8o 



Romney Marsh Sheep. 



[may, 



might be wintered in Romney Marsh if suitable shelter could 

 be furnished upon land which has been mown or grazed with 

 horned stock, but the hard stocking of the land with sheep in this 

 district makes this as a rule impossible, and unless the Marsh 

 flock-master has his own upland grazing land, he is at the mercy 

 of whoever takes his lambs to keep. 



The Marsh flock-masters have only one special disease to fear, 

 " Struck," and this disease, which often occasions losses of as 

 much as 10 per cent, among the flocks on the Romney Marsh, is 

 probably akin to black-quarter in cattle, and is fatally contagious 



ROMNEY MARSH RAM (MACKNADE ROYAL CARLISLE). 



if the blood, etc., of the flayed sheep which has died of the disease 

 is by any means introduced into the system of a healthy animal. 

 The symptoms are generally not noticeable until the animal is in 

 a dying condition, and, on removal of the skin, the black patches, 

 symptomatic of the black-quarter disease, are found on the muscle. 

 The losses occur most frequently among sheep in high condition 

 after a flush of grass, and are more severe in some districts than in 

 others. It is sometimes wrongly termed anthrax, with which it 

 has no connection. Experiments are now in progress by 

 Professor Cave, of the Wye College, to investigate the effect of a 

 protective inoculation such as has been used in the United States 



