Shepherd’s CrookSHEPHERD’S CROOK.
SHEPHERD’S CROOK.
This convenient implement for catching sheep is of the form represented in the cut accompanying, of three-eighths inch round iron, drawn smaller toward the point, which is made safe by a knot. The other end is furnished with a socket, which receives a handle six or eight feet long.
In using it, the hind leg is hooked in from behind the sheep, and it fills up the narrow part beyond that point, while passing along it until it reaches the loop, when the animal is caught by the hook, and when secured, its foot easily slips through the loop. Some caution is required in its use; for, should the animal give a sudden start forward to get away, the moment it feels the crook, the leg will be drawn forcibly through the narrow part, and strike the bone with such violence against the bend of the loop as to cause the animal considerable pain, and even occasionlameness for some days. On first embracing the leg, the crook should be drawn quickly toward the shepherd, so as to bring the bend of the loop against the leg as high up as the hock, before the sheep has time even to break off; and being secure, its struggles will cease the moment the hand seizes the leg.
No shepherd should be without this implement, as it saves much yarding and running, and leads to a prompt examination of every improper or suspicious appearance, and a seasonable application of remedy or preventive, which would often be deferred if the whole flock had to be driven to a distant yard to effect the catching of a single sheep.
Dexterity in its use is speedily acquired by any one; and if a flock are properly tame, any one of its number can be readily caught by it at salting-time, or, generally, at other times, by a person with whom the flock are familiar. It is, however, at the lambing-time, when sheep and lambs require to be so repeatedly caught, that the crook is more particularly serviceable. For this purpose, at that time alone, it will pay for itself ten times over in a single season, in saving time, to say nothing of the advantage of the sheep.
Driving.Mutton can be grown cheaper than any other kind of meat. It is fast becoming better appreciated; and, strange as it may seem, good mutton brings a higher price in our best markets than the same quality does in England. Its substitution in a large measure for pork would contribute materially to the health of the community.
Winter fattening of sheep may often be made very profitableand deserves greater attention, especially where manure is an object; and the instances are few, indeed, where it is not. In England, it is considered good policy to fatten sheep, if the increase of weight will pay for the oil-cake or grain consumed; the manure being deemed a fair equivalent for the other food—that is, as much straw and turnips as they will eat. Lean sheep there usually command as high a price per pound in the fall as fatted ones in the spring; while, in this country, the latter usually bear a much higher price, which gives the feeder a great advantage.
The difference may be best illustrated by a simple calculation. Suppose a wether of a good mutton breed, weighing eighty pounds in the fall, to cost six cents per pound, amounting to four dollars and eighty cents, and to require twenty pounds of hay per week, or its equivalent in other food, and to gain a pound and a half each week; the gain in weight in four months would be about twenty-five pounds, which, at six cents per pound, would be one dollar and fifty cents, or less than ten dollars per ton for the hay consumed; but if the same sheep could be bought in the fall for three cents per pound, and sold in the spring for six cents, the gain would amount to three dollars and ninety cents, or upwards of twenty dollars per ton for the hay—the manure being the same in either case.
For fattening, it is well to purchase animals as large and thrifty, and in as good condition as can be had at fair prices; and to feed liberally, so as to secure the most rapid increase that can be had without waste of food. The fattening of sheep by the aid of oil-cake, or grain purchased for the purpose, may often be made a cheaper mode of obtaining manure than bythe purchase of artificial fertilizers, as guano, super-phosphate of lime, and the like; and it is altogether preferable. It is practised extensively and advantageously abroad, and deserves at least a fair trial among us.
The Shepherd and his FlockTHE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK.
THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK.
Sheep which are to be driven to market should not begin their journey either when too full or too hungry; in the former state, they are apt to purge while on the road, and in the latter, they will lose strength at once. The sheep selected for market should be those in the best condition at the time; and to ascertain this, it is necessary to examine the whole lot, and separate the fattest from the rest, which is best done at about mid-day, before the sheep feed again in the afternoon. The selected ones are placed in a field by themselves, where they remain until the time for starting. If there be rough pasture to give them, they should be allowed to use it, in order to rid themselves of some of the food which might be productive of inconvenience on the journey. If there is nosuch pasture, a few cut turnips will answer. All their hoofs should be carefully examined, and every unnecessary appendage removed, though the firm portion of the horn should not be touched. Every clotted piece of wool should also be removed with the shears, and the animals properly marked.
