278 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



at all, or gorging with grain. And in some 

 regions, among -the class of sheep men who feed 

 sheep in winter, nearly all diseases are of this 

 origin. 



Now as to qhance of cure. For external para- 

 sites cure is easy and cheap. For scab, lice, 

 and ticks there is the dipping bath, and this 

 has been carefully explained in another place. 

 Foot-rot is also of rather easy treatment. 



These things are matters requiring timely 

 and prompt treatment and are no cause for 

 alarm whatever except as scab breaks out in 

 the winter time in the middle of the feeding 

 season, when it is costly to dip and the sheep 

 have serious set-back therefrom. Indeed it is 

 not just proper to class these external parasites 

 as diseases, any more than fleas on a man's 

 back, though they cause disease if left un- 

 checked. 



The matter of internal parasites is much 

 more serious. Nine-tenths of all the troubles 

 of sheep east of the Missouri river are caused 

 by some form or other of these plagues, or by 

 a combination of them. We will presently give 

 to them some attention in detail. 



Derangements of the digestion, caused by too 

 much or too little food, or by food of improper 

 quality, are often hard to diagnose. For ex- 

 ample, recently a neighbor of the writer came 

 tO' him for advice. Hisi wethers suffered from 

 some brain disorder, they turned around and 

 around in small circles, acting stupefied; they 

 lingered a few days and died. These sheep had 

 come from the same range in Montana. The 



