The Rot in Sheep. 



73 



malady. A notable instance of this is furnished by the follow- 

 ing fact : — A gentleman residing in Norfolk, the occupier of a 

 large tract of heath-land, purchased, a few years since, a number 

 of sheep in the latter part of August. In- the month of February 

 of the following year he became aware for the first time that the 

 animals were affected with rot. Subsequently to this they began 

 to die, and a great number were soon lost. Being fully satisfied 

 that the sheep had not contracted the disease while they had 

 been in his possession, he sought out the dealer from whom they 

 had been bought ; and on inquiry it was found that other sheep 

 from which these had been selected were also the subjects of 

 the malady. So satisfied was the dealer that the whole were 

 diseased when sold by him in August of the preceding year, that 

 he at once agreed to take them back and refund the money. 



The remarkably slow progress of the malady in this case was 

 due to the circumstance that the sheep, after coming into pos- 

 session of their new owner, were placed upon a dry sandy soil, 

 and were well supplied with food rich in nitrogenous materials, 

 besides being protected in a great measure by folding from in- 

 clement weather. Had causes the opposite of these been in 

 operation, the disease, without doubt, would have declared 

 itself at a much earlier date, and have run its course far more 

 rapidly. 



For similar reasons many sheep which contracted the rot late 

 in 1860 lived on through the winter, and, not only so, but far 

 into the following year. The weather of 1861 proved the very 

 opposite of that of 1860, and we are acquainted with numerous 

 instances, even on the cold-clay, grass-land farms of Middlesex, 

 where diseased animals were kept throughout the entire summer of 

 '61 without any material loss to their owners. Some few persons 

 even ventured to select their ewes for breeding from among 

 them, believing that, as the sheep had done so well hitherto, 

 they would still answer for this purpose. They had, however, 

 to repent their temerity, for no sooner did the grasses begin to 

 lose their goodness, and autumnal weather to set in, than the 

 animals rapidly declined and died, despite all the care which 

 could be bestowed upon them. 



Fairbairn, so often quoted by us, narrates an instance of the 

 inutility of good food and shelter to diseased sheep at the end of 

 the year. He says, "In 1810 I put a fine lot of dinmonts 

 upon turnips before Martinmas," — November 11th — "and 

 although in very favourable condition, as I was beginning to 

 suspect they were affected, and under the idea that meat and 

 shelter would provide against every exigency, I sent them from 

 my own farm to a fine, dry, well-sheltered situation in the middle 

 part of Berwickshire, where I expended no less than HHV. upon 



