ESSAY ON SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 157 



De Castro says the Spanish sheep are subject to jaundice — 

 the flesh and bones turning yellow. He recommends a small 

 quantity of the flax-leaved daphne guidium. In Great Britain, 

 sheep are subject to a disease called the rot — it is a disease of 

 the liver, and is not known among us ; and another disease, 

 called red water, is common in England, also unknown among 

 us, or of rare occurrence. 



1 do not claim to have enumerated all the disorders to which 

 sheep are subject ; but it is believed there is little to fear on 

 account of disease in any of its forms, as a general thing. 



Neither do I claim to have set forth all the reasons which 

 can be given, why sheep husbandry should have a. greater 

 share of the farmer's favor. I should deprecate a sheep fever 

 like that in the time of the last war with England, when for- 

 tunes were ruined in a day. But we may be, and probably 

 are, upon the other extreme. One sheep upon every 52 acres 

 only ! at the same time that more than 100 sets of woolen ma- 

 chinery are within three hours' ride for every man in the coun- 

 ty ! 15,000 pounds of wool only, grown in Essex, while 2,- 

 292,500 pounds are manufactured ! 4,467 sheep only, in a 

 county where there are 2,650,000 yards of flannel and blan- 

 keting manufactured, together with 700.000 yards of woolen 

 cloth, not specified, and 100,000 pounds of woolen yarn spun 

 none of which is made into cloth ! * 



But there is much reason to believe that the day is not dis- 

 tant, when public attention shall be turned to this subject ; 

 and that, avoiding the sheep fever of 1812, and the poultry fe- 

 ver of a later day, we shall see the sober thought of our coun- 

 ty adding a few thousand a year, till there shall be some 20,- 

 000 to 30,000 sheep within our borders, a thing which can be 

 done without any change that would be thought, for a mo- 

 ment, violent. 



*See Hayward's Gazetteer of Massachusetts, for 1845. 



