DISEASES OF SHEEP. 75 



weak and not in all cases efficient. The best wash or bath 

 that I have applied during twenty years with the most 

 satisfactory results consists of the following : Six pounds of 

 burnt, unslacked lime must be slacked by sprinkling water 

 upon it in a proper vessel, to which six pounds of potash 

 and ten quarts of water are to be added : this mixture 

 must be boiled and well stirred for about an hour. When 

 this lye has been -boiled sufficiently, eight pounds of pine 

 oil and two quarts of tar must be added and well stirred 

 into the same. In another and larger vessel twenty pounds 

 of tobacco-leaves must be boiled in one hundred and thirty 

 quarts of water for two or three hours, after which this de- 

 coction is to be thrown into a large tub (the tobacco-leaves 

 are thrown away as worthless). To this decoction the 

 above-described lye is to be added, and both must be well 

 stirred and mixed together. The remedy is then ready, 

 the quantity being sufficient for one hundred sheep. It 

 must be applied in the following manner : The sheep must 

 be laid sideways upon a board of sufficient size, one assist- 

 ant holding all four legs of the animal, another assistant 

 pressing its head down and parting the wool lengthwise 

 from the ear to the upper part of the hind leg, the parting 

 line remaining about three or four inches distant along the 

 middle of the back. Another assistant applies the lye or 

 wash (which must be of a temperature of about 110° or 

 120° Fahrenheit, or warm enough to suffer the hand to 

 touch the same) by means of a sponge or bottle along the 

 parting line, so that the fluid will flow into the separated 

 fleece. The animal must then be turned over and the lye 

 applied in the same manner upon the other side. After this 

 the animal must be put upon its feet, the wool parted 

 straight along the middle of the back, beginning at the 

 neck and ending at the tail. A quart of lye is sufficient 

 for each unshorn sheep. The part of the ski.a covered with 



