THE SHEEP. 
199 
rot, when the healing process has commenced. A plaister composed of 
a pound of pitch and two drachms of bees’ wax, melted together, and 
spread while warm on soft leather or linen cloth, is applied with much 
advantage to the heads of sheep which are sore from the ravages of the 
maggots of the fly. Some, as a precautionary measure, smear the head 
in May with this composition, and scatter a little wool over it ; others 
sew the plaister round the head. 
Salving, or Smearing. — The practice of salving or anointing the skin of 
the sheep, after shearing, with some unctuous preparation, is not universal. 
It is, however, the ordinary custom in Scotland, and is, indeed, essential 
to the health and comfort of sheep exposed to bleak winds in open moun- 
tain districts, to heavy mists, and drenching and long-continued rains. 
The primary object of smearing is the protection of the skin from wet 
and cold ; and next, to promote the growth of the wool and improve its 
character. Besides these objects, there are others not unimportant — 
the prevention of the attacks of insects, the destruction of such as might 
adhere to the skin, and the healthy action of the skin or the removal of 
cutaneous affections, for which tar is very efficient. Tar, mixed with 
butter, in order to counteract its tenacity, is the ordinary salving mate- 
rial ; and vast quantities of damaged butter are yearly sent to the grazing 
districts of Scotland, for the use of the sheep farmers. One serious dis- 
advantage, however, attends the application of tar — it indelibly stains 
the wool ; hence it cannot be used for white goods, and what is more, 
it will not take the finer and more brilliant dyes. Wool thus tar-stained 
is termed laid wool, and sells at a lower ratio than white or unsalved 
wool. Yet in exposed situations the necessity of salving is felt, and 
various unguents have been tried. Instead of butter whale-oil, as an 
adjunct to tar, has been used, and is recommended by the Hon. W. J. 
Napier in his “Treatise on Practical Store-farming;” but the tinge of the 
tar is not obviated by this admixture. Mr. Hogg says : “ Of late, several 
compositions have been purposely and extensively tried, in which the 
spirit of tar has been substituted for tar itself. This has, in some cases, 
been complained of as too irritating ; and there is no doubt that a too 
free use of spirit of tar is injurious and even fatal. Some of the salves, 
while they prove to be perfectly well adapted to flocks that are clean, 
have been found ineffectual either in curing or warding off the scab — a 
disease which the common salve made of tar and grease seems effectually 
to resist. When a flock is perfectly clean, olive-oil has been found to be 
the best substance for softening the fleece, and warding off rain and 
snow. For clean sheep, ‘ Taylor’s salve’ is also suitable, though some 
English staplers have condemned it. If a tar-salve were made so as to 
be free from the impurities of the tar, it might probably answer every 
purpose. The ordinary proportion of one cwt. of grease to a barrel of 
tar, might be increased to one and a half cwt. ; and when melted together, 
the impurities of the tar might be suffered to subside and be separated. 
In this way the tar might not leave a stain upon the wool when scoured. 
Olive oil seems to impregnate the wool, or to adhere to it more firmly 
than any other kind of greasy matter ; and it has been successfully 
employed by Mr. Sellar, of Morvich, a first-rate store-farmer in Suther- 
land.” 
