THE CULTIVATOR. 
139 
and geese are more apt to have enlarged or diseased livers, than any 
of the other graininiverous animals that I am accquainted with. 
But to return to the Lammermuir farmer. He recommends salt 
as a decided cure for this disease. The dose is 1^ ounces of common 
salt, given in three-quarters of an English pint of water, to a sheep, 
with an empty stomach, for three or four mornings. Limewater is 
also good. I have seen both given : and, on killing the sheep that 
had two doses of the salt, there were about 160 flukes taken out of 
its liver, most of which were dead. But as a preventive is better 
than a cure, I would call your attention next to White, that close 
observer of nature. He says in his Natural History of Selborne, 
that “ worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which 
would proceed tamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loos¬ 
ening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rain and the fibres of 
plants, by drawing straws and the stalks of leaves into it; and, most 
of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth.”— 
Again he says t “ that the earth without worms would soon become 
cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation.” But more applicable 
still to the case of your correspondent, in p. 232, where he says, 
“ Lands that are subject to frequent inundations are always poor, 
and probably the occasion may be, because the worms are destroy¬ 
ed .” Now, I observe from your correspondent’s remarks, p. 503 of 
vol. v. of your Journal, that this meadow, although well laid down 
in grass, soon appeared starved, after having been irrigated : so it is 
well worth his examining whether or not the worms have been de¬ 
stroyed by frequent irrigation] If so, I have no doubt he lias got rid 
of the moles also, as the latter feed chiefly on the former. The Et- 
trick Shepherd says, vol. ii. p. 700, of your Journal, that it is his 
opinion, as well as that of shepherds, that the extirpating of moles, 
or doing away with mole-hills, was the primary cause of the disease 
among sheep, known by the name of pining. Now, the conclusion 
to which I have come in my own mind is, that earth is necessary 
for the general health of sheep, be it in the shape of mole-hills or 
worm-casts. True it is, that there are no moles in the sister island 
Old Ireland, and the sheep there are in general, I believe, sound, 
but there must be plenty of worm-casts. Your correspondent 
strengthens me in this opinion, that earth is good for sheep, when 
he states that folding them occasionally in fallow, is sometimes a 
means of preventing the rot.* 
I watered a field of old grass in the summer 1833, which I stock¬ 
ed chiefly with sheep, and I found they soon became all tainted, al¬ 
though those of a neighbor from the same breeder were perfectly 
sound. The shepherd, who had known my field for many years, 
said he was not aware that sheep had ever suffered in the field be¬ 
fore from the rot; and I now think it very probable that I erred in not 
stocking the field sufficiently, thus by the length of the grass pre¬ 
venting the sheep from getting at the worm-casts or other earth. 
It occurs to me, that one reason why the disease of the rot is more 
common in England than in Scotland is, that they do not feed their 
grass so close as we do. Besides, they do not clean their fallows 
so well, and have more butter cup, having older and richer pasture. 
The meadows in the neighborhood of your correspondent are entire¬ 
ly new, so perhaps the worms are not yet destroyed, which may ac¬ 
count for no rot being in these pastures ; and those that are water¬ 
ed by other streams may perhaps be supplied with mud or earth from 
such streams. 
It is a custom at the Duke of Montrose’s, and with others who 
feed pigs, to give them occasionally ashes or cinders; and as a pig 
is very apt to overeat itself, and to take all sorts of mixtures, it 
ought always (when prevented by confinement from getting at the 
earth of the field) to be provided with some alkali, to correct the 
acidity in its stomach. I had some time ago a large fat hog, which 
was confined, and kept very clean, getting nothing to eat but meal 
of various kinds, with milk; and just about the time I intended to 
kill it, 1 was prevented by its becoming very costive and unwell. I 
did not know how to administer any opening medicine to so strong 
an animal, but in turning it out of the sty, I found it began to eat 
earth and lime ; I therefore immediately mixed some magnesia with 
milk, and it soon took a sufficient quantity of it. I would also men¬ 
tion, that when the root of the bitter cassava is given, in the West- 
Indies, washed to pigs, it kills them, but when they make their way 
into the provision grounds, and take plenty of earth with this root, 
it has apparently no bad effects on them. 
It ought to be generally known whether potatoes , when given raw 
* Buckbean (Menyanthes), Class 5, Ord. 1, is said to be a cure for the rot in 
sheep. 
to pigs or cati le, should be washed. I know not what is the best 
corrective for the poison of the solanum family, but an alkali is given 
to counteract the bad effects of meadow saffron and prussic acid. 