Being thus prepared, they should have feed early in the morning, and be started, in the cold season, about mid-day. Let them walk quietly away; and as the road is new to them, they will go too fast at first, to prevent which, the drover should go before them, and let his dog bring up the rear. In a short time they will assume the proper speed—about one mile an hour. Should the road they travel be a green one, they will proceed nibbling their way onward at the grass along both sides; but if it is a narrow turnpike, the drover will require all his attention in meeting and being passed by various vehicles, to avoid injury to his charge. In this part of their business, drovers generally make too much ado; and the consequence is, that the sheep are driven more from side to side of the road than is requisite. Upon meeting a carriage, it would be much better for the sheep, were the drover to go forward, instead of sending his dog, and point off with his stick the leading sheep to the nearest side of the road; and the rest will follow, as a matter of course, while the dog walks behind the flock and brings up the stragglers. Open gates to fields are sources of great annoyance to drovers, the stock invariably making an endeavor to go through them. On observing an open gate ahead, the drover should send his dog behind him over the fence, to be ready to meet the sheep at the gate. When the sheep incline to rest, they should be allowed to lie down.
When the animals are lodged for the night, a few turnips or a little hay should be furnished to them, if the road-sides are bare. If these are placed near the gate of the field which they occupy, they will be ready to take the road again in the morning. As a precaution against worrying dogs, the drover should go frequently through the flock with a light, retire to rest late, and rise up early in the morning. These precautions are necessary; since, when sheep have once been disturbed by dogs, they will not settle again upon the road. The first day’s journey should be a short one, not exceeding four or five miles. The whole journey should be so marked out as that, allowance being made for unforeseen delays, the animals may have one day’s rest near the market.
Points of fat sheep.The formation of fat, in a sheep destined to be fattened, commences in the inside, the web of fat which envelopes the intestines being first formed, and a little deposited around the kidneys. After that, fat is seen on the outside; and first upon the end of the rump at the tail-head, continuing to move on along the back, on both sides of the spine, or back-bone, to the bend of the ribs to the neck. Then it is deposited between the muscles, parallel with the cellular tissue. Meanwhile, it is covering the lower round of the ribs descending to the flanks, until the two sides meet under the belly, whence it proceeds to the brisket, or breast, in front, and the sham or cod behind, filling up the inside of the arm-pits and thighs. While all these depositions are proceeding on the outside, the progress in the inside is not checked, but rather increased, by the fattening disposition encouraged by the acquired condition; and, hence, simultaneously, the kidneys become entirely covered, and the spacebetween the intestines and the lumbar region, or loin, gradually filled up by the web and kidney fat.
By this time the cellular spaces around each fibre of muscle are receiving their share; and when fat is deposited there in quantity, it gives to the meat the termmarbled. These inter-fibrous spaces are the last to receive a deposition of fat; but after this has begun, every other part at the same time receives its due share, the back and kidneys securing the most, so much so that the former literally becomesnicked, as it is termed—that is, the fat is felt through the skin to be divided into two portions, from the tail-head along the back to the top of the shoulder; and the tail becoming thick and stiff, the top of the neck broad, the lower part of each side of the neck toward the breasts full, and the hollows between the breast-bone and the inside of the fore legs, and between the cod and the inside of the hind thighs, filled up. When all this has been accomplished, the sheep is said to befat, orripe.
When the body of a fat sheep is entirely overlaid with fat, it is in the most valuable state as mutton. Few sheep, however, lay on fat entirely over their body; one laying the largest proportion on the rump, another on the back; one on the parts adjoining the fore-quarter, another on those of the hind-quarter; and one more on the inside, and another more on the outside. Taking so many parts, and combining any two or more of them together, a considerable variety of condition will be found in any lot of fat sheep, while any one is as ripe in its way as any other.
With these data for guides, the state of a sheep in its progress toward ripeness may be readily detected by handling. A fat sheep, however, is easily known by the eye, from thefullness exhibited by all the external parts of the particular animal. It may exhibit want in some parts when compared with others; but those parts, it may easily be seen, would never become so ripe as the others; and this arises from some constitutional defect in the animal itself; since, if this were so, there is no reason why all the parts should not be alike ripe. The state of a sheep that is obviously not ripe cannot altogether be ascertained by the eye. It must be handled, or subjected to the scrutiny of the hand. Even in so palpable an act as handling, discretion is requisite. A full-looking sheep needs hardly to be handled on the rump; for he would not seem so full, unless fat had first been deposited there. A thin-looking sheep, on the other hand, should be handled on the rump; and if there be no fat there, it is useless to handle the rest of the body, for certainly there will not be so much as to deserve the name of fat. Between these two extremes of condition, every variety exists; and on that account examination by the hand is the rule, and by the eye alone the exception. The hand is, however, much assisted by the eye, whose acuteness detects deficiencies and redundancies at once.
In handling sheep, the points of the fingers are chiefly employed; and the accurate knowledge conveyed by them, through practice, of the exact state of the condition, is truly surprising, and establishes a conviction in the mind that some intimate relation exists between the external and internal state of an animal. Hence originates this practical maxim in judging stock of all kinds—that no animal will appear ripe to the eye, unless as much fat had previously been acquired in the inside as constitutional habit will allow.
