96 



The Rot in Sheep. 



words, the encysted cercarice must be either destroyed or expelled 

 the system of the sheep before as perfected distomata they find 

 their way into the biliary ducts. Prevention rests on this 

 foundation alone, when the animals are so located that encysted 

 cercarice are day by day conveyed with the food into their 

 stomachs. 



The only sure way of preventing the disease is doubtless to 

 keep the sheep in situations where, from the nature or improved 

 condition of the soil, these penultimate forms of the fluke have 

 no existence. This, however, cannot be done except in a few 

 districts, and even not in some of these, in particular seasons ; 

 for example, in such a summer as that of 1860, and the one of 

 1879 which we have just passed through. So rife was rot in 1860, 

 in consequence of the excessive rainfall, that sheep took the 

 disease on many farms where it had had no existence for several 

 years before, and the same may be said of 1879. Thus we see 

 that in some localities rot is always to be met with, while in 

 others it is only an occasional visitant. It abides in wet and 

 undrained, or it may be in badly-drained land, independent of 

 the state of the weather, becoming, of course, augmented in 

 severity and more rapid in its progress in wet years than in dry. 



The improvements which are gradually, but far too slowly, 

 being made by complete under-draining of wet pasture-land will 

 do more on many farms to prevent rot than the driest season does 

 now to retard its progress ; while on certain other farms it will 

 practically exterminate the malady. In this respect under-drain- 

 ing becomes a national question, and if the agricultural wealth 

 of the country is to be maintained and food preserved to the 

 people, every facility must be given to the effectual removal of 

 all surface-water from our cold, wet, and retentive soils. Water 

 must be made to percolate these soils, and yield the nutritive 

 materials it holds in solution to the growing plants, instead 

 of being left, as now, to stagnate on the surface — weakening 

 vegetation, rotting sheep, impoverish occupiers, and producing 

 rheumatism and ague among our fellow-men. 



We speak from long experience in this matter, and also from 

 the woful effects we have observed to attend the want of under- 

 draining in the so-called Harrow district, where a few years since 

 we occupied a farm. The grass-lands of this part of Middlesex 

 rest immediately on the London clay, and are immensely lessened 

 in value from their wet and cold condition. Here rot persists, 

 and here, as a consequence, instead of finding the meadows 

 stocked with large and profitable sheep as meat-producing and 

 wool- growing animals, we see them occupied with Welch and 

 other mountain-breeds of little or no worth. The grass on two- 

 thirds of many of these farms has also no feeding properties 

 whatever. The hay-making system contributes to the con- 



