284 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



settling in one part or another, that wUl cause 

 him to form very curious conclusions as to the 

 cause of death and miss the real cause entirely. 

 It would be amusing if it was not so annoying 

 to read the fetters from sheep owners attempt- 

 ing to describe the symptoms of their sick 

 sheep and the results found after their making 

 crude post-mortem examination. 



Let us rest the case here that only careful, 

 regular and judicious feeding will prevent 

 death in the bam and feed lot and that medica- 

 tion for "water belly" or retention of urine 

 and for serious indigestion has never yet 

 proved of use. The fact is that the sheep suf- 

 fering from slight indigestion is not readily 

 detected among hundreds, and when its case is 

 obvious it is too far gone to be helped by any 

 known treatment whatever. 



OTHER DISEASES OF SHEEP. 



Of a long list of diseases that sheep may 

 sometimes be afflicted with, such as rheuma- 

 tism, apoplexy, goitre "pining", humping, ery- 

 sipelas, actinomycosis, tetanus, rabies, sheep 

 pox, and a lot of other diseases usually cata- 

 logued, the writer has seldom seen an instance 

 in his own flocks and if he had seen it would 

 have felt powerless to help, with all the knowl- 

 edge of specialists available. Sheep are said 

 to suffer sometimes from black leg, but it is 

 rarely if ever reported in America, and*n Eng- 

 land, on the extremely fertile pastures of Kent, 

 sheep suffer from anthrax. This disease is rare 

 indeed in America among sheep. 



