122 
The Rot in Sheep. 
states that " a farmer in the neighbourhood of Wragby took 
twenty shearing wethers to a fair in that town, leaving six 
behind in the pasture where they had been summered. The 
score sent to the fair, not being sold, were driven back and put 
into the same field where the six had been left. In the course 
of the winter every one of these died of the rot ; but the six that 
had been left behind all lived and did well." 
The case narrated hy the latter-named author is as follows : — 
" A farmer in Norfolk bought a lot of sheep at a fair warranted 
sound. The greater part of them died of rot in the course of 
the winter. The purchaser brought his action for the recovery 
of the money paid for them. The defendant satisfactorily proved 
that he never had had a rotten sheep on that part of the farm on 
which these were bred and grazed. A considerable sum was 
spent in litigation, when at length it was discovered that the 
night before the sale — the whole town and its neighbouring 
pastures being occupied — the sheep were turned into a field 
in a neighbouring village, and which field bore a suspicious 
character with regard to this disease. There was then little doubt 
on the mind of either p.arty that the mischief had been done on 
that night." 
Although it may be unnecessary to multiply cases, still justice 
requires that we should place on record two more of a similar 
kind which have been furnished by a well-known agriculturist, 
Mr. Edward Umbers, of Wappenbury, Warwick. Mr. Umbers 
writes thus : — 
" In the first place, I will relate a circumstance that occurred to my father 
(the late Mr. W. Umbers), who was an eminent breeder of Leicester sheep. 
At his first outset as a breeder he went into Leicestershire and purchased 
twenty ewes, and sent them to a ram belonging to another breeder in the 
same county. In due course my father received a letter stating that the ewes 
were ready to come back, and requesting him to send for them ; the writer 
added that one ewe was lame, and would require a horse and cart for her 
removal. Accordingly, a careful man with a horse and cart was sent for tlie 
ewes, and all were brought home safely. 
" In eleven weeks and three days after their arrival at home the shepherd 
came to my father saying, ' One of the bought ewes is dead.' This was a source 
of gi'cat disappointment, and when she came to be examined she proved to be 
rotten. My father at once wrote to the person of whom he purchased the 
ewes — they having been warranted sound — stating what had occurred. The 
gentleman, in reply, invited my father to his house to make every inquiry, 
he never having had a rotten sheep on his farm. My father went over and 
found to his entire satisfaction that the ewes were not rotted while there. 
He then proceeded to the farm where the ewes were put to the ram, and was 
equally satisfied they had not received the disease there. He then traced the 
sheep on their way home to a field where they remained for the night, the 
lame sheep being unloaded and lying in the field with the rest : there also he 
was perfectly satisfied from the most minute inquiries the rot had never been 
known. Still tracing the sheep homewards, he came to a pothouse by the 
roadside, where the man had gone in to have his dinner, leaving the nineteen 
