68 THE COMMON SHEEP-SCAB. 
prise can be a success unless proper pains are taken to make 
it such. Herding together large numbers of sheep belong- 
ing to a number of farmers has the very dangerous tendency 
to rapidly spread any disease which by separating the large 
flocks into smaller ones would not occur. If, for instance, 
one farmer is careless and allows the scab to enter his flock, 
his animals, grazing together with others well taken care of, 
will soon spread this disease, and thus force all his neighbors 
to go to a heavy expense to exterminate it. Concerted ac- 

Fig. 38.-Scab-miteo sheep,male; Fig.39.—Scab-mite of sheep, 
a,head; b, b, legs; c, c, suckers. female. Greatlyenlarged. After 
Geatly enlarged. After Curtice. Curtice. 
tion is absolutely necessary to prevent this disease from en- 
tering any region, or to stamp it out if once found among 
the sheep. Most countries have stringent laws, well en- 
forced, to prevent the introduction of sheep that are not per- 
fectly healthy. We have as yet no such laws and therefore 
it behooves each farmer so much more to be on his guard. 
‘An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure’’ is 
an old truth, and exceedingly well appliable to sheep hus- 
bandry. 
Of the three distinct species of scab-mites found upon 
sheep the above one is the worst and the losses caused by 
it are very great in some of our western states, and as the 
pest has found a lodgment in several parts of our own state, 