The application of this rule is easy. When the rump isfound nicked, on handling, fat is to be found on the back; when the back is found nicked, fat is to be expected on the top of the shoulder and over the ribs; and when the top of the shoulder proves to be nicked, fat may be anticipated on the under side of the belly, To ascertain its existence below, the animal must beturned up, as it is termed; that is, the sheep is set upon his rump, with his back down, and his hind feet pointing upward and outward. In this position, it can be seen whether the breast and thighs are filled up. Still, all these alone would not disclose the state of the inside of the sheep, which should, moreover, be looked for in the thickness of the flank; in the fullness of the breast, that is, the space in front from shoulder to shoulder toward the neck; in the stiffness and thickness of the root of the tail; and in the breadth of the back of the neck. All these latter parts, especially with the fullness of the inside of the thighs, indicate a fullness of fat in the inside; that is, largeness of the mass of fat on the kidneys, thickness of net, and thickness of layers between the abdominal muscles. Hence, the whole object of feeding sheep on turnips and the like seems to be to lay fat upon all the bundles of fleshy fibres, called muscles, that are capable of acquiring that substance; for, as to bone and muscle, these increase in weight and extent independently of fat, and fat only increases in their magnitude.
Slaughtering.Sheep are easily slaughtered, and the operation is unattended with cruelty. They require some preparation before being deprived of life, which consists in food being withheld from them for not less than twenty-four hours, according to the season. The reason for fasting sheep before slaughtering is to give time for the paunch and intestinesto empty themselves entirely of food, as it is found that, when an animal is killed with a full stomach, the meat is more liable to putrefy, and it not so well flavored; and, as ruminating animals always retain a large quantity of food in their intestines, it is reasonable that they should fast somewhat longer to get rid of it, than animals with single stomachs.
Sheep are placed on their side—sometimes upon a stool, called a killing-stool—to be slaughtered, and, requiring no fastening with cords, are deprived of life by the use of a straight knife through the neck, between its bone and the windpipe, severing the carotid artery and the jugular vein of both sides, from which the blood flows freely out, and the animal soon dies.
Drover’s or Butcher’s DogDROVER’S OR BUTCHER’S DOG.
DROVER’S OR BUTCHER’S DOG.
The skin, as far as it is covered with wool, is taken off, leaving that on the legs and head, which are covered with hair, the legs being disjointed by the knee. The entrails are removed by an incision along the belly, after the carcass has been hung up by the tendons of the boughs. The net is carefully separated from the viscera, and rolled up by itself; but the kidney fat is not then extracted. The intestines are placed on the inner side of the skin until divided into thepluck, containing the heart, lungs, and liver; the bag, containing the stomach; and thepuddings, consisting of theviscera, or guts. The latter are usually thrown away; though the Scotch, however, clean them and work them up into their favoritehaggis. The skin is hung over a rope or pole under cover, with the skin-side uppermost, to dry in an airy place.
The carcass should hang twenty-four hours in a clean, cool, airy, dry apartment before it is cut down. It should be cool and dry; for, if warm, the meat will not become firm; and, if damp, a clamminess will cover it, and it will never feel dry, and present a fresh, clean appearance. The carcass is divided in two, by being sawed right down the back-bone. The kidney-fat is then taken out, being only attached to the peritoneum by the cellular membrane, and the kidney is extracted from thesuet, the name given to sheep-tallow in an independent state.
Cutting up.Of the two modes of cutting up a carcass of mutton, the English and the Scotch—of the former, the practice in London being taken as the standard, and of the latter, that of Edinburgh, since more care is exercised in this respect in these two cities—the English is, perhaps, preferable; although the Scotch accomplish the task in a cleanly and workmanlike manner.
Thejigotis the most handsome and valuable part of the carcass, bringing the highest price, and is either a roasting or a boiling piece. A jigot of Leicester, Cheviot, or South-Down mutton makes a beautiful boiled leg of mutton, which is prized the more the fatter it is—this part of the carcass being never overloaded with fat. Theloinis almost always roasted, the flap of the flank being skewered up, and it is a juicy piece. Many consider this piece of Leicester mutton, roasted, as too rich; and when warm this is, probably, the case; but a coldroast loin is an excellent summer dish. Theback-ribis divided into two, and used for very different purposes. The forepart—the neck—is boiled, and makes sweet barley-broth; and the meat, when boiled, or rather the whole simmered for a considerable time beside the fire, eats tenderly. The back-ribs make an excellent roast; indeed, there is not a sweeter or more varied one in the whole carcass, having both ribs and shoulder. The shoulder-blade eats best cold, and the ribs, warm. The ribs make excellent chops, the Leicester and South-Down affording the best. Thebreastis mostly a roasting-piece, consisting of rib and shoulder, and is particularly good when cold. When the piece is large, as of the South-Down or Cheviot, the gristly parts of the ribs may be divided from the true ribs, and helped separately. This piece also boils well; or, when corned for eight days, and served with onion sauce, with mashed turnips in it, there are few more savory dishes at a farmer’s table. Theshoulderis separated before being dressed, and makes an excellent roast for family use, being eaten warm or cold, or carved and dressed as the breast mentioned above. The shoulder is best from a large carcass of South-Down, Cheviot, or Leicester. Theneck-pieceis partly laid bare by the removal of the shoulder, the forepart being fitted for boiling and making into broth, and the best part for roasting or broiling into chops. On this account, it is a good family piece, and generally preferred to any part of the hind-quarter. Heavy sheep, such as the Leicester, South-Down, and Cheviot, supply the most thrifty neck-piece.
