ter, and flooded with foul inlaiid water charged with 

 flukes' eggs, are proverbially sound sheep-walks. — 

 Situations which, further inland, would be regarded 

 as the worst or the most sure kind of rotting land, 

 become, from being washed occasionally with sea war 

 ter, not only perlectly sound sheep-land, but are some- 

 times said to benefit animals already diseased. The 

 salubrity of such situations is presumed to depend 

 upon the action of sea^salt, of which a small deposit 

 will be left upon the grass, as, after the subsidence of 

 the last tide, the aqueous part of sea water is evapo- 

 rated by the wind and sun. Any small impregnation 

 of iodine in the sea water is not looked upon as ope- 

 rating in the case. It would seem, therefore, desirable 

 to keep a moderate supply of common salt in the 

 stomach of sheep, whilst and for a few days after 

 they are using unsound or suspicious pasture. The 

 practical herdsman would probably do well, when his 

 flock may have accidentally or unavoidably grazed 

 upon rotting land, to give his sheep an hour's run, 

 twice or thrice a daj', upon acknowledged sound pas- 

 ture of the most commingled herbage, that the ani- 

 mals may pick up some plant which stimulates their 

 digestive organs. If he would improve upon this, he 

 might give, with some prospect of advantage too, a» 

 often as twice or thrice a day, a little bailey meal, 



