ROT IN SHEEP. 
535 
depend entirely upon salt, because I shall have a word to say 
in regard to something else; but that I do believe that rot 
may be prevented to a very considerable extent, and I further 
believe that we may save, even in our worst years of rot, a 
great number of animals. What would be the means by 
which I should prevent the disease ? I must bear in mind 
all the facts of the case. I must bear in mind the influence 
of excess of moisture with an elevated temperature. When 
is the dangerous period to sheep ? As you approach towards 
midsummer. Now, if that be the dangerous period to the 
sheep, for the reasons we have stated, we must prevent 
the disease then ; then that is the time to strike at its root. 
Instead of grumbling about our losses in the winter months, 
we ought to have taken measures for preventing them during 
the summer. Now, what have we had in the past season ? 
We have had a very wet summer. I happen to be an un- 
fortunate farmer—unfortunate, I say, because, like many 
others, I have not had a very profitable return this year. 
I had a number of sheep, and foresaw what was coming. I 
said to some of my neighbours, “ We shall have a great deal 
of rot this year;” and I thought I would attempt, if I could 
so far as my own sheep were concerned, to save them. What 
did I do ? The sheep were on wet meadows up to the fetlock 
joints nearly every day, and nobody could avoid it. But at 
midsummer I began to feed the lambs and ewes with corn 
—nitrogenized food—giving them with every meal a small 
quantity of salt. I continued the plan during the w'hole 
summer and autumn, and I have the satisfaction of saying 
that I do not believe at the present time I have one of those 
sheep affected by rot. I kept killing them week by week, to 
watch their progress. And here I may incidentally observe 
that long-continued wet weather is very prejudicial to sheep 
in another way. I refer now to the so-called water-rot. What 
was the state of the liver of these animals at midsummer? 
There 'were no flukes or anything of the kind in it, but the 
liver was streaked with white lines here and there, and gene- 
rally pallid. Thisarosefromthe wantof condensed nitrogenized 
food. The bile-cells were blanched; the liver had become 
structurally diseased, and, as such, was a good nidus for the 
entozoa to inhabit. Not only, however, did this simple treat¬ 
ment prevent the entozoa, but it brought about a healthy state 
of the liver, for in course of a month or two I found that the 
organ resumed its natural colour and consistence. I again 
say that if we commence at midsummer, and continue the 
treatment through the entire dangerous period of a wet season, 
vre may do a great deal in the prevention of the disease. 
