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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  13,  1903. 
The  whole  of  these  changes  are  so  slow,  and  the  effect 
on  the  sheep  is  at  first  so  imperceptible,  that  a  farmer  must 
be  very  wide  awake  to  discover  it  before  irreparable 
damage  has  been  done.  We  have  had  some  experience  of 
the  ravages  of  liver  fluke  both  amongst  our  own  stock  and 
that  of  neighbours,  and  have  found  no  cure  for  sheep  once 
infected  ;  it  is  therefore  the  more  necessary  to  use  every 
preventive  measure. 
A  careful  reader  will  notice  that  in  the  short  history  of 
the  fluke  given  above,  the’  parasite  in  two  of  its  forms  is 
mentioned  as  swimming  about  waiting  for  a  lodging,  also 
the  host  to  which  it  specially  attaches  itself  is  a  water 
snail ;  therefore,  in  using  preventive  measures  we  must  not 
allow  our  sheep  access  to  pastures  where  there  are 
pools  of  water  in  which  the  fluke  may  have  been  reared, 
or  must  use  such  means  as  will  destroy  the  activity  of  the 
enemy.  To  this  end  there  is  nothing  better  than  common 
salt,  and  we  should  strongly  advise  farmers  to  give  a  heavy 
dressing  of  it  to  any  pastures  which  abound  in  marshy 
jilaces. 
Of  course,  drainage  must  be  attended  to,  and  boggy 
spots  may  be  much  impi’oved  thereby,  but  still  there  are 
large  tracts  of  land  which  lie  so  low  that  a  wet  time  con¬ 
verts  them  into  swamps,  in  spite  of  every  effort  made  to 
get  the  water  away.  It  is  on  such  land  that  the.  use  of 
'salt  is  such  a  safeguard.  But  there  are  many  farmers  who 
have  dry  as  well  as  wet  pastures,  and  are  able  to  choose 
the  time  for  stocking  each  field.  Well,  in  such  cases  we 
should,  say  use  salt  on  the  wet  land,  but  do  not  put  sheep 
on  it  after  midsummer  until  there  has  been  a  real  frost. 
We  believe  that  a  careful  study  of  the  history  of  the  liver 
fluke  shows  that  its  progress  is  so  slow  that  there  is  pi’acti- 
cally  no  danger  of  sheep  becoming  infected  with  it  before 
the  month  of  August,  but  that  after  August  has  come  in 
the  danger  increases  day  by  day  until  there  has  been  a  frost, 
which  can  deal  death  to  the  parasite.  We  know  farmers  of 
large  mixed  holdings  who  never  put  sheep  on  their  low 
lying,  marshy  grass  land  until  there  is  no  mistake  about 
the  advent  of  winter. 
But  there  is  the  danger  of  infection  from  ponds  and 
watercourses  even  in  hilly  districts!  Certainly!  but  the 
danger  is  a  very  small  one,  and  there  should  be  little  or 
none  if  ponds  and  watercourses  are  well  scoured  out  and 
no  vegetation  allowed  to  exist  in  them.  They  may  also  be 
fenced  off,  and  in  the  case  of  ponds  it  is  a  plan  we  should 
recommend.  But  someone  says,  “  Oh !  I  wish  my  sheep  to 
have  a  supply  of  water.”  Well!  they  can  do  very  well  with¬ 
out,  and  they  are  very  much  better  without  than  to  run 
any  risk  of  contamination  with  the  liver  fluke. 
But  what  are  the  signs  of  contarpination  1  As  we  said 
before,  it  is  very  difficult  of  detection  unless  we  aJre  w'arned, 
and  therefore  on  the  look  out.  The  fluke  infests  the  liver, 
but  its  food,,  strictly  speaking,  is  the  blood;  and  as  soon 
as  it  obtains  a  habitation  in  the  system  of  any  sheep  a 
constant  and  unending  draft  on  the  vitality  of  that  particular 
animal  is  immediately  set  up.  If,  therefore,  a  flock  of 
sheep  is  seen  to  cease  thriving,  and  show  signs  of  debility, 
the  possible  presence  of  liver  fluke  must  be  one  of  the  first 
questions  to  be  investigated.  An  aggravated,  or  perhaps  it 
might  be  better  to  say  an  advanced  case  of  liver  rot,  can  be 
most  unmistakably  diagnosed  by  one  symptom.  If  the 
shenherd  turns  up  the  eyelid  of  the  sheep  the  eyeball  will 
be  found  of  a  bluish  white,  without  any  sign  of  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  a  vein,  whereas  the  eyeball  of  a  healthy  sheep  will 
show  a  beautiful  network  of  veins. 
