144 SHEEP OP THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH AMERICA. 



a number of sheep before he could be got out. The flock 

 frequently does not seem to apprehend the wolf, or flee from 

 him ; and he will do his work without causing any commo- 

 tion among them. Still the destruction by wolves is very 

 limited, and they are easily exterminated. Settlement, and 

 the common modes of war,- would soon drive them out ; but 

 there is a fai more potent means of being rid of them. 

 Strychnine, an extract of nux vomica, introduced into small 

 pieces of meat, is a most insidious and deadly mode of ex- 

 termination. A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer thus 

 describes his mode of using it : — ' Take a carcase of any 

 kind, or in want of that, the ofials of beef or pork, and lay 

 them in a place likely to be frequented by wolves, as a bait 

 or decoy. Then take a piece of fresh lean meat or liver, 

 about the size of a small cracker, and cut, with a penknife, 

 into the edge of it, to the centre, or a little beyond ; then put 

 in the strychnine, in bulk about the size of a kernel of wheat, 

 or the l-8th part of a grain. Be careful that none gets on 

 the outside, and lay it within a few feet of the bait.' The 

 strychnine in crystals is best ; and a wolf will frequently fall 

 dead on the spot where he eats it. Thousands have been 

 killed by this means the present season, and if persevered 

 in, the country will soon be rid of them. 



'^ ' Is foot-rot common, and is not liver-rot a formidable dis- 

 ease to which sheep are subject there ?' 



" The foot-rot, known as such in New England, has never, 

 as far as I can learn, been discovered here. Sheep have 

 sometimes had a disease of the hoofs, [the fouls], which has 

 in all cases been cured by paring, with perhaps a little Wash- 

 ing in water. 



" The liver-rot has never, I think, made its appearance in 

 Northern Illinois. I have never known but one instance of it 

 in the West, and that was in another State, and far south of 

 this. Frequent examinations have been made for it, this 

 season, among sheep lately driven in ; and though many 

 have been found with diseased lungs, caused by over-driving, 

 no diseased livers have, that I can learn, been found. I 

 presume this question was prompted by the impression that 

 many of our prairie lands are wet ; but from the description ; 

 of our soil already given, it can readily be seen that the 

 liver-rot can never prevail to any extent here. Our lands 

 are too dry and warm for that disease, unless under some 

 new and unexpected development. The most common dis 