Relative qualities.The different sorts of mutton in common use differ as well in quality as in quantity. The flesh of theLeicesteris large, though not coarse-grained, of alively red color, and the cellular tissue between the fibres contains a considerable quantity of fat. When cooked, it is tender and juicy, yielding a red gravy, and having a sweet, rich taste; but the fat is rather too much and too rich for some people’s tastes, and can be put aside. It must be allowed that the lean of fat meat is far better than lean meat that has never been fat.Cheviotmutton is smaller in the grain, not so bright of color, with less fat, less juice, not so tender and sweet; but the flavor is higher, and the fat not so luscious. The mutton ofSouth-Downsis of medium fineness in grain, color pleasant red, fat well intermixed with the meat, juicy, and tenderer than Cheviot. The mutton of rams of any breed is always hard, of disagreeable flavor, and, in autumn, not eatable; that of old ewes is dry, hard, and tasteless; of young ones, well enough flavored, but still rather dry; while wether-mutton is the meat in perfection, according to its kind.
The want of relish, perhaps the distaste, for mutton has served as an obstacle to the extension of sheep husbandry in the United States. The common mistake in the management of mutton among us is, that it is eaten, as a general thing, at exactly the wrong time after it is killed. It should be eaten immediately after being killed, and, if possible, before the meat has time to get cold; or, if not, then it should be kept a week or more—in the ice-house, if the weather require—until the time is just at hand when the fibre passes the state of toughness which it takes on at first, and reaches that incipient or preliminary point in its process toward putrefaction when the fibres begin to give way, and the meat becomes tender.
An opinion likewise generally prevails that mutton does not attain perfection in juiciness and flavor much under five years.If this be so, that breed of sheep must be very unprofitable which takes five years to attain its full state; and there is no breed of sheep in this country which requires five years to bring it to perfection. This being the case, it must be folly to restrain sheep from coming to perfection until they have reached that age. Lovers of five-year-old mutton do not pretend that this course bestows profit on the farmer, but only insist on its being best at that age. Were this the fact, one of two absurd conditions must exist in this department of agriculture: namely, the keeping a breed of sheep that cannot, or that should not be allowed to, attain to perfection before it is five years old; either of which conditions makes it obvious that mutton cannot be in itsbeststate at five years.
The truth is, the idea of mutton of this age being especially excellent, is founded on a prejudice, arising, probably, from this circumstance: before winter food was discovered, which could maintain the condition of stock which had been acquired in summer, sheep lost much of their summer condition in winter, and, of course, an oscillation of condition occurred, year after year, until they attained the age of five years; when their teeth beginning to fail, would cause them to lose their condition the more rapidly. Hence, it was expedient to slaughter them at not exceeding five years of age; and, no doubt, mutton would be high-flavored at that age, that had been exclusively fed on natural pasture and natural hay. Such treatment of sheep cannot, however, be justified on the principles of modern practice; because both reason and taste concur in mutton being at its best whenever sheep attain their perfect state of growth and condition, not their largest and heaviest; and as one breed attains its perfect state at an earlierage than another, its mutton attains its best before another breed attains what is its best state, although its sheep may be older; but taste alone prefers one kind of mutton to another, even when both are in their best state, from some peculiar property. The cry for five-year-old mutton is thus based on very untenable grounds; the truth being that well-fed and fatted mutton is never better than when it gets its full growth in its second year; and the farmer cannot afford to keep it longer, unless the wool would pay for the keep, since we have not the epicures and men of wealth who would pay the butcher the extra price, which he must have, to enable him to pay a remunerating price to the grazier for keeping his sheep two or three years over.
All writers on diet agree in describing mutton as the most valuable of the articles of human food. Pork may be more stimulating, beef perhaps more nutritious, when the digestive powers are strong; but, while there is in mutton sufficient nutriment, there is also that degree of consistency and readiness of assimilation which renders it most congenial to the human stomach, most easy of digestion, and most promotive of human health. Of it, almost alone, can it be said that it is our food in sickness, as well as in health; its broth is the first thing, generally, that an invalid is permitted to taste, the first thing that he relishes, and is a natural preparation for his return to his natural aliment. In the same circumstances, it appears that fresh mutton, broiled or boiled, requires three hours for digestion; fresh mutton, roasted, three and one-fourth hours; and mutton-suet, boiled, four and one-half hours.