If  a  sheep  is  discovered  infested-with  this  disease,  there  is 
only  one  cure,  i.e.,  the  knife.  A  breeding  flock  is  especially 
liable  to  attack,  because  grass  land  is  so  suitable  in  other 
ways  for  it ;  but  if  symptoms  of  fluke  be  discovered  the 
best  plan  is  to  kill  and  market  the  lot  at  once,  for  the  ew'es 
will  gradually  lose  flesh,  few  will  live  to  rear  a  healthy 
lamb,  and  none  will  survive  to  breed  again. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
There  is  still  plenty  of  work  amongst  the  Turnips,  for  there 
has  been  rain  almost  daily,  and  it  has  been  most  difficult  to  make 
a  thorough  job  of  them.  The  showery  weather  has  put  harvest 
back  quite  a  week,  so  there  is  still  time  to  get  the  cleaning 
done  if  the  weather  would  but  take  up. 
Grain  crops  have  suffered  further  from  the  heavy  rain,  and 
are  now  in  many  cases  hopelessly  twisted  about,  and  present  a 
problem  to  the  binders.  It  is  a  pity  that  harvest  should  have 
been  made  more  difficult,  for  both  Irish  and  English  harvesters 
of  experience  are  difficult  to  find,  and  the  out-of-work  towns¬ 
man  without  rural  experience  is  of  little  use  amongst  heavy 
laid  crops.  The  chief  damage  to  the  corn  will  be  in  the  in¬ 
creased  cost  of  harvesting,  for  the  ears  are  plump  and  well  fed, 
and  will  ripen  well  with  more  sunshine. 
A  journey  through  a  neighbouring  county  this  week  revealed 
a  very  different  state  of  .things.  No  laid  corn  there,  but  a  great 
shortness  of  straw,  harvest  approaching  rapidly,  and  many  fields 
of  late  sown  Turnips  not  yet  touched  by  the  hoe.  We  came 
home  much  consoled  and  reconciled  to  our  own  minor  troubles. 
One  thing  attracted  our  notice  during  this  journey,  viz.,  the 
frequency  with  which  we  passed  large  stacks  of  hay  and  clover, 
particularly  the  latter ;  and  although  there  was  an  abundance 
of  aftermath,  we  noticed  very  few  sheep.  Are  these  farmers 
all  crazy  speculators  in  hay,  or  are.  they  short  of  capital  to  invest 
in  sheep  ?  These  paying  little  animals  are  anything  but  cheap 
now,  but  there  is  plenty  of  room  yet  for  a  big  profit,  and  we 
fancy  that  buyers  at  our  local  fair  to-morrow  will  find  that  they 
have  invested  their  money  well. 
It  will  soon  be  time  to  wean  early  foals,  and  if  the  mares 
are  required  to  do  much  work  during  harvest  it  will  be  well  to 
separate  foal  and  dam  at  once,  and  get  rid  of  the  mare’s  milk 
before  she  is  again  put  into  hot  and  heavy  work.  When  a  foal 
is  first  weaned  it  should  be  closely  watched,  as  some  excitable 
young  animals  are  liable  to  do  themselves  serious  injury  if  left 
alone  and  unattended,  until  they  settle  down  and  become  re¬ 
conciled  to  the  new  conditions.  It  is  safer  to  leave  two  foals 
together ;  they  will  be  company  for  each  other,  and  be  far  less 
liable  to  injury. 
Suburban  Poultry  Keeping. 
