PREVENTION OE THE ROT. 
443 
French veterinarians, M. Plasse, of the department of Deux 
Sevres, to this call. The management of the sheep is so dif- 
ferent in France and England, that few of our agriculturists 
would be able, scarcely in the slightest degree, to follow out the 
plan laid down by the French veterinarian, yet the perusal of it 
may be interesting, and some good and practical hints may be 
derived. — Y.] 
1. The sheep must be kept in houses sufficiently close to ex- 
cite and to keep up the functions of the skin. 
2. They should seldom be turned out for any continuance to 
graze, or, at least, the most favourable weather should be chosen 
for it, and all low and moist ground should be scrupulously 
avoided. In default of pasture of any other kind than this, 
the sheep should be fed in the sheep-house, and only occasion- 
ally taken out for the purpose of exercise. In such seasons the 
sheep may emigrate to a safer and more suitable pasture, and 
that may be easily and advantageously accomplished in most 
districts. 
3. Before they go to pasture, and on their return, dry food 
should be given to the sheep, and, in preference, the hay from 
artificial meadows. If it should so happen that there is nothing 
but straw for forage, its want of nutritive matter should be sup- 
plied by bran, or corn, &c. 
4. Among the long or tubercular-rooted vegetables, potatoes, 
beet-root, Jerusalem artichokes, &c., should be avoided; and 
those only should be admitted which contain an aromatic or 
stimulant principle, as the carrot, the parsnep, the turnip, &c. 
5. They should be allowed to drink, twice in the day, water 
at the temperature of the well, whatever may be the kind of food, 
but never to satiety ; and iron-filings should be put in the water 
in the proportion of a pound to a gallon. The iron should be 
left exposed to the air when the buckets are empty, and which 
should be filled again an hour before the watering time arrives. 
6. On every third day there should be given, morning and 
night, about ten pounds of dry bran, mixed with half a pound of 
culinary salt; to which should be added, six ounces of aromatic 
plants cut small, as thyme, sage, juniper, rosemary, lavender, 
bay or orange-leaves, to which must be added five ounces of the 
green anise, and of fennel, and of coriander. This will be suffi- 
cient. for thirty sheep. 
These directions should be carefully followed during a month 
or six weeks with regard to all the sheep that have been exposed 
to the unhealthy influence of the season or the pasture. 
