164 
Report on Liver-Rot. 
winter. Rough shedding has been provided, more dry food fur- 
nished, and less mortality has accordingly ensued. But such 
preventive treatment increases expenses. Land which will only 
carry stock five months out of the twelve, and is even then liable 
to rot both sheep and cattle, must depreciate in value. Land- 
owners are generally helping their tenants in their difficulties ; 
deductions, varying from 10 to 20 per cent., have been given 
for several audits. The Duke of Buckingham, I am told, has 
made good to many of his tenants their losses from liver- 
rot. Baron Nathaniel Rothschild, determined if possible to 
strike at the root of the evil, at his own cost, is having large 
tracts of land thoroughly drained ; fully 1000 acres have been 
thus treated this year and last. It would be desirable that the 
smaller tenancies and worst lands were taken in hand first. On 
other Bucks estates draining and ditching are also being exten- 
sively done, the tenants usually having to pay a percentage on 
the outlay. 
Bedfordshire, notwithstanding its large proportion of porous, 
dry, well-cultivated land, and the varied supplies of dry food fur- 
nished to the flocks, has contributed many cases of liver-rot. In 
May 1880, Mr. Charles Hotcard stated that many losses amongst 
sheep had been sustained in the county from fluke disease ; both 
cattle and horses had been affected. During the winter of 1880— 
1881 rot has generally been more widespread and aggravated ; 
dealers and salesmen assert that not many of the ordinary farm 
flocks can now be warranted sound. To many upland farms 
hitherto perfectly free from flukes, the parasite has frequently 
been introduced by sheep brought from adjacent counties, 
notably from Bucks, Hunts, or Berks ; but, unless where the 
land has been soaked with standing water and the sheep in 
a thriftless and impoverished state, it has seldom extended 
amongst the home-bred flocks. In upper Bedfordshire the losses 
have been heavier during the past year than in 1879. 3Ir. J. H. 
Bbmdell, of Woodside, Luton, has no personal experience of rot ; 
his profitable Oxfordshire Downs are chiefly kept on the well- 
drained arable land in summer on a succession of fodder crops, 
in winter upon roots ; large amounts of dry food are continually- 
used ; there is little likelihood of introducing the embryo forms, 
for only a few tups are bought. For several years Mr. Blundell 
has observed an unusual number of slugs ; the unwonted 
moisture appears conducive to their development, while the 
severity of the weather, the low tidily-trimmed hedges, and 
diminished shelter, limit the proportion of their natural enemies 
the thrushes and blackbirds. On dry land, where no flukes have 
been distributed, the slugs, however, cannot be infested by 
flukes, and hence can have no effect in rotting sheep. 
