SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 385 



spring, an injection of good strong tobacco smoke will cause it to quickly 

 crawl out from its lodging place. 



The Sheep I/OUSe. The red sheep-louse, (trichodectes ovis) has 

 a pale yellow body marked with dark bands, but a head of red color. 

 This animal lives on the inner, upper parts of the fore and hind legs. It 

 irritates and annoys the sheep very much, and the sheep will force its 

 head through between the boards of a fence, so that it can rub the irri- 

 tated part, and they will often be found impinged and strangled or with 

 the legs broken in their attempts to again become free. Sheep that have 

 been dipped in tobacco and sulphur water to be cleared of ticks, are 

 usually free from this pest. An easy remedy is to rub the parts affected 

 with the following: 



2 ounces Flowers of Sulphur, 



1 pound Adeps, (Lard), 



2 drops Creosote. , 



One pint linseed, olive, or sweet oil may be substituted fbr the 

 lard. 



Scab Insect. This is an external parasite which digs down into 

 the skin and finds for itself a lodging place within its tissues. The pres- 

 ence of the insect causes an irritation of the skin, which in its efforts to 

 dislodge the parasite secretes a serous-like fluid, which on drying on the 

 surface forms a scab, hence the name "scab-insect." The female insect 

 is larger than the male, and one male suffices for many females and 

 lives longer. The eggs of the scab-insect are very numerous, and it 

 takes only three days to hatch, so one female insect can produce over a 

 million in ninety days. This wonderful increase explains why the dis- 

 ease spreads so rapidly through a flock, and the need of instant remedies 

 to drive out and effective preventives to keep it from spreading. 



Symptoms. There is at first great uneasiness, and as the disease 

 progresses the sheep will be seen rubbing or scratching themselves, or 

 sticking their noses in the wool, biting and nibbling. The skin will be 

 at first white in color and a little swollen, which is indicated by being 

 thicker than the rest of the skin, and moist or covered with a yellow 

 serum. I^ater the serum forms into a scab and the wool falls off. If a 

 lock of this wool is examined by laying it upon a piece of white cloth, 

 the mites can be seen as they crawl upon it. If the insects are allowed 

 to increase in number the scabby spots will increase in size and number, 

 and great patches of the wool will fall off, leaving bare spots on which 

 thick brown or yellow scales are seen, and the sheep will be found rub- 



