580 Diseases occurring after Parturition in Cows and Sheep. 



will not secrete so much milk when the lamb is absent^ and the 

 teats may be drawn twice in the day by the hand. 



The placenta is sometimes retained in old and weakly ewes, or 

 after manual assistance has been afforded in the extraction of the 

 foetus ; and decomposition goes on much more rapidly in this case 

 with the ewe than with the cow. Some tonic medicine, composed 

 of a gill of warm beer, with from two to four drams of nitre, 

 two drams of powdered gentian-root, and a little ginger, will 

 form the best cleansing drench ; and if the membranes have not 

 come away on the following day, they should be gently pulled 

 with the hand, and often in a few hours they will be expelled ; 

 but the hand must on no account be introduced into the vagina. 

 Should symptoms of inflammation or gangrene appear, treat as 

 directed under those heads in affections of the womb. 



The last subject to be noticed is retention of the foetus in the 

 uterus ; and this occasionally occurs in the ewe. Sometimes even 

 no parturient pains at all will be observed, but the foetus can be 

 felt with the hand through the walls of the abdomen ; in other 

 cases the throes will come on about the usual period of partu- 

 rition, but the foetus will not advance from the womb, and no 

 assistance can be rendered until there is a presentation : these 

 pains gradually abate, and in the majority of cases the ewe will 

 fatten rapidly, the foetus being found after she is slaughtered, 

 generally in an almost natural state, although if much time has 

 elapsed the process of absorption will to a certain extent have 

 taken place. As a general rule it will be the interest of the pro- 

 prietor to draw and dispose of all animals that have been in any 

 way affected by disease : the intrinsic value of the ewe will rarely 

 balance against the risk of future loss. A word or two may be 

 said as to the condition of ewes at the lambing season ; and 

 observation has confirmed the opinion that, however much a 

 plethoric condition conduces to disease in wethers and stores of 

 all kinds, yet the reverse obtains with the pregnant ewe. The 

 flock that has been badly kept, the animals being poor and lean 

 at the time of parturition, will be the flock in which the greatest 

 losses both of ewes and lambs take place. 



XXIV. — On the Cultivation of Mangold and Carrots in alternate 

 rows upoji the Duke of Beaufort's Farm at Badminton. By 

 Ph. Pusey, M.P. 



In a small pamphlet by Messrs. Proctor, on the management of 

 the turnip-crop,* it is mentioned that Mr. Thompson, steward to 

 the Duke of Beaufort, having observed how much the outer row 

 of mangold-wurzel always exceeds every inner row, determined 



* Bristol, 1851. 