Goodhammay be made of any part of a carcass of mutton, though the leg is preferable; and for this purpose it is cut inthe English fashion. It should be rubbed all over with good salt, and a little saltpetre, for ten minutes, and then laid in a dish and covered with a cloth for eight or ten days. After that, it should be slightly rubbed again, for about five minutes, and then hung up in a dry place, say the roof of the kitchen, until used. Wether mutton is used for hams, because it is fat, and it may be cured any time from November to May; but ram-mutton makes the largest and highest-flavored ham, provided it be cured in spring, because it is out of season in autumn.
There is an infallible rule for ascertaining theageof mutton by certain marks on the carcass. Observe the color of the breast-bone, when a sheep is dressed—that is, where the breast-bone is separated—which, in a lamb, or before it is one year old, will be quite red; from one to two years old, the upper and lower bone will be changing to white, and a small circle of white will appear round the edges of the other bones, and the middle part of the breast-bone will yet continue red; at three years old, a very small streak of red will be seen in the middle of the four middle bones, and the others will be white; and at four years, all the breast-bone will be of a white or gristly color.
Contributions to manufactures.The products of sheep are not merely useful to man; they provide his luxuries as well. The skin of sheep is made intoleather, and, when so manufactured with the fleece on, makes comfortable mats for the doors of rooms, and rugs for carriages. For this purpose, the best skins are selected, and such as are covered with the longest and most beautiful fleece.Tanned sheep-skinis used in coarse book-binding.White sheep-skin, which is nottanned, but so manufactured by a peculiar process, is used as aprons by many classes of workmen, and, in agriculture, as gloves in the harvest; and, when cut into strips, as twine for sewing together the leather coverings and stuffings of horse-collars.Morocco leatheris made of sheep-skins, as well as of goat-skins, and the bright red color is given to it by cochineal.Russia leatheris also made of sheep-skins, the peculiar odor of which repels insects from its vicinity, and resists the mould arising from damp, the odor being imparted to it in currying, by the empyreumatic oil of the bark of the birch-tree. Besides soft leather, sheep-skins are made into a fine, flexible, thin substance, known by the name ofparchment; and, though the skins of all animals might be converted into writing materials, only those of the sheep and the she-goat are used for parchment. The finer quality of the substance, calledvellum, is made of the skins of kids and dead-born lambs; and for its manufacture the town of Strasburgh has long been celebrated.
Mutton-suet is used in the manufacture of commoncandles, with a proportion of ox-tallow. Minced suet, subjected to the action of high-pressure steam in a digester, at two hundred and fifty or two hundred and sixty degrees of Fahrenheit, becomes so hard as to be sonorous when struck, whiter, and capable, when made into candles, of giving very superior light.Stearic candles, the invention of the celebrated Guy Lussac, are manufactured solely from mutton-suet.
Besides the fat, the intestines of sheep are manufactured into various articles of luxury and utility, which pass under the absurd name ofcatgut. All the intestines of sheep are composed of four layers, as in the horse and cattle. The outer, orperitonealone, is formed of that membrane, by whichevery portion of the belly and its contents is invested, and confined in its natural and proper situation. It is highly smooth and polished, and secretes a watery fluid which contributes to preserve that smoothness, and to prevent all friction and concussion during the different motions of the animal. The second is themuscularcoat, by means of which the contents of the intestines are gradually propelled from the stomach to the rectum, thence to be expelled when all the useful nutriment is extracted. The muscles, as in all the other intestines, are disposed in two layers, the fibres of the outer coat taking a longitudinal direction, and the inner layer being circular—an arrangement different from that of the muscles of the œsophagus, and in both beautifully adapted to the respective functions of the tube. Thesubmucouscoat comes next. It is composed of numerous glands, surrounded by cellular tissue, and by which the inner coat is lubricated, so that there may be no obstruction to the passage of the food. Themucouscoat is the soft villous one lining the intestinal cavity. In its healthy state, it is always covered with mucus; and when the glands beneath are stimulated, as under the action of physic, the quantity of mucus is increased; it becomes of a more watery character; the contents of the intestines are softened and dissolved by it; and by means of the increased action of the muscular coat, which, as well as the mucous one, feels the stimulus of the physic, the fæces are hurried on more rapidly and discharged.
