SUMMER MANAGEMENT. 169 



health and thrift of sheep, is, at the present day, no longer 

 mooted, its salutary effects being universally admitted. It 

 operates to stimulate the appetite, and essentially aids the 

 digestive organs in extracting the nutriment of food ; and 

 within a few years it has been ascertained that its free use 

 to sheep has mitigated, if not wholly prevented in some lo- 

 calities that terrible scourge to British flocks, the liver-rot. 

 Its security against the attacks of other dangerous maladies, 

 further time and observation will doubtless demonstrate. 



In Mr. Youatt's work will be found the following remarks 

 on the benefits of salting : 



" Passing by the beautiful country of Montpelier and the 

 mouths of the Rhone, the traveller can study the fine sheep 

 and the sheep husbandry of Aries. The district of the 

 Crau, in length nearly eighteen miles, and about half as 

 much in breadth, extends from the mountains towards the 

 seacoast. It is one uniform gentle declivity : in no part of 

 it is there the slightest portion of stagnant water, and not a 

 tree or shrub is to be seen. The soil is dry and apparently 

 barren enough, but produces a varied herbage well adapted 

 to the sheep. Not less than one hundred and thirty thou- 

 sand sheep graze on this declivdty." 



A writer in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sci- 

 ences at Paris attributes the thriving of the sheep on such a 

 spot to the free use of salt, thereby enabling the digestive 

 organs to extract every particle of nutriment which the food 

 contains. He says, " On this spot, seemingly so sterile, by 

 the free use of salt, more numerous flocks of sheep are bred 

 and reared than upon any other common of equal extent 

 throughout the whole kingdom ; and, what is not less re- 

 markable, the sheep are healthier, hardier, and endure the 

 severity of the winter with less loss, though they have fewer 

 sheep cots for covering, than those fed and bred on more co- 

 pious pastures, and that have, besides, the advantage of more 

 convenient shelter." 



For a short time after sheep have been turned to pasture, 

 precaution must be observed not to salt them too freely, as, 

 in conjunction with the stimulating nature of young grass, 

 scours or purging will follow ; and its effects upon ewes 

 shortly before parturition, if allowed access to it without 

 limit, will tend to abortion, as will be found more fully no- 

 ticed in another chapter. 



If common fine salt (say Salina make) is used, two quarts 

 15 



