THE CULTIVATOR. 
49 
ROOT SLICERS—(Fig. 19.) 
Persons owning large farms, and having many cattle 
to feed with roots, will doubtless find it cheapest to have 
good root-slicing machines, costing from ten to 
twenty dollars. But for farming on a more mo¬ 
derate scale, the owners will find them by no 
means necessary. Fig. 19 represents a tool, not 
costing more than a dollar, which by a single 
stroke on a turnep or potatoe, will chop into four 
pieces; and if the roots are placed in a square 
plank trough or box, rapid strokes with this tool 
will cut nearly as fast as some of the most costly 
machines. In the absence of this, a well ground 
spade, or what is bettei 1 , a steel shovel, will cut 
rapidly. We find that horses generally prefer 
to gnaw down ruta bagas uncut, and cows seem 
to care very little about having their food thus 
previously carved up. At all events, therefore, 
Fig. 19. don’t be in too great a hurry to buy a slicing ma¬ 
chine at fifteen or twenty dollars—try a subsoil plow 
first, at any rate. 
SCAB IN SHEEP. 
The scab in sheep, the mange in cattle, horses, dogs, 
&c., and the itch in man, are well ascertained to be cau¬ 
sed by parasitic insects, (though of a different class from 
lice or ticks,) belonging to the Acari or mite tribe—ex¬ 
ceedingly minute in size, and living in the skin of the an¬ 
imals with which they are brought in contact. The ori¬ 
gin and economy of this class of insects have attracted 
from naturalists considerable attention. That their ori¬ 
gin is sometimes spontaneous, owing to the neglect or 
mismanagement of the animal, is known; yet when once 
brought; into existence, they have the same difference of 
sex, and in their propagation are governed by the same 
laws, as animals of the higher orders. In relation to the 
mysterious but interesting question as to how these ani¬ 
mals first have existence, Mr. Youatt eloquently observes: 
tf Physiologists are fast acknowledging the work of a 
mysterious but noble principle—the springing up of life 
under new forms, when the component principles of pre¬ 
vious beings are decaying, or have seemingly perished. 
Thus if we macerate any vegetable substance, the fluid 
will teem with myriads of living beings, called into ex¬ 
istence by the process we are conducting; or rather by 
that power of nature, or that principle bestowed by the 
Author of Nature, that life, ceasing in one form, shall 
spring up in others, and this while the creation lasts! 
Thus we have probably the hydatid in the brain of the 
sheep, and the fluke in its liver—parasitical beings which 
we recognize in no other form and in no other place. 
They were the 'product of the diseased part , In like man¬ 
ner, the acarus of the scab may be called into existence 
by the derangements which our neglect, or unavoidable 
accident, or disease, may have made in the skin of the 
sheep; and having sprung into life within the pores of 
the skin, obeys the laws of all living beings as to its af¬ 
ter existence and multiplication.” 
Walz, a German veterinarian, made some curious ex¬ 
periments with the acari. He found if some of the fe¬ 
males are placed on the wool of a sound sheep, they 
quickly travel to the root of it, and bury themselves in 
the skin, a minute red point, scarcely visible, distin¬ 
guishing the place where they penetrated. The tenth or 
twelfth day afterwards, a slight swelling may be discov¬ 
ered, the skin changes its color, and has a greenish blue 
tint. The pustule forms rapidly, and about the sixteenth 
day breaks—the mothers again appearing, with their lit' 
tie ones attached to their feet, and covered by a portion 
of the egg from which they have just escaped. The lit¬ 
tle ones immediately penetrate the neighboring skin, 
find their proper nourishment, grow and propagate, till 
the poor animal, under the torment occasioned by the 
myriads which prey on him, rapidly sinks down, and at 
last dies. 
Walz also placed some of the male acari on the sound 
skin of a sheep. They burrowed into the skin, and in 
due time the pustule arose; but all indications of the scab 
soon disappeared with the employment of any remedy. 
He therefore concluded that the disease can be commu¬ 
nicated from sheep to sheep only by means of the con¬ 
tact of the sound animals with the diseased, or, as they 
lie near others, impregnated acari traveling from the in¬ 
fected to the sound sheep. The itching which diseased 
animals suffer, induces them to rub themselves much 
against posts, or any projecting substances, and these rub¬ 
bing places become undoubtedly fruitful sources of infec¬ 
tion. 
We here give cuts of the acari, as delineated by Walz, 
highly magnified. 
Fig. 20_The 
female, of 366 
times the natu¬ 
ral size, larger 
than the male, 
of an oval form, 
& provided with 
eight feet, four 
before, and four 
behind. 
a. —The suck¬ 
er. 
b. b. b. b.—The 
N 4 anterior feet, 
with their trum¬ 
pet like appen¬ 
ds- ^ dices. 
c. c. —The two interior hind feet. 
d. d. —The two outward feet, the extremities of which 
are provided with some long hairs, and on other parts oi 
the legs are shorter hairs. 
To these hairs the young 
ones adhere when they first 
escape from the pustule. 
e —The tail, containing 
the anus and vulva, garnish* 
ed by some short hairs. 
Fig. 21—The male on its 
back, and seen by the same 
magnifying power, 
o.—The sucker. 
b. b. b. b.—The fore-legs 
with their trumpet-like ap¬ 
pendices, as seen in the fe¬ 
male. 
c. c.—The two hind legs, 
with the same appendices ami 
hairs. 
Fig. 21. d —The rudiments of the 
abdominal feet. e.—The tail. 
From what has been said it must be obvious that the 
cure of scab lies in the destruction of this insect. Wash¬ 
es of tobacco, hellebore, &c., are sometimes used, but as 
the insect lies within the skin, we can never be certain 
of reaching it with these remedies. They may some¬ 
times prove successful, but in general they only mitigate 
the disease, which, though it may be thus kept for some 
time in a latent state, will at length break out to the dis¬ 
appointment and vexation of the shepherd. 
A safer method is the application of some substance 
that will be sure to poison the acari. An ointment com¬ 
pounded according to f he following recipe, has proved 
in our own practice, entirely efficacious. 
Let one pound of pure quicksilver, Venice turpentine, 
and common oil, of each half a pound, and four pounds 
of hog’s lard, be triturated in a mortar till the quicksilver 
is thoroughly incorporated with the various ingredients. 
In using so strong a preparation of mercury, care 
should be taken that the sheep are properly protected 
from bad weather. It was in the depth of winter, and 
in a very cold climate, that we had occasion to use this 
ointment. Not being at that time acquainted with scab, 
the sheep became very seriously affected before the dis¬ 
ease was identified. Some of the flock lost nearly all 
their wool, and their bodies, nearly covered with ulcers, 
presented a most disagreeable appearance. They were 
put into a barn, kept comfortably warm, and not allowed 
to go out, except for a short time in the middle of the 
pleasantest days. In using the ointment, a lump half the 
size of a hen’s egg was used to each sheep, and particu 
