Report on Livcr-Rot. 
175 
intending that they shall remain until they lamb. The dry 
food which he gives to every description of stock, even during 
summer, he rightly considers prevents rot, and many other 
serious disorders, and he concludes with the observation, " the 
more I vary the food of my sheep, the faster they thrive." 
Mr. Samuel C. Machin, Forest Farm, Pappelwick, occupies 
600 acres, 70 of it old turf, all dry in ordinary seasons. He 
never had a rotten sheep before 1879 ; has a dry flock, usually 
of 1000. He lost 80 during the autumn and winter of 1879-80 ; 
thev were feeding-sheep sent in September to graze 30 acres of 
eddish, through which ran two streams, on the banks of which 
the grass was very rampant. He remarks that 1880 has been 
worse than 1879. Two farmers a mile from Forest Farm, who 
never had a rotten sheep in their lives, have had all their 
in-lamb ewes infested by eating the fast-growing grass along 
the banks of some open drains. Mr. Machin's own sheep, he 
says, went quicker this year on the luxuriant eddish than they 
did the previous season when it was more closely grazed. He 
believes the mischief is most commonly done between June and 
September. He has had no cattle or horses affected. Not all 
flooded land is liable to rot. Mr. Machin mentions that he has 
a brother farming 500 acres in Yorkshire whose land is fre- 
quently flooded, but he has never had a rotten sheep. Flocks 
confined to the sandy land never have rot. He sold Mr. Hard- 
staff, of Linley, 40 sheep last year ; his own all died of rot, but 
those from Forest fed with them never failed. Ewes affected 
twelve months ago are now being sent to the butcher. They 
have not done well ; their livers are hard and not fit for use ; 
probably owing to the liberal dry feeding the flukes are small 
and weakly. Dry food and salt, Mr. Machin insists, should be 
given to sheep at all times. 
Mr. Henry Smith, The Grove, Cropwell Butler, farms about 
1200 acres in several parishes of the two counties of Notts and 
Leicester. His land is about half arable, half pasture, all well 
drained. Two or three fields, however, in Cropwell Butler, are 
cold and retentive clay, on which both Mr. Smith and his 
shepherd believe that the ewes became affected. Rot has 
hitherto been unknown, but in 1879 ten ewes were unmis- 
takeably rotten, and thirty more have since been lost. This, 
however, is a small proportion from a flock of nearly 1200. 
All are home-bred Lincolns of high reputation, producing prize- 
winning rams, well kept, receiving at most seasons dry food, 
and now having constant access to salt. Low wet lands, often 
flooded, Mr. Smith considers the cause of rot. He is not aware 
of any particular plants that appear on pastures liable to it. He 
has not observed any increase of slugs. Small birds abound on 
