The Rot in Sheep. 



5 



1816 as being very wet and cold, but comparatively free from 

 rot in consequence of the low temperature which prevailed. He 

 says, however, that " the year 1817 was again very wet, rather 

 more so than the preceding one, and the average temperature of 

 the season was several degrees higher than the other, which pro- 

 duced a very abundant growth of grass in the months of September 

 and October, the ultimate consequence of which was that one of 

 the greatest fatalities by rot followed, to which the memory of 

 man bears evidence." 



The year 1824 proved likewise a very destructive one in wet 

 and undrained districts. Among many other sufferers at that 

 time was a Mr. J. Cramp, of the Isle of Thanet, who stated in 

 his evidence before a Committee of the House of Lords, which 

 sat in 1833 to inquire into the causes of the depressed state of 

 agriculture, that in the winter of 1824 the rot swept away 3000/. 

 worth of his sheep in less than three months, which compelled 

 him to give up his farm. 



Notwithstanding the serious losses which we have thus been 

 enabled to particularise, perhaps the greatest outbreak that has 

 occurred in this country took place in 1830-1. It is supposed 

 that upwards of two millions of sheep perished at that time. 

 Evidence of this immense destruction was given by various 

 witnesses before the Parliamentary Committee referred to ; and 

 it was satisfactorily ascertained that in 1833, two years after- 

 wards, " there were 5000 sheep on every market-day in Smithfield 

 less than what used to be the average number, and 20,000 less 

 than usual at Weyhill Fair ;" * circumstances which may assist 

 in showing the enormous loss which had been sustained by the 

 country. 



From 1830 to the present time (1880) several visitations, more 

 or less severe, have taken place. One of these occurred in 1853-4, 

 when many thousands of sheep were swept away, and not only in 

 undrained districts, but also in others of a more healthy character. 



The outbreak, however, which took place in the autumn and 

 winter of 1860 proved as serious as that of 1830-1. Speaking 

 in general terms, it may be affirmed that all the western and 

 southern counties of England, together with several of the eastern 

 and midland, then suffered to a ruinous extent. As in former 

 years, so in this, the attacks of the disease were due to an excess 

 and long continuance of wet weather. Eighteen hundred and 

 sixty will be long remembered by agriculturists, not only as pro- 

 ducing the rot among sheep, but likewise for its baneful effects 

 on the root-crop, and on the hay and corn harvests. 



We are acquainted with several instances, in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Harrow-on-the-Hill, where the losses of 



* 'Sheep: their Bieeds, Management, and Diseases,' p. 445. 



