SHKEP SCAB. 
13 
Forty sheep were dipped in this mixture, several of which 
had heavy scab. After drying, the wool was full of a very fine 
yellow powder that kept the skin of the sheep completely cov- 
ered. The sheep were dipped again December 1. No live scab 
has developed on any of these sheep since the dipping. 
I have a letter from Leggett & Brother, New York, offering 
the lye, or caustic soda, in lots of 1,000 pounds or more at the 
rate of four cents a pound on board the cars. Calling the sulphur 
four cents and the lye five cents, after adding freight, and I think 
these are outside figures on large lots, it would make the dip 
cost only about eighty cents for 100 gallons. At these figures 
this dip would rival the lime and sulphur dips for cheapness, 
and the lye is more easily handled than the lime. It may be diffi- 
cult to understand why the potassium sulphide crystals did not 
do as well as the same substance made by using the sulphur 
and lye, but the former left but little powder in the wool, while 
the latter left a large amount of it on drying, and I believe the 
mites are unable to endure, for a very long time, being covered 
with a dry powder of any sort. It will not do to rest the value 
of this dip upon a single experiment, but it seems to me to give 
promise of being a very cheap and practical dip. I hope to be 
able to test it farther at another time. 
It will be noticed that all the lime and sulphur dips did 
better on the sheep than in the laboratory experiments. I believe 
it to be due to the continuous action, on the mites, of the fine 
dust that remains so long in the wool after dipping. There is 
some reason to think that the action of these dips is largely to 
drive the mites from the sheep and cause them thus to perish. 
LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS WITH COOPER DIP. 
Date of Treatment 
Condition after 
16 Hours 
Condition after 
40 hours 
Dead 
Alive 
Dead 
Alive 
♦October 
10 
12 
November 3 


16 
I 
November 4 
13 
I 
14 
0 
November 5 . 
5 
I 
6 
0 
November 9 


10 
3 
November ii 
10 
4 


November 27 
.... 
.... 
10 
3 
Totals. 
28 
6 
56 
16 
One lock was dipped on November 5 at one-balf the ordinary strength, 
and at the end of forty hours there were ten dead and five living mites. 
♦This lock of wool was dried on paper after dipping-, which took the water 
out much more qiiickly than if dried like the others. This probably accounts 
for the lessened effect of the dip. 