In the manufacture of some sorts ofcordsfrom the intestines of sheep, the outer peritoneal coat is taken off and manufactured into a thread to sew intestines, and make the cords of rackets and battledores. Future washings cleanse the guts, whichare then twisted into different-sized cords for various purposes; some of the best known of which are whip-cords, hatter’s cords for bow-strings, clock-maker’s cords, bands for spinning-wheels, now almost obsolete, and fiddle and harp-strings. Of the last class, the cords manufactured in Italy are superior in goodness and strength; and the reason assigned is, that the sheep of that country are both smaller and leaner than the breeds most in vogue in England and in this country. The difficulty in manufacturing from other breeds of sheep lies, it seems, in making the treble strings from the fine peritoneal coat, their chief fault being weakness; by reason of which the smaller ones are hardly able to bear the stretch required for the higher notes in concert-pitch, maintaining, at the same time, in their form and construction, that tenuity or smallness of diameter which is required in order to produce a brilliant and clear tone.
Diseases and their Remedies
The dry and healthful climate, the rolling surface, and the sweet and varied herbage, which generally prevail in the United States, insure perfect health to an originally sound and well-selected flock, unless they are peculiarly exposed to disease. No country is better suited to sheep than most of the Northern and some of the Southern portions of our own. In Europe, and especially in England, where the system of management is, necessarily, in the highest degree artificial, consisting, frequently, in an early and continued forcing of the system, folding on wet, ploughed ground, and the excessive use of that watery food, the Swedish turnip, there are numerous andfatal diseases, a long list of which invariably cumbers the pages of foreign writers on this animal.
The diseases incident to our flocks, on the contrary, may generally be considered as casualties, rather than as inbred, or necessarily arising from the quality of food, or from local causes. It may be safely asserted that, with a dry pasture, well stocked with varied and nutritious grasses; a clear, running stream; sufficient shade and protection against severe storms; a constant supply of salt, tar, and sulphur in summer; good hay, and sometimes roots, with ample shelters in winter—young sheep, originally sound and healthy, will seldom or never become diseased on American soil.
The comparatively few diseases, which it may be necessary here to mention, are arranged in alphabetical order—as in the author’s “Cattle and their Diseases”—for convenience of reference, and treated in the simplest manner. Remedies of general application, to be administered often by the unskilful and ignorant, must neither be elaborate nor complicated; and, if expensive, the lives of most sheep would be dearly purchased by their application.
A sheep, which has been reared or purchased at the ordinary price, is the only domestic animal which can die without material loss to its owner. The wool and felt will, in most instances, repay its cost, while the carcass of other animals will be worthless, except for manure. The loss of sheep, from occasional disease, will leave the farmer’s pocket in a very different condition from the loss of an equal value in horses or cattle. Humanity, however, alike with interest, dictates the use of such simple remedies, for the removal of suffering and disease, as may be within reach.
The stomach into which medicines are to be administered is the fourth, or digesting stomach. The comparatively insensible walls of the rumen, or paunch, are but slightly acted upon, except by doses of very improper magnitude. Medicine, to reach the fourth stomach, should be given in a state as nearly approaching fluidity as may be. Even then it may be given in such a manner as to defeat the object in view.
If the animal forcibly gulps fluids down, or if they are given hastily and bodily, they will follow the caul at the base of the gullet with considerable momentum, force asunder the pillars, and enter the rumen; if they are drunk more slowly, or administered gently, they will trickle down the throat, glide over these pillars, and pass on through the maniplus to the true stomach.
Bleeding from the ears or tail, as is commonly practised, rarely extracts a quantity of blood sufficient to do any good where bleeding is indicated. To bleed from the eye-vein, the point of a knife is usually inserted near the lower extremity of the pouch below the eye, pressed down, and then a cut made inward toward the middle of the face.
Bleeding from the angular or cheek-vein is recommended, in the lower part of the cheek, at the spot where the root of the fourth tooth is placed, which is the thickest part of the cheek, and is marked on the external surface of the bone of the upper jaw by a tubercle, sufficiently prominent to be very sensible to the finger when the skin of the cheek is touched. Thistubercle is a certain index to the angular vein, which is placed below. The shepherd takes the sheep between his legs; his left hand more advanced than his right, which he places under the head, and grasps the under jaw near to the hinder extremity, in order to press the angular vein, which passes in that place, for the purpose of making it swell; he touches the right cheek at the spot nearly equidistant from the eye and mouth, and there finds the tubercle which is to guide him, and also feels the angular vein swelled below this tubercle; he then makes the incision from below upward, half a finger’s breadth below the middle of the tubercle. When the vein is no longer pressed upon, the bleeding will commonly cease; if not, a pin may be passed through the lips of the orifice, and a lock of wool tied round them.
For thorough bleeding, the jugular vein is generally to be preferred. The sheep should be firmly held by the head by an assistant, and the body confined between his knees, with its rump against a wall. Some of the wool is then cut away from the middle of the neck over the jugular vein, and a ligature, brought in contact with the neck by opening the wool, is tied around it below the shorn spot near the shoulder. The vein will soon rise. The orifice may be secured, after bleeding, as before described.
