THE FOOT-ROT. 221 



On the next day the tape should be removed, and if the surface is 

 tolerably regular, it may be touched, as already directed, with the 

 butyr of antimony; but if any fungus remains, the powder must be 

 applied another day. The fungus no longer continuing to grow, a 

 light dressing with the butyr should be continued every second day 

 until the animal is well. Some prefer a liniment or paste to the 

 powder, and it is made by mixing the powder with a sufficient quan- 

 tity of honey. The farmer may use which he pleases ; but a firm and 

 equable pressure being produced by the tape is the principal thing to 

 be depended upon. 



The sheep-master should as carefully avoid the ground producing 

 foot-rot, as that which causes the fatal affection of the liver ; and he 

 should attempt the same method of altering the character of the low 

 and moist ground by good underdraining. The effect of this, how- 

 ever, is far from being so certain and beneficial as with regard to the 

 rot. The water which would stagnate on the surface may be drained 

 away with tolerable ease, but the soil cannot be rendered hard and 

 dry, or, if it could, that would not be an advantageous change. The 

 sheep might not have the foot-rot, but the ground would be compara- 

 tively unproductive. 



If the farmer intends to drive his sheep a considerable distance to 

 the market or fair, he will prepare them for the journey by a few days' 

 removal to harder and firmer ground, or, perhaps, by driving them a 

 short distance, daily, on the still harder public road. 



The farmer should not only take his sheep from light sandy soil in 

 iong-continiied dry weather, because they would starve there, but 

 because then alone that soil would give them the foot-rot : its yielding 

 nature will not sufficiently keep down the growth of horn, and many 

 a particle of sand will insinuate itself into the soft and spongy horn, 

 and produce inflammation. For the same reason he should avoid dry 

 old pasture at the season when the dews are heaviest, because then 

 moisture would most abound there. 



In u-rounds that are disposed to s^ive the foot-rot, the farmer would 

 find it advantageous to have the hooves of his sheep rasped or pared 

 once every fortniglit or three weeks. This is not often done, but it 

 appears reasonable, and would not be very expensive. In uninclosed 

 or mountainous countries, where the sheep have particular tracts, 

 giavel might be scattered in sufficient quantity to wear and harden 

 the horn. 



[This disease is among the greatest scourges to which sheep are liable in America, 

 but writers generall)' regard it as not difficult to be cured. J. R. Speed, of Caroline, 

 Tompkins county. New York, found a valuable merino buck much afflicted with it, 

 and not having at hand the ingredients recommended in the Complete Grazier and 

 other books, he " took down that cure-all among farmers, my bottle of spirits of tur- 

 pentine, and with a feather applied it to the parts affected quite plentifully twice or 

 three times in the space of three days, (keeping him on a dry floor), when I found a 

 perfect cure had been effected." 

 19* 



