Report on Liver-Rot. 
157 
feeding on the salts joining mine, were affected; and, secondly, 
because nearly all my bullocks, feeding on the same enclosed 
fresh-water marshes, when killed had a great many flukes in 
their livers. Two months seem to elapse between taking uj) 
the flukes and the first appearance of disease. My first sheep 
died on December 10th, 1879, and from that time they kept 
dropping till, on October 1st, 1880, I had only 50 left. The 
300 ewes produced very few live lambs, but they were very 
healthy and showed no sign of disease when I sold them in 
September 1880. I kept the 50 ewes I had left, and they are 
now fat, with the exception of two which I had to kill and 
which were very full of flukes. You ask what is the usual 
health of sheep on salt marshes? — I have always found them 
very healthy and very seldom is there any loss from death, but 
they are always in very low condition if they depend entirely 
on the salts for food." 
Mr. Alfred N. Leeds, of Eybury, thus wrote regarding the 
Peterborough district : " Wherever sheep have been put on the 
meadows of the Nene Valley they seem to be affected with 
flukes ; and great numbers of both ewes and fat sheep are suffer- 
ing on land where rot has never been known before. Ewes 
seem worst affected ; but I have heard of several flocks of half- 
fat sheep that have had to be slaughtered. I have seen several 
of our principal butchers on the subject ; they have never 
known un weaned calves or lambs affected. Lots of rabbits and 
some hares are attacked. Beasts that have been on the meadows 
are affected ; but in their case the flukes are encysted often in 
a sort of hard shell, and the beast continues to thrive fairly. I 
have not heard of any beast dying from fluke. Six months on 
dry food in the yard may be the saving of them. Where flukes 
were not known before it is on very wet badly drained land, 
sometimes on fen-land, that they have appeared. Some people say 
large quantities of ground maize enable sheep badly affected to 
get over it. My own idea of this neighbourhood is that no one 
knows whether he has sound sheep or not. I have never seen 
a sign of it among my own ; but it would not surprise me to 
find it ; it has cropped up in so many unexpected places." 
LiXCOLXSHIRE. — Mr. Shuttle worth, of Lincoln, considers " that 
his part of the country has been most favourably dealt with, no 
case of disease having occurred. During the winter of 1880-81, 
the Grantham district has continued to furnish to the Midland 
and Metropolitan markets thousands of sound sheep and cattle." 
Mr. James Martin, Wainfleet, considers that the Grimsby neigh- 
bourhood is the part of Lincolnshire Avhich has suffered most 
seriously. " The disease," he states, " may be ascribed to the 
same causes as the agricultural depression, namely, wet and 
