GENERAL CAUTIONS. 239 



SECTION XIX. 



GENERAL CAUTIONS. 



I WILL conclude this account of the diseases and treatment of sheep 

 with a few general observations, which may be useful to the farmer 

 a» well as the veterinary surgeon. 



It is an old maxim, and a most excellent one, that prevention is in 

 every case far better than the cure ; and there cannot be the least 

 doubt that by a little attention, and the exercise of common humanity 

 towards these useful and neglected animals, there need not be half 

 the diseases, and scarcely a fourth part of the deaths that occur. 



In the first place the farmer should look more than he does to the 

 actual state, and health, and comfort of his flock. Instead of riding 

 or walking in among them every day, and, in a manner, making every 

 animal pass muster before him, he frequently contents himself with 

 looking at them from a distance, or perhaps he does not look at them 

 at all for many a day. 



He deserves to be unfortunate who, in the lambing season, is not 

 early and late among his ewes. Many a ewe is lost by rough hand- 

 ling; many more by not receiving the requisite assistance in difficult 

 parlurition : many a lamb is deserted by its mother ; many a one pal- 

 sied by lying on the cold wet ground, and many more through want 

 of being frequently and carefully suckled. 



The owner will be induced by a regard to his own interest to take 

 into due consideration many a circumstance connected with the season 

 and state of his flock, that would never enter into the mind of the 

 looker-on, but on which the comfort, and thriving, and perhaps the 

 very life of the sheep depend. INlany a lamb dies for want of a little 

 shelter in an inclement season; but many more die when the winter 

 is mild, and the spring is early. In the one case they are lost from 

 cold and starvation: in the other from being in too high condition, 

 and having too much milk. The shepherd will often go on in the 

 same regular way whatever be the state of the season : it is the pro- 

 prietor alone who will have sufficient consideration to allow additional 

 food and shelter in the one case, and in the other to stock as hardly 

 as may be, before and during the lambing. The proprietor alone will 

 consider as much as he ought when he should suckle, and feed, and 

 shelter the weakly; and keep back and prevent the suckling, and 

 milk the dam, and stock hard, the lambs being thriving and the wea- 

 ther kindly. These are affairs about which the generality of lookers- 

 on scarcely concern themselves, and into which the best of them will 

 not enter so anxiously as the master. 



The most important circumstance to be attended to at all times, 

 and particularly at the lambing season, is shelter, — not confinement, 

 but shelter from the searching north and east wind. There should not 

 be a lambing-field without a shed in it, or at least without some plac« 



