AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 235 



land where aromatic herbs are abundant, and particularly 

 among juniper bushes, and in bad weather carefully housed 

 and well fed. Horse-chestnuts are an excellent article for 

 fodder in this case; also a mixture of juniper berries, worm- 

 wood, sage, gentian, angelica roots, willow bark and other 

 bitter herbs, with a little salt and grain, which they will eat 

 of their own accord, or if not, it should be administered in 

 small quantities in the morning before they are driven to 

 pasture. If the rot makes its appearance in a decided man- 

 ner before the winter sets in, it is useless to attempt any 

 thing more than to fatten the animal as soon as may be and 

 sell him to the butcher. The rot certainly is not infectious, 

 and it very often occurs that only a few sheep are attacked 

 in large flocks; and generally in such cases, if the shepherd 

 is honest, the disease may be traced in every case to some 

 swamp or other wet place, where these particular sheep may 

 have strayed. 



The Mouth and Hoof Distemper. These complaints seem 

 to have a mutual connexion, since the former, which is the 

 mildest, very often precedes the latter. In the mouth the 

 principal evil to be feared is that the sheep become emaciated 

 from the inability to eat. The best remedy is to bathe the 

 parts afl^ected with a strong decoction of sage, mixed with 

 an equal quantity of vinegar and a little honey. If the blis- 

 ters continue to spread, half an ounce of blue vitriol should 

 be added to a quart of this mixture. The disorder in the 

 hoofs is soon discovered by lameness, and if this is evidently 

 not produced by any external injury, and especipUy if seve- 

 ral sheep in a flock are attacked at the same time, great care 

 should be taken to obviate the effects of this disorder. The 

 best remedy is a poultice of dough or fat loamy clay, which 

 should be applied to the foot by means of a little bag, but not 

 tied hard to the ankle, and kept constantly wet with vine- 

 gar, till a swelling appears on the upper side of the foot or 

 in the cleft of the hoof. This should then be opened with a 

 sharp knife and the dead hoof pared off! The wound must 

 be washed with cold water and sprinkled with dry vitriol. 

 The lame animals should remain carefully separated from 

 the sound ones, and the washing and sprinkling with vitriol 

 repeated till the cure is effected. This disease is not only 

 contagious, but also infectious in the highest degree, and 

 oftentimes so violent as to produce caries in the bone after 

 the hoof is destroyed. 



The Itch or Scab. This disorder is dreaded more than 



