262 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOI TH. 



have read, describes with respectable accuracy the first appearances of 

 the huof-ail as it exhibits itself in this country, and among the Jine-wnoled 

 sheep* Mr. Youatt says : 



" The foot will be found hot and tender, the horn sjfter than usual, and there will be en 

 Isrgement about the coronet, and a slight separation of the hoof from it, with portions ol the 

 honi worn away, and ulcers formed below, and a discharge of their fetid matter. The ul- 

 cers, if neglected, continue to increase ; they throw out fungous granulations, they eej)arate 

 the hoof more and more from the parts beneath, until at length it drops otf."' 



The above is not a desciiption of the consecutive symptoms of the hoof- 

 ail as / have seen them. The hoof, instead of being softened, is percepti- 

 bly hardened, I think, by the presence of the disease. There is occasion- 

 ally an enlargement about the coronet, but this is not common in the out- 

 set; and so far from the horn first separating from the foot at that point, il 

 is the last place where it usually adheres when the soles are eaten away 

 by the ulcerous matter, and the mere outside shell remains. I never liave 

 known a hoof to drop off, entire, in the sense in which 1 understand the 

 closing part of Mr. Youatt's remark. 



My first introduction to this disease was by its breaking out in its most 

 malignant form in a flock of eight hundred sheep, with which I had placed, 

 early in the preceding spring, a few valualile sheep received from abroad 

 which were infected with the hoof-ail, without my having the slightest sus- 

 picion of the fact. The disease, when of long standing, and well kept un- 

 der, shows itself but very little during the winter and spring, unless the 

 foot is directly examined. Every sheep in that eight hundred took the 

 disease, sometimes first in one foot, then in another, then in a third, and 

 when the fourth one was attacked, perhaps it was again bursting out in 

 one of the cured feet ! I considered the sheep valuable, had much of the 

 esjirit du corps of a young flock-master, and was determined, to conquer the 

 malady at any cost and at all hazards. I have little doubt that every sheep 

 in the flock was " doctored" on the average ten times each, and it was 

 very rarely that I permitted any other j>erson than myself to cut away the 

 horn and prepare the foot of a single sheep for the application of the reme- 

 dies ! When I look back to that period — the sheep on some remote pas- 

 tures — not a shed on them to shelter myself or assistants from the burning 

 August sun as we bent ten or twelve hours a day over our task — our only 

 " operating room" a yard in the corner of two fields — blood and pus en- 

 crusting hands and garments, and occasionally by an unlucky stroke of th«> 

 knife sliowered over face and hosom — the crawling maggots — the intolera- 

 ble fetor : — I hardly know whether to take credit to myself for or to laugh 

 at the stanchness of my zeal. But, worst of all, with all my labor, 1 had 



" Bcotch'd the snake, not killed it ! " 



The disease appeared in rtiy flock, though in a much mitigated form, 

 the next summer. I think I then cured it — but 1 was not allowed to es- 

 cape thus. In the succeeding summer, accident ^gain brought it among 

 my sheep. In a word, I have first and last served a five years' appren- 

 ticeship to combating the hoof-ail. Having seen it in every possible phase 

 — having experimented with almost every recommended remedy not obvi- 

 ously empirical — I shall be exc ised if I speak my own opinions with a de- 



* As 1 have before stated, when discussirif 'the most profitable breed for the South," the hoof of the Me- 

 rino and thiit of the Kngllsh Long-Wooled ». .-es, is essentially different. The latter usually retains its catu- 

 r»l shaiie and thickness, and although the side-crust sometimes turns under, it is but a comparatively thin 

 •hp of horn, which is sul)sequently wora Or broken ofl— or it is easily removed by the knife. The hoof of 

 the Merino grcws rapidly, esptcially when the animal has the hnofail. The horny soles will sometimes be- 

 come nearly an inch thick, and the toes will elongate and tum up in front like horns, to the length of three 

 and eveti four inches. The weight of the Merino is much less than that of the Long- Wool. Take these 

 (tcts into consideration, together with some of the other circumstances detailed in the introductory remarkf 

 to l^etter XIV, and perhaps it sufficiently accounts for some difTere'ices in the diagnosis of the disnaae b» 

 (ween the two countries. 



