''IFasting;' " Hunger Rot;' " Blood Rot," ^-c. 211 
disappointment and shortcoming has usually been most con- 
spicuous when the crop have been an abundant one, and when 
the season has been favourable, so that little damage to the 
roots has been sustained from frost ; when, in fact, all conditions 
seemed most favourable. The reason why the liberal or un- 
restricted use of these — generally Swedish turnips — has been so 
unsatisfactory must be looked for not in the roots themselves, 
but in the fact that they were not supplemented by materials 
of a somewhat different character. 
Although the exclusive feeding upon roots grown on any land 
will induce anaemia, it is deserving of notice that such is more 
marked when they are the produce of certain soils. All that 
class of lands recognised as light or moory are noted as yielding 
roots unsuitable for sheep-feeding. 
From the same cause (its low nutritive value), luxuriant 
autumn-grown grass is found to operate detrimentally upon 
breeding ewes, when these are confined to it during the middle 
or most critical period of gestation. Grass, although apparently 
luxuriant and in full quantity in October, is not the same in 
character as in June or July. 
Amongst this latter class of stock the unnatural condition of 
anaemia develops itself in a slightly different manner from that 
which is observed in the former. Amongst breeding-ewes 
serious consequences seldom occur, and even suspicions of 
danger may not be entertained until the period of lambing. 
The tax at this period upon the vital power and energy of the 
animal is too much for the system to withstand or overcome, 
and fatal exhaustion rapidly sets in. The time required for the 
full development of these adverse dietetic conditions in the 
production of the unmistakeable symptoms of anaemia is some- 
what variable. With young sheep which become affected while 
feeding upon turnips, a few months of tolerably close confine- 
ment to them, particularly when they are grown upon weak or 
moor land, is sufficient to produce undoubted evidence of the 
disturbance, and, when not attended to, it will in manv cases 
terminate fatally. Amongst ewes, again, in which more decided 
textural changes in the liver structure may be observed, and in 
which the fatal termination is reached at parturition, I am 
inclined to believe that it requires more than one season's ex- 
posure to the influences of those peculiarities of diet which have 
been indicated as productive of the disturbance, before fatal 
results in large numbers are likely to ensue. Before this fatal 
result is reached, however, it may generally be anticipated ; the 
most unmistakeable evidence being obtained during the pre- 
vious lambing season. The ewes at this time, or even antecedent 
to it, show a want of vigour, and after the accomplishment 
P 2 
