236 
of the plants is greatest when they are very 
young. Hence late plants, which have rapidly 
sprung up under the heat of May, will be more 
tender than plants which formed their leaves 
earlier when less heat and moisture were pre- 
sent. Thisshows the importance of early sowing, 
especially on lea, if it puts the plants beyond the 
reach of the slug. But again, the fact that 
wheat after fallow is not infested, while wheat 
after lea, or clover, or beans, is sometimes nearly 
destroyed by slugs, bears in upon the mind the 
conviction that the slug arises from the soil on 
which these crops grew. It would lead one to 
conclude that they, like the grubs, lay their eggs 
in the soil where they fed during the former sea- 
son, and that these eggs yield young slugs at 
some very early period in the season. The fact 
of my finding many slugs, no bigger than large 
pin heads, in the grass in February, favours this 
notion. The inference from this is, the import- 
ance of early ploughing for spring crops. LHarly 
ploughing, where the ground is exposed to the 
winter frost, is a substitute for lea fallow to a 
certain extent. And where wheat is sown early, 
and after ploughing lea or clover, the plants rise 
before the ground has had the advantage of this 
partial fallow. The practice of grazing sheep in 
winter tempts us to defer ploughing our lea as 
long as possible. This must be very bad economy 
if the above views be at all correct; for all that 
we can gain from them by winter pasture will not 
exceed 63s. or 7s. per acre at farthest,—and in 
seeking to gain this, we may lose ten times as 
much by the grub and slug in our next crop; 
and it is hardly possible to conceive that our 
loss will ever be so little as double the gain from 
pasturage.” 
SMALLAGE. See Cxtmry. 
SMALL-POX. This disease has lately been 
making great ravages among the sheep of Bri- 
tain. The form of it which attacks sheep, and 
which is called by the learned Variola ovis, has 
long been known and dreaded on the Continent, 
and seems to have been recently imported thence 
into this country. The Marquis of Salisbury in 
Hertfordshire speedily lost nearly 2,000 sheep by 
it; some of the farmers of Norfolk soon lost 50 
per cent. or even a larger proportion of their 
flocks; and the farmers of some entire districts 
have felt themselves exposed to so much danger, 
by the diffusion of the epizootic from diseased 
sheep in the public markets, as to be compelled 
to sell their stock only on their own farm, and to 
refrain from either selling or purchasing at fairs. 
But on account of the consequent embarrassment 
which has occurred to the sheep-trade, as also 
on account of the risk occasioned to the public 
health by sending diseased sheep to the shambles, 
and likewise on account of the contemporaneous 
prevalence of pleuro-pneumonia among cattle, 
the attention of the Legislature has been drawn 
to the sanitary condition of the live stock of the 
country, so that public facilities will henceforth 
SMALL-POX. 
be afforded to prevent the spread of contagion. 
In Germany, the law directs all owners of flocks 
affected with small-pox, not only to tell the fact 
to their neighbours, but to proclaim it in the 
newspapers; and so stringent a provision was 
probably suggested by the fact, that any sheep, 
on passing from an infected district to an unin- 
fected one, may carry abroad and widely diffuse 
the virus of the malady before any symptom of 
the existence of it in its own body can be observed. 
All persons engaged in sheep husbandry ought 
to acquaint themselves well with the symptoms 
and proper treatment of small-pox in sheep, both 
that they may avoid purchasing diseased animals, 
and that they may know what to do if it should 
break out among their flocks. We shall, there- 
fore, present one account of it by a German 
agriculturist, and another by a very experienced 
veterinary surgeon of Hamburg. “In this dis- 
ease,” says the former, “the sheep suffer pre- 
viously internally, with a loss of appetite, heavi- 
ness, and indisposition to move, difficulty of 
breathing, swelling of, and discharge from, the 
eyes, and of a viscous matter from the nostrils. 
In from three to five days, spots appear on the 
bare parts of the legs and body, which become 
large, and form blisters, in the centre of the 
red circumference of which yellow spots come, 
and at last fill with yellow matter. If these 
spots become blue or blackish, they unite, and a 
thin stinking matter issues from them, which is 
the height of the disease; but death ensues if 
the pustules should not come properly out, or 
should strike in again. The last stage of the 
disease, when it terminates favourably, is marked 
by the drying away of the sore, on which a 
black scurf forms and falls off. The animal has 
the disease, as with man, only once; in a flock 
it is contagious, but not so among cattle. Dur- 
ing this disease, good hay and drinks of a decoc- 
tion of barley are good, to which a little com- 
mon salt may be added, At the commencement 
of the disease, the nose and mouth must be kept 
clean with vinegar and water, the eyelids are to 
be often washed with warm milk, and an elec- 
tuary, of three-parts of flower of brimstone and 
one part common salt and honey, is a useful re- 
medy. But Iam of opinion that inoculation of 
the whole flock the moment the disease shows 
itself, even in one in the neighbourhood, is the 
only preservative.” The surgeon of Hamburg 
says :—“ The first symptoms are, that the animal 
becomes lame or stiff in the hind legs, is uneasy, 
will not feed, &c. After this the fever com- 
mences, with shivering and trembling, with in- 
creased heat of the body; but the ears and tail 
particularly become very red; the nostrils and 
gums dry hot; the animal stands with drooping 
head, and the feet are close together under the 
belly ; it is lame, or halts, particularly with the 
hind-legs ; the ears hang, the eye is bloodshot ; 
the fever increases, as also the difficulty of 
breathing ; the animal feeds and ruminates little, 
a 
