140 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER 



Mat 



Care of Sheep— Foot Rot, &c. 



The Rural New Yorker says : " Now that wool 

 is highly estimated among men, we should look 

 well to our flocks, and so make the most ef our 

 opportunities. 



"Irregular, insufiicient, and injudicious feeding 

 is as prevalent as fatal to the sheep. They need 

 their supply of food at right times, i» right quan- 

 tities, and of the proper quality. Sheep should 

 be prepared for, and fortified against, the enervat- 

 ing and relaxing influences of spring weather, by 

 grain seasonably given. They need to be sheltered 

 from all winter storms, and from all severe storms 

 at any season of the year, particularly after wash- 

 ing or shearing. The practice of abandoning sheep 

 to the elements, with no further care after grass 

 comes, is barbarous, unchristian, and don't pay. 

 General debility, colds, coughs, consumption, 

 and a multitude of hereditary diseases, follow in 

 that train. A shed should be in every pasture, or 

 close by, where the flock can be driven when it 

 storms ; unfortunately, sheep don't always know 

 enough to come in when it rains. 



"Having been recently called a considerable 

 distance to testify in a ' court of justice,' so called, 

 as to the nature of the ' foot rot,' and the possibil- 

 ity of a remedy, and finding that very crude ideas 

 exist on that subject, in spite of the intelligence 

 of the age, and the general progress of knowledge, 

 I will give my ideas briefly, for the general good. 



" Ist. Foot-rot can be cured. Whoever doubts 

 it is grossly ignorant, and if his doubts are of long 

 standing, probably hopelessly so. 



" 2d. The cure does not depend so much upon 

 the eflSciency of some particular medicine, as upon 

 the geaeral management. 



3d. The first thing to do is to yard the flock, 

 and select all that appear unaffected and put them 

 by themselves. With a swab wash their feet be- 

 tween the hoofs with a strong solution of blue vit- 

 riol, or diluted nitric acid, or corrosive sublimate 

 dissolved in alcohol, or something that will destroy 

 any infectioa that may attach to the foot. Put 

 them in a pasture where no diseased sheep have 

 been, and carefully watch the first appearance of 

 the evil. If a sheep appears at all lame remove it 

 at once, and it may be best to re-examine and swab 

 them all after about a fortnight. Watch them 

 close for a few weeks, and don't let any sheep stay 

 in the flock after it shows any signs of being af- 

 fected. 



" 4th. Carefully examine all the lame sheep ; re- 



move with a sharp knife the deceased flesh and 

 loosened horn or hoof, carefully avoiding to cut 

 the live flesh, and then apply blue vitriol, or some 

 other approved remedy, and put the sheep into a 

 dry, clean place. Repeat that process once a week 

 till they are cured — and cure them you can. 



" Failures occur because people fancy there is 

 some omnipotence in the medicine — whereas much 

 depends upon judicious surgery, and more upon 

 unremitting attention till the cure is complete. 

 Cures will never be eflected by semi-annual doctor- 

 ing. The first application will cure the majority 

 of the cases, but if you wait till they are re-infect- 

 ed before you look to them again, you are back to 

 the starting place ; and Lf you persevere till all are 

 eured but one or two, and leave them to spread 

 the infection, as is very often done, then you will 

 never be rid of the disease. But if you follow it up 

 skillfully, without omission, once every week, you 

 will surely have them sound in about six weeks 

 — unless, very rarely, the disease may be dormant 

 for that time in cold weather, and in that case be 

 ready for it when it comes out. 



"No farmer should ever tolerate the foot-rot in 

 his flock — it is a crime and a disgrace to suffer it 

 to continue year after year. I have knowingly 

 bought it a great many times, but I have waged 

 war upon it unremittingly and successfully. 



To Test the Quality of Wool. 



Take a lock of wool from the sheep's back, and 

 and place it upon an inch rule. If you can count 

 from thirty to thijty-three of the spirals or folds in 

 a space of an inch, it equals in quality the finest 

 Electoral or Saxony wool grown. Of course, wlien 

 the number of spirals to the inch diminishes, the 

 quality of the wool becomes relatively inferior. 

 Many tests have been tried but this is considered 

 the simplest and best. Cotswold wool and some 

 other inferioj wools do not measure nine spirals to 

 the inch. With this test, every farmer has in his 

 possession a knowledge which will enable him t« 

 form a correct judgment of the quality of all kinds 

 of wool. There are some coarse wools which ex- 

 perienced wool-growers do not rank as wool, but 

 as hair, on account of hardness and straightness of 

 the fibre. 



Ohio Pomological Society. — Dr. Warder was 

 elected President of this valuable institution — the 

 right man in the right place. 



Seed Potatoes. — We have no more seed pota- 

 toes to spare, having received more orders than we 

 can fill. 



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