The good effects of bleeding depend almost as much on therapiditywith which the blood is abstracted, as theamounttaken. This is especially true in acute diseases.Either bleed rapidly or do not bleed at all.The orifice in the vein, therefore, should be of some length, and made lengthwise with the vein. A lancet is by far the best implement; and even a short-pointed penknife is preferable to the bungling gleam.Bleeding, moreover, should always be resorted to, when it is indicated at all, as nearly as possible to thecommencementof the malady.
The amount of blood drawn should never be determined by admeasurement, but by constitutional effect—the lowering of the pulse, and indications of weakness. In urgent cases—apoplexy, or cerebral inflammation, for example—it would be proper to bleed until the sheep staggers or falls. The quantity of blood in the sheep is less, in comparison, than that in the horse or ox. The blood of the horse constitutes about one-eighteenth part of his weight; and that of the ox at least one-twentieth; while that of the sheep, in ordinary condition, is one-twenty-second. For this reason, more caution should be exercised in bleeding the latter, especially in frequently resorting to it; otherwise, the vital powers will be rapidly and fatally prostrated. Many a sheep has been destroyed by bleeding freely in disorders not requiring it, and in disorders which did require it at the commencement, but of which the inflammatory stage had passed.
The number of pulsations can be determined by feeling the heart beat on the left side. The femoral artery passes in an oblique direction across the inside of the thigh, and about the middle of the thigh its pulsations and the character of the pulse can be most readily noted. The pulsations per minute, in a healthy adult sheep, are sixty-five in number; though they have been stated at seventy, and even seventy-five.
Soon after the sheep are turned to grass in the spring, one of the best-conditioned sheep in the flock is sometimes suddenly found dead. The symptoms which precede the catastrophe are occasionally noted. The sheep leaps frantically into the air two or three times, dashes itself on the ground, and suddenly rises, and dies in a few minutes.
Where animals in somewhat poor condition are rather forced forward for the purpose of raising their condition, it sometimes happens that they become suddenly blind and motionless; they will not follow their companions; when approached, they run about, knocking their heads against fences, etc.; the head is drawn round toward one side; they fall, grind their teeth, and their mouths are covered with a frothy mucus. Such cases are, unquestionably, referable to a determination of blood to the brain.
Treatment.If the eyes are prominent and fixed, the membranes of the mouth and nose highly florid, the nostrils highly dilated, and the respiration labored and stertorous, the veins of the head turgid, the pulse strong and rather slow, and these symptoms attended by a partial or entire loss of sight and hearing, it is one of those decided cases of apoplexy which require immediate and energetic treatment. Recourse should at once be had to the jugular vein, and the animal bled until an obvious constitutional effect is produced—the pulse lowered, and the rigidity of the muscles relaxed. An aperient should at once follow bleeding; and if the animal is strong and plathoric, a sheep of the size of the Merino would require at least two ounces of Epsom salts, and one of the large muttonsheep, more. If this should fail to open the bowels, half an ounce of the salts should be given, say twice a day.
This is manifested by uneasiness; loathing of food; frequent drinking; carrying the head down; drawing the back up; swollen belly; feverish symptoms; and avoidance of the flock. It appears mostly in late autumn and spring, and may be induced by exposure to severe storms, plunging in water when hot, and especially by constipation, brought on by feeding on frostbitten, putrid, or indigestible herbage. Many sheep die on the prairies from this disease, induced by exposure and miserable forage. Entire prevention is secured by warm, dry shelters, and nutritious, dry food.
Treatment.Remedies, to be successful, must be promptly applied. Bleed freely; and to effect this, immersion in a tub of hot water may be necessary, in consequence of the stagnant state of the blood. Then give two ounces of Epsom salts, dissolved in warm water, with a handful of common salt. If this is unsuccessful, give a clyster, made with a pipeful of tobacco, boiled for a few minutes in a pint of water. Administer half; and if this is not effectual, follow with the remainder. Then bed the animal in dry straw, and cover with blankets; assisting the purgatives with warm gruels, followed by laxative provender till well.
Where sheep are subject to pneumonia, they are liable to bronchitis as well, which is an inflammation of the mucous membrane, which lines the bronchial tubes, or the air-passages of the lungs. Thesymptomsare those of an ordinary cold, but attended with more fever, and a tenderness of the throat and belly when pressed upon.
Treatment.Administer salt in doses of from one and a half to two ounces, with six or eight ounces of lime-water, given in some other part of the day.
