64 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



rid a flock of ticks and as easy to prevent the 

 attack of scab. 



SCAB INSECT. 



This is a minute form of parasitic insect too , 

 small to be easily discovered with the naked 

 eye, which by burrowing m the skin, or, rath- 

 er, by irritating the skin and causing it to 

 form a crust by its own exudations beneath 

 which it burrows, greatly afflicts the sheep, 

 causing loss of wool, intense itching, loss of 

 flesh, and in the end frequently brings death 

 from the result of the distress and emaciation 

 consequent upon its disturbance. 



The scab germ multiplies with fearful rapid- 

 ity, each female laying in two or three days 15 

 eggs, of which ten will hatch females and five 

 males. These eggs hatch and soon mature in- 

 sects begin laying eggs. Gerlach, the German 

 authority, says that in 15 days one female will 

 become the mother of 15, after 30 days of 150, 

 after 45 days of 1,500, after 60 days of 15,000. 

 Up to this time there has not been much seen 

 of the result of the disease, but here begins 

 the wholesale onslaught of the legion upon 

 their hosts,. for in 75 days there are 150,000, 

 and in 90 days 1,500,000! Now let them alone 

 for a little longer and the result is sufficiently 

 terrifying. 



The symptoms of scab are first the uneasi- 

 ness of the sheepi, which reaches around to the 

 affected part (that is apt to be on the shoulder, 

 neck or side, though it may appear in almost 

 any part, but wherever it appears it causes in- 