At all events some earth may be the means of preventing swelling 
in cattle, when feeding either on turnips or potatoes.* I remember 
a butcher in the West-Indies telling me, that he found cattle which 
were fed in pastures, through which a pure running river passed, 
had their livers always diseased, whilst those cattle which had water 
to drink out of filthy stagnant ponds, in which they stood for many 
hours in the day, had their livers quite sound. He and I both 
thought at the time, that it was the difference of temperature in the 
water, but I am now inclined to think that the earth was the means 
of keeping the liver sound. 
I hope these few remarks may be of some use to your correspon¬ 
dent, or may be the means of drawing out some information from 
others. Whether the rot is occasioned by some particular plant, or 
by a luxuriant after-growth, occasioning a fermentation in the sto¬ 
mach of the animal, my firm conviction is, that salt or earth, or 
both, are of use to graminiverous animals, as grass is occasionally 
to dogs and cats. Every observer must have seen horses eagerly 
chewing the roots of grass with earth, and grooms are aware that 
it is a bad sign of the state of the horse’s stomach. Chalk is given 
to calves, and lime or shell gravel to fowls. 
I would now ask, w T hat takes place if a sheep eats some earth 1 
does it not absorb the acid in its stomach and form a salt, thus in 
part agreeing with the recipe of the Lammermuir farmer! He 
mentions a striking fact (in his book before referred to,) that the 
shepherds in Spain, while feeding their flocks on land with lime 
stone, do not give salt to their sheep, but have occasion to do so 
when feeding them on any other soils; which I would account for 
by the lime correcting the acidity and forming a salt. I may here 
mention the way in which salt is given to sheep in the West-Indies ; 
a large cask without ends is laid upon its side on the ground, a small 
hole being dug for the swell of the cask; four stobs or stakes are 
then driven into the ground, two on each side of the cask, to keep 
it steady; the salt is then put into it, and so protected from the rain. 
Those who give salt in this way, and feed their pasture close, so 
that the sheep can get at the worm casts, need not, I think, be 
much afraid either of the internal or foot rot. 
I have thus attempted to say a word in favor of the worm, as the 
kind-hearted Ettrick Shepherd stood forward in defence of the mole, 
rook and wood pigeon. I recollect destroying almost all the vermin 
in a large district of country in Perthshire, with a view of increas¬ 
ing the game; but the rabbits multiplied to such an extent as to be¬ 
come an immense nuisance. By the way, may not the increase of 
field-mice in a district in France, mentioned in the miscellaneous 
notices of your last Number but one, be accounted for in the same 
way. I would recommend to them a large importation of owls. If 
man sets his wisdom in opposition to the all-wise Lord of the Uni¬ 
verse, and destroys in a small degree the balance of creation, every 
thing suffers from it. We are indeed wonderfully connected toge¬ 
ther ; yes, the meanest and most grovelling animal is needful for the 
well-being of the whole. S. W. 
From, the New- York Farmer . 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
In my communication to the last number of the New-York Farmer, I referred 
to an account of a sheep establishment, politely furnished me by a very in¬ 
telligent and experienced shepherd, Leonard Jarvis, Esq. of Claremont, N. 
II. as accidentally mislaid. It has since come to hand,, and I have the 
pleasure of presenting it to my agricultural friends, to whom it will be inte¬ 
resting. 
Claremont, N. H. August 23, 1835. 
Rev. H. Coleman —Dear Sir—My avocations have been so press¬ 
ing that until this moment I have not been able to comtnunicate, as 
you requested me, some remarks upon my sheep and their treat¬ 
ment. Though I have been a shepherd thirty years, with a flock 
seldom ever less than 1,000, more frequently 2,000,1 am still some¬ 
what undecided what description of wool can be grown most profit¬ 
ably, and whether carefully breeding in-and-in, or judiciously cross¬ 
ing, produces the greatest improvement. 
I commenced growing fine wool with a considerable number of 
the imported Pauluar and Escurial stock, then considered as the 
best stock in Spain, which flock I have kept to this day pure and 
* A large quantity of earth, particularly in wet weather, eaten with turnips 
or potatoes, will cause cattle to scour, a small quantity will not; but scouring 
prevents swelling from either root.— Ed. Q. J. A. 