The  number  of  suburban  iioultry  keepers  has  increased 
enormously  during  the  past  fifteen  years,  and  it  has  been  esti¬ 
mated  that  fully  one-third  of  the  eggs  produced  in  this  country 
are  now  obtained  from  this  source.  Suburban  residents  living 
in  detached  or  semi-detached  villas  are  as  a  rule  obliged  to  con¬ 
fine  their  feathered  stock  within  very  narrow  limits,  such  as 
small  wired-in  enclosures  of  20yds  or  30yds  sc^uare.  But  can 
fowls  under  such  circumstances  be  kept  at  a  profit?  I  am 
satisfied  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  they  are  kept  at  a  loss. 
Why  is  it,  then,  that  so  many  are  kept  ?  They  are  kept  as  a 
hobby,  and  any  loss  that  is  made  is  more  or  less  compensated  by 
the  pleasure  of  possessing  such  live  stock  and  securing  home 
laid  eggs  warm  from  the  nest. 
There  is,  however,  one  way,  and  I  believe  only  one,  by 
which  a  few  fowls  can  be  kept  at  a  certain  profit,  although 
closely  confined ;  and  if  it  were  more  generally  practised,  the 
number  of  suburban  poultry  keepers  might  yet  be  increased  ten¬ 
fold.  Instead,  then,  of  attempting  to  rear  chickens,  or  to  keep 
any  adult  fowls  all  the  year  round  in  confined  enclosures,  let 
the  poultry  yard  be  tenanted  with  stock  for  six  months  only, 
from  the  middle  of  February  to  the  middle  of  August.  Purchase 
in  February,  say,  a  dozen  pullets  or  one  year  old  hens  of  a  non¬ 
sitting  breed,  such  as  Leghorns,  Andalusians,  or  Minorcas. 
During  the  following  six  months  these  fowls  will  lay  quite  four- 
fifths  of  the  eggs  that  can  be  expected  from  them  if  kept  the 
full  twelve  months.  We  therefore  get  a  maximum  of  eggs 
during  these  prolific  egg  laying  months  at  a  minimum  cost  of 
food  and  labour  of  attending.  The  fowls  when  bought  in  may 
cost  from  2s.  Cd.  to  3s.  6d.  each,  and  when  sold  out  in  August 
will  commonly  realise  from  Is.  9d.  to  2s.  each,  as  they  will  then 
be  in  good  condition  for  killing.  All  surplus  eggs  laid  during 
the  summer  should  be  dropped  into  water  glass,  lime  pickle,  or 
otherwise  preserved  for  autumn  and  winter  use.  By  adopting 
this  simple  plan  you  escape  the  six  unprofitable  months  in  all 
poultiy  yards,  and  in  too  many  instances  the  handsome  profit 
made  during  the  spring  and  summer  months  is  more  than  eaten 
up  during  the  autumn  and  winter. 
Again,  very  few  people  are  successful  in  keeping  fowls  in 
small  enclosures,  however  well  attended,  in  either  health  or 
profit  for  twelve  consecutive  months,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
increased  labour  and  misery  of  attending  to  such  stock  in  all 
weathers  through  our  inclement  winters.  No  fowls  produce  so 
many  eggs  during  the  laying  season  as  those,  confined  in 
suburban  runs.  This  is  owing  to  the  better  care  and  attention 
which  they  receive,  the  shelter  afforded,  and  the  table  scrap 
food  which  is  so  conducive  to  egg  laying.  The  best  varieties 
of  fowls  for  egg  laying  are  now  so  generally  and  largely  bred 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  land  that  there  can 
be  no  difficulty  in  securing  a  dozen  head  or  so  of  suitable  stock, 
and  at  a  moderate  price,  to  place  in  one’s  pen  in  the  spring  of 
each  year.  There  are  probably  a  quarter  of  a  million  amateur 
poultry  keepers  who,  by  adoptiffg  this  suggestion,  may  convert 
a  loss  into  a  certain  gain,  as  well  as  avoid  the  many  diseases 
which  sooner  or  later  bring  disaster  to  all  poultry  keepers  who 
attempt  to  do  too  much  upon  a  limited  space. — K.  B.  B.4.ghot 
DE  K.\.  Beee,  Burbage  Hall,  Leicestershire. 
