4 
have had during the summer months for the past three or 
four years ; witness’ the Royal Agricultural Society’s Show at 
Kilburn and Carlisle, and although it was favoured with fine 
weather this year at Derby, the summer of 1881 will long be 
remembered for its baneful effects on growing crops ; but, I 
am afraid the worst is still to follow, viz., Rot in Sheep, 
which generally begins to show itself at the commencement 
of the winter months, and all periodical outbreaks have been 
pretty conclusively and satisfactorily traced to excessive 
summer and autumn rains. During summer, a large amount 
of heat is absorbed from the rays of the sun, and retained in 
the soil and with a plentiful rainfall the temperature of the 
ground is kept in that condition best adapted for the develop¬ 
ment of insect and parasitic life of almost every class, 
more especially those creatures that go through certain trans¬ 
mutations previous to their entering into the bodies of the 
larger animals they inhabit during the cold winter months. 
The lands most suitable for this purpose are low-lying, 
marshy pastures, retentive clays, undrained meadows, and 
lands flooded with fresh water, which from practical obser¬ 
vation have been found to be the nursery beds of the embryos 
and larvae of the liver fluke. These lands are generally 
termed unsound, but in very wet seasons, well-drained sound 
soils are occasionally made infected areas by the ova or 
larvae being carried and deposited by floods, that may have 
submerged them, as well as by hares, rabbits, &c. Since 
1587 it has been noted by our earliest authors that if sheep 
were pastured on wet moist lands in the autumn, rot was 
certain to follow, while on salt marshes where rain fell in 
equal abundance as well as being occasionally covered by 
the rising of the sea, rot has never been known to occur—nay, 
the contrary effect has been noticed ; viz., that sheep slightly 
tainted when folded on these lands have so far recovered as 
