The Rot in Sheep. 
howovor, that "the year 1817 was again very wet, rather more 
so than the preceding one, and tlie average temperature of the 
season was several degrees higher than the otlier, which produced 
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 particularize, perhaps the greatest outbreak that ever 
■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 Committee just referred to ; and it was 
satisfactorily ascertained that in 1833, two years afterwards, 
" 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 show- 
ing the enormous loss which had been sustained by the country. 
From 1830 to the present time several visitations, which 
were more or less severe, took place. One of these occurred 
in 1853-4, when many thousands of sheep were swept away, 
^nd not only in undrained districts, but also in others of a more 
healthv character. Since 1830, however, no outbreak can at 
all be compared to the one of the autumn and winter of 1860. 
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, 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 producing the rot among sheep, but likewise for its 
baneful effects on the root crops, as also on the hay and corn 
harvests. 
We are acquainted with several instances, in our own imme- 
diate neighbourhood on the verge of London, where the losses 
of sheep amounted fi'om 600 to 700 in a flock. These sheep were 
* ' Sheep : their Breeds, Management, and Diseases,' p. 445. 
