5o8 History of the Author's 



must tend also to destroy what remains of the sheep-tick, which is, in every 

 respect, one of the greatest pests of fine-woolled sheep and their fleeces. With 

 these views, the water of the sea may be employed by those who arc near it; and 

 others, who would wish to imitate the same practice, may do so by mixing salt 

 with clear river, spring, or rain water, in the proportion of one pound to four 

 gallons. The new-shorn sheep will soon dry, and appear much refreshed by this 

 measure, which cannot possibly be injurious to them, as it is found, by the long 

 experience of butchers, to contribute to their speedy fatting in the summer and 

 autumn. 



The cure of the scab is more difficult in the Merino and its crosses than 

 in our native breeds, probably on account of the greater delicacy of the skin, 

 and the thickness and imperviousness of the fleece. A variety of remedies is 

 recommended by the ancients and moderns. I have been much disappointed 

 at finding in my flock a total failure of success from the Lincolnshire ointment, 

 quoted in my former essay. The substances which are chiefly effectual, are 

 various preparations of salt, tobacco, and essential oil or spirit of turpentine. In 

 Bristol they sell a cheap liquid, under the title of Shab water, which is a pretty 

 strong infusion or decoction of the stalks and waste leaves of the tobacco, in sea 

 water ; in what proportions I know not. To a pint of this, if a quarter of a 

 pint of essential oil of turpentine be added, in a bottle stopped with a perforated 

 cork, and the scab be gently scraped off, especially round its edges, with a blunt 

 steel or ivory knife, or even with the nail, so as, if possible, not to draw blood, and 

 a little of the liquid, well shaken, be poured through the hole in the cork on the 

 diseased spot, the animal will be cured in a few days. For this purpose, however, 

 it is necessary, even in the slightest cases, that every single scab should be so 

 treated once, or. at most, twice; and the earlier this is done, the more quickly the 

 disease will yield. I know of no good method by which the distemper can be cured 

 by a sort of general influence, like that of sulphur on the itch in the human species. 

 Sulphur itself, on account of its filthiness, and the injury which it would probably 

 do the wool, I have never tried. It appears to me, however, that much advan- 

 tage would be derived from washing in salt water, in the manner above-mentioned, 

 all the sheep which either have the disease, or have been exposed to it ; in conse- 

 quence of which, the former will, probably, be more easily cured by the subsequent 

 application of the scab mixture, and many of the latter, if separated from the. 



