228 
THE CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
sheep, there is not one now. He adds , t( the loss extends beyond 
the mere value of the sheep : it embarrasses the whole operation 
of the farm, and throws it out of cultivation, for the farmer de- 
pended on his sheep for much of his manure, and probably there 
are no other means of procuring it.” 
In consequence of this there were in Smithfield, during 1833, 
five thousand sheep less than the usual average number on every 
market day, and 20,000 less than the usual number at Weyhillfair. 
Mr. John Cramp, of the Isle of Thanet, adds, “ in 1824, 1 had 
improved my farm at Ashford, in the Weald of Kent, and l had 
a great stock upon it ; but in the ensuing winter I was visited by 
that dreadful disease the rot, which carried away £3000 worth 
of my sheep in less than three months, and I gave up my farm.” 
Of the truth of the assertion, then, that the mortality among 
farming stock is one cause of agricultural distress, there cannot 
be a moment's doubt ; nor can there be a doubt that it is an evil 
w hich to a certain extent admits of remedy. 
What has been the ’case with the horse? Opportunity has 
been given to study well the nature and the causes, actual and 
predisposing, and the proper treatment, of his diseases; and, as has 
again and again been proudly and truly asserted, many diseases 
most frequent and most murderous have in a manner disappeared, 
and hundreds of thousands of pounds have been annually saved to 
the cavalry service and to the country. The success of the veteri- 
narian in his treatment of the horse is a pledge of what he would 
be able to do were his education and opportunities the same as 
it regards neat cattle and sheep. We state without fear of con- 
tradiction, that the number of deaths from inflammation of the 
lungs, staggers, glanders, is not one-fourth part of what it was 
forty years ago ; and there is no reason to doubt that the diseases 
of cattle and sheep would diminish fully as much in number and 
in fatality if equal opportunities were afforded for obtaining a 
correct knowledge of their nature and causes. 
We are not wandering, then, from the legitimate object of our 
periodical when we occasionally notice the professed object and 
the real progress of the great agricultural society lately formed. 
Statements like those which we have made are intimately connect- 
ed with the prosperity and honour of our profession ; and the time 
is not far distant when veterinary science will proudly assume her 
true station as identified with the vital interests of the country. 
Let veterinary surgeons coalesce with the district societies 
around them, and let them use the little interest which they 
possess in preventing the noble objects which such societies, 
properly conducted, can accomplish, from being sacrificed by the 
demand of that which it would be neither honest nor possible to 
grant, and by covertly making their assemblies the engines of 
political faction. 
Y. 
