1854. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
223 
Worms in the Heads of Sheep, &c. 
Messrs. Editors —I notice in the Gauntry Gen¬ 
tleman, an earnest inquiry about the preventive or 
cure of the grub in the sheep’s head. Having had 
considerable experience with sheep, I have learned to 
think that the best and most sure preventive as well 
as cure for this difficulty, consists in the keeping, care 
and attention bestowed upon the flock at all seasons of 
the year. 
I believe this insect or grub is natural to the sheep, 
though the seed or egg may be deposited by a fly. 
They can be found in the head of the, sheep at all 
times, whether the animal is in good health or other¬ 
wise ; and putting tar upon the noses or into the 
mouths of sheep, (though it is a healthy article to use 
in this way, and will no doubt promote the general 
health of the animal, as I have been convinced by its 
use in my own flock,) will not prevent the grub from 
generating in the head. 
Let a flock of sheep be uniformly kept, throughout 
the year, in a good thriving condition, even if it re¬ 
quires grain or roots, or both, at certain seasons to do 
this, with as much pure salt as the appetite craves, 
and running water in the yards or pasture, and they 
will seldom die by the ravages of the grub or other 
diseases. Sheep are not so so hardy as mules, colts, or 
horned cattle, particularly our fine wooled races, and 
require a generous regularity of feed and keeping; 
and under this system of treatment they are no more 
liable to disease and mortality than other domestic 
animals. 
By coming in contact with contagious diseases, such 
as the itch or scab, and rot foot, they will take the in¬ 
oculation ; but the remedy is at hand, and the disease 
easily cured if taken in its incipient stages. Particu 
lar care should be taken that the flock does not run 
down in flesh, late in autumn, when the grasses are 
rapidly losing their nutritious qualities, and becom¬ 
ing scant in quantity,—a time as we farmers say be 
twixt hay and grass—they should receive some grain 
to make up for the innutritions quality of the herbage 
—about one-half bushel shelled corn to each one hun¬ 
dred sheep, thrown upon the short grass in handfuls ; 
they will pick up every kernel, and much good it will 
do them. 
Again in the spring, is another season “ betwixt 
hay and grass.” After the days become warm, they 
lose their relish for dry hay, and the com should again 
be scattered upon the grass, or its equivalent in roots ; 
or a better way yet is, to feed a small quantity of 
grain daily through the winter, in troughs in the yards, 
say one gill of corn, or double this quantity of oats to 
each. In this way they will sustain themselves well 
in the yards two weeks later in the spring than by no¬ 
thing but hay, and hay of poorer quality can be used 
than if no grain were fed ; and all the better if a 
generous feed of roots once or twice each week is given 
through the winter. 
But a little more about this magot in the head. 
Sheep kept in the way I have described, are prepared 
to sustain themselves against his attacks, formidable 
as he is. The system is strong and healthy, and with 
a cough and a violent sneeze, out they come from the 
nostrils, a regular full grown grub. I have often seen 
them in my sheep yards, and about the salt box and 
water trough. A sheep low in flesh and sickly, has 
not the strength to discharge or eject this insect from 
the head in the way nature designed, and death fol¬ 
lows. There is another theory of the case, with some 
plausibility to support it. In a strong well-conditioned 
sheep, there must be more matter upon the inner sur¬ 
face or mucous membrane of the head, for the worm to 
feed upon, than there is with the poor sheep, and less 
likely he would be to attack the brain or vitality of 
the head, even if he were not ejected thro’ the nostrils. 
I occasionally lose a good sheep from some cause un¬ 
known. It may be the grub in the head, but I have 
no fears of its becoming an epidemic in my flock, nor 
do I think your inquirer need be alarmed if he keeps 
a large flock, and has lost but three by this disease; 
he probably keeps well, or his loss would have been 
greater. I have known from one-fourth to one-half of 
flocks of one hundred or over, die off with this dis¬ 
ease in a single winter, and have heard the wail and 
complaint of the owners about the incurability of this 
dreaded malady, when the poor animals were so low 
in condition, for the want of care and feed, that there 
were not left vigor and vitality enough in them, either 
to eject the grub from, or keep him in the head, with¬ 
out furnishing their brains for food. Writing upon 
this subject brings to mind a remark of a shrewd neigh¬ 
bor who has gone to a better world, who would insist 
that the owners of these flocks were mistaken in the 
name of the disease ; says he, “ it is not the grub in 
the head , that kills these sheep—it is the straw in the 
belly” I was inclined to adopt his opinion. J. W. 
Colburne. Springfield , Vt ., May 15,1854. 
We thank Mr. Colburne for the above. It should be 
carefully read and remembered by all farmers whose 
sheep are troubled with the disease alluded to. In the 
Prairie Farmer for May, we find an interesting ar¬ 
ticle on this subject, which we shall copy hereafter. 
Docking Lambs. 
In the October number of last year,“ A Farmer” ob¬ 
jects to the practice of docking lambs—thinks it a bar¬ 
barous practice. I am as far frohi giving unnecessary 
pain to animals, perhaps, as he or any other individ¬ 
ual, but I have yet to learn why docking is a more un¬ 
necessary or barbarous custom then castrating or 
butchering, either of which I have never heard object¬ 
ed to. 
Should “A Farmer” follow the business of rearing 
lambs, especially from Merinoes, he would probably 
become satisfied in time that it is necessary and pro¬ 
fitable to have his breeding ewes docked short, to keep 
them clean and insure lambs. 
I have a more convenient method I think of stop¬ 
ping the blood than Mr. Jewett’s, which consists in the 
application of a small quantity of green arsmart bruised 
and applied immediately to the wound, which is a 
powerful styptic, contracting the ends of the ruptured 
blood vessels and stopping the flow of blood instantly. 
The weed arsmart, smart weed, &c., alluded to above, 
is called by some botanists Polygonum punctatum, by 
others Aqua piper. Chas. Babcock. 
