Report on Liver-Rot. 
187 
fluked ; and other nine are distinctly, but not as badly, affected. 
Drenches of various kinds, costing in all 20Z., have been tried 
without much success ; some of the ewes drenched cast their 
lambs. Dry food and rock-salt have also been used, doubtless 
with benefit. But to all rules there are exceptions, and 
Mr. Farr mentions that one of his neighbours had forty lambs, 
which from weaning-time ran in the grass fields, and never had 
a handful of dry food ; two died in winter completely rotten, 
but all the others survive. 
3Ir. G. Roycroft, The Roda, Kington, the successful breeder 
of so many prize Herefords, although his land is cold, naturally 
wet, and not particularly adapted for his Shropshire Downs, has 
hitherto managed to keep them sound by the early liberal use 
of dry food and rock-salt, which he rightly considers beneficial 
for all animals. 
Mr. Thomas Edwards, Howton Farm, Wormbridge, Hereford, 
in reply to a series of questions forwarded the following detailed 
information : — "I usually keep about 230 sheep. At the 
beginning of 1879 I had 90 breeding ewes and 140 yearling 
sheep ; all were more or less affected with liver-rot ; 120 died ; 
some made 2Z., others from 15s. down to 7s. &d. each. I had 
17 calves, which ran out all last summer with their dams, two 
of which showed symptoms of liver-rot ; one died, the other 
is a mere skeleton, the remainder are affected, but I do not 
think to the extent of endangering their lives, or very much 
impeding their growth. Although 1 have been at Howton since 
Candlemas 1872, and always kept a good flock of Shropshire 
Down Sheep, I never had a single case of liver-rot till last 
year. 
" Having a small proportion of tillage as compared with 
pasture, I am forced to graze my sheep chiefly on the pastures 
all the year round, the young sheep being sometimes penned on 
a field of roots, but more frequently the roots are carted on to 
the clover-leys or pastures. 
" In the summer the store sheep are not supplied with arti- 
ficial food, but the draft ewes and yearling wethers intended 
for the butcher usually have a pint of Indian corn daily, and 
are sold to the butcher in the months of July or August. 
" My farm is about 232 acres ; 90 acres is tillage, the re- 
maining 142 acres meadow and pasture ; there are no woods. 
The soil is a low-lying sandy loam, tending to a clay, with 
a clay subsoil, mostly artificially drained or naturally dry. 
The proportion of wet land, as near as I can judge, is 30 acres, 
portions of which are scattered throughout the farm. 
"The whole both of my ewes and yearlings were affected. 
The lambs became affected in June or July ; several then 
