244 PARASITIC DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 



safe to hold sheep again. All railroad cars should be thor- 

 oughly cleaned and disinfected after having been used for tlie 

 transportation of sheep, especially is this necessary in the West, 

 where cars frequently are kept in use till the manure has ac- 

 cumulated to such an extent that it becomes almost impossible 

 to load sheep in them. These manure beds teem with the eggs 

 of the parasites, which are picked up by the sheep's fleece, caus- 

 ing a wholesale infection of all exposed, thus carrying the dis- 

 ease from one district to another or from State to State, and in 

 many instances from the far West to the Atlantic seaboard. 

 There are few if any counties in the Western States and terri- 

 tories in which scabies is not constantly present, and it is 

 from these districts that the lambs are sold to be fitted by the 

 Eastern feeder for the spring market, which accounts for the 

 general distribution of this disease every fall and spring. AVhile 

 at the time of sale and up to their arrival at the feeding grounds 

 they may appear perfectly clean and healthy, experience has 

 taught those who make a business of handling feeders that it is 

 a waste of time and feed to neglect dipping the lambs at once on 

 their arrival, and if possible before they go into the feeding pens. 

 as when this is delayed, as soon as the animal begins to get on 

 feed the scab is sure to break out, the disease then being almost 

 impossible to cure on account of the infection of the pens. The 

 writer, when sheep inspector at Fort Collins, Col., can remember 

 one season in particular when the lambs from New Mexico ap- 

 peared healthy on their arrival from that territory, but in a short 

 time scab developed in every flock of feeders in Larimer County, 

 and as there were 150,000 head on feed in fifty-flve separate 

 flocks the reader can well imderstand the loss sustained by the 

 owners, some of whom were compelled to dip their flocks five 

 times in as many months, and then were only able to keep the 

 disease under control, but not eradicated. Had these sheep 



