146 
Report on Livcr-Rot. 
show no traces of disease. The 120 bought by me went straight 
to some of the most dry land in the county, and were well fed 
throughout. Could they have contracted the disease cn route to 
me as in the cases quoted by Cobbold and SImonds? I have 
heard of no cattle being affected in tliis district." 
Mr. Louis CoUard, Nackington, Canterbury, Chairman of the 
" Fleece " Farmers' Club at Canterbury, writes : " The valley 
of the Stour, from Sturry to Sandwich, seems to have sufTereil 
most, but even here it has not been general ; many flocks 
escaping entirely, while others have been nearly decimated. 
The disease seems to have been contracted in different cases at 
different times ; some quite early in the summer or spring, 
whilst others did not take it till just before fine weather set in 
in the autumn." 
Mr. Bradbury Tassell, of Canterbury, says : " One of the 
greatest sufferers I know of here is Mr. Robinson, of Wingham. 
He estimates his losses at 500/. I do not think that high 
enough. He has also lost two or three beasts. I have heard 
of one or two colts being fluked ; they were at St. Nicholas, 
near Margate, and had been in the Reculver Marshes. Mr. 
Robinson's sheep had been in Minster Marshes, where the 
losses generally were great." 
Sussex. — Lord Chichester writes that fluke disease has been 
very common in Sussex. His own and other Down farms have, 
however, escaped. 
Mr. H. Rigden, Lyminge, Hythe, farms about 800 acres of 
old pasture, with 200 arable, and usually keeps 5000 sheep. He 
bought a farm which rotted most of the flock when the season 
was wet ; it has been thoroughly drained ; .and, although heavy 
losses occur all round, not a sheep of Mr. Rigden's has suffered. 
He insists that " wet is the cause of rot ; low, wet, springy spots 
will produce it, even although the greater portion of the land is 
sound. Heavy stocking favours its production, for the sheep 
are forced to feed off the low wet places which would otherwise 
be avoided. Many beasts in Sussex have been fluked ; hares 
and rabbits are liable, especially the latter. On the wet places 
referred to snails are always present, but I am not aware of their 
perceptible increase ; there is, however, an extraordinary decrease 
in the number of birds. September and October are the months 
during which suspicious wet lands are most dangerous. Three 
or four months probably elapse after the embryo fluke is taken 
up before the sheep suffer in health ; but the effect will be 
hastened or retarded by the amount of flukes taken up, the 
condition and health of the sheep, and the nature of the feeding." 
Salt, iron-salts, and gentian act, Mr. Rigden concludes, as tonics, 
but do not stop the disease. 
