6 



The Hot in Sheep. 



sheep amounted from 600 to 700 in a flock. These sheep were 

 principally Welsh ewes, which had been bought in, from and 

 after Midsummer, for breeding purposes by being crossed with 

 Leicester tups. In the winter of 1860-61 some persons lost all 

 their sheep, and one farmer in particular, who had purchased 

 between eight and nine hundred Welsh ewes, had not more 

 than 40 or 50 which escaped. Tups, wethers, lamb-hogs, and 

 half-breeds, alike succumbed to the inroads of the affection. A 

 similar fatality attended the progress of the disease in other 

 districts. In many parishes in Devonshire, where we investi- 

 gated the malady, and of which Bridgerule may be taken as an 

 example, five-sixths of the sheep perished, or were sold for a few 

 shillings each for slaughtering, to the detriment of the health, of 

 the poorer classes.* In the instance thus particularised the 

 losses occurred among the stock of small occupiers, the ill-conse- 

 quences of which were greatly added to by their young cattle 

 being found to be affected with flukes to such an extent as 

 seriously to injure their health later on in the year. 



In Sussex and in several parts of Surrey the fatality was 

 equally great. In the neighbourhood of Eastbourne a flock of 

 about 600 Southdown ewes of great value was completely de- 

 stroyed. Numerous cases of a similar kind might be named, but 

 enough has been said to show not only the extent of the disease, 

 but that sheep of every description, and placed under different 

 systems of management, in like manner succumbed to the rot. 

 It is much to be regretted that means did not exist whereby the 

 total loss could be ascertained. People are left in doubt as to 

 the amount of food of which they were deprived in one year by 

 this disease alone, and of the efforts which had to be made to 

 replace the loss. The time, we predict, cannot be far distant 

 when agriculturists will be convinced, not only of the propriety 

 but of the positive necessity of making accurate returns of the 

 annual losses they sustain among their stock, instead of simply 

 deploring them among themselves. Elsewhere we have drawn 

 attention to this important subject, upon which very much might 

 now be said, if it were not somewhat unsuited to an essay of 

 tiiis kind. 



Subsequently to 1860-1 partial outbreaks only, and to no 

 very serious amount, took place in England until the autumn of 

 1879. In Ireland, however, in consequence of the excessive 

 rainfall in 1862, the losses from rot during the winter of that 

 year were enormous. Professor Ferguson, in reporting on the 



* The Rev. S. N. Kingdom, the then resident minister at Bridgerule, reported 

 to the author, that on October 1st, 1860, 492 sheep were existing in the parish as 

 the joint property of several small farmers; and that, by the end of the month, 

 410 of them had either died, or been sold at a price very little above the value of 

 their skins. 