This is an inflammation of the mucous membrane, which lines the nasal passages, and it sometimes extends to the larynx and pharynx. In the first instance—where the lining of the nasal passages is alone and not very violently affected—it is merely accompanied by an increased discharge of mucus, and is rarely attended with much danger. In this form, it is usually termedsnuffles; and high-bred English mutton-sheep, in this country, are apt to manifest more or less of it, after every sudden change of weather. When the inflammation extends to the mucous lining of the larynx and the pharynx, some degree of fever usually supervenes, accompanied by cough, and some loss of appetite. At this point, bleeding and purging are serviceable.
Catarrh rarely attacks the American fine-woolled sheep with sufficient violence in summer to require the application of remedies. Depletion, in catarrh, in our severe winter months, however, rapidly produces that fatal prostration, from which it is almost impossible to bring the sheep back, without bestowing an amount of time and care upon it, costing far more than the worth of an ordinary animal.
The best course is topreventthe disease by judicious precaution. With that amount of attention which every prudentfarmer should bestow on his sheep, the American Merino is but little subject to it. Good, comfortable, and well-ventilated shelters, constantly accessible to the sheep in winter, with a sufficiency of food regularly administered, are usually a sufficient safeguard.
An English Rack for Feeding SheepAN ENGLISH RACK FOR FEEDING SHEEP.
AN ENGLISH RACK FOR FEEDING SHEEP.
Essentially differing, in type and virulence, from the preceding, is an epidemic, or, more properly speaking, an epizoötic malady, which, as often as once in every eight or ten years, sweeps over extended sections of the Northern States, destroying more sheep than all other diseases combined. It commonly makes its appearance in winters characterized by rapid and violent changes of temperature, which are spoken of by the farmers as “bad winters” for sheep. The disease is sometimes termed the “distemper,” and also, but erroneously, “grub in the head.” The winter of 1846-7 proved peculiarly destructive to sheep in New York, and some of the adjoining States; some owners losing one-half, others three-quarters, and a few seven-eighths, of their flocks. One person lost fivehundred out of eight hundred; another, nine hundred out of a thousand. These severe losses, however, mainly fell on the holders of the delicate Saxons, and perhaps, generally, on those possessing not the best accommodations, or the greatest degree of energy and skill.
Symptoms.The primary and main disease, in such instances, is a species of catarrh; differing, however, from ordinary catarrh in its diagnosis, and in the extent of the lesions accompanying both the primary and the symptomatic diseases. The animals affected do not, necessarily, at first show any signs of violent colds, as coughing, sneezing, or labored respiration; the only indications of catarrh noticed, oftentimes, being a nasal discharge. Animals having this discharge appear dull and drooping; their eyes run a little, and are partially closed; the caruncle and lids look pale; their movements are languid, and there is an indisposition to eat; the pulse is nearly natural, though at times somewhat too languid. In a few days these symptoms are evidently aggravated; there is rapid emaciation, accompanied with debility; the countenance is exceedingly dull and drooping; the eye is kept more than half closed; the caruncle, lids, etc., are almost bloodless; a gummy, yellow secretion about the eye; thick, glutinous mucus adhering in and about the nostrils; appetite feeble; pulse languid; and muscular energy greatly prostrated. They rapidly grow weaker, stumble, and fall as they walk, and soon become unable to rise; the appetite grows feebler; the mucus at the nose is, in some instances, tinged with dark, grumous blood; the respiration becomes oppressed; and the animals die within a day or two after they become unable to rise. Upon apost-mortemexamination, the mucous membranelining the whole nasal cavity is found highly congested and thickened throughout its entire extent, accompanied with the most intense inflammation; slight ulcers are found on the membranous lining, at the junction of the cellular ethmoid bones with the cribriform plate, in the ethmoidal cells; and the inflammation extends to the mucous membrane of the pharynx, and some inches, from two to four, of the upper portion of the œsophagus.
No sheep, affected with this disease, recovers after emaciation and debility have proceeded to any great extent. In the generality of instances, the time, from the first observed symptoms until death, varies from ten to fifteen days; although death, in some cases, results more speedily.
Treatment.Nothing has been found so serviceable as mercury, which, from its action on the entire secretory system, powerfully tends to relieve the congested membranes of the head. Dissolve one grain of bi-chloride of mercury—corrosive sublimate—in two ounces of water; and give one-half ounce of the water, or one-eighth of a grain of corrosive sublimate, daily, in two doses. To stimulate and open the bowels, give, also, rhubarb in a decoction, the equivalent of ten or fifteen grains at a dose, accompanied with the ordinary carminative and stomachic adjuvants, ginger and gentian in infusion.
Sheep are occasionally seen, particularly in the winter, lying down and rising every moment or two, and constantly stretching their fore and hind legs so far apart that their bellies almost touch the ground. They appear to be in much pain, refuse all food, and not unfrequently die, unless relieved.This disease, popularly known as the “stretches,” is erroneously attributed to an involution of the part of the intestine within another; it being, in reality, a species of flatulent colic, induced by costiveness.
Treatment.Half an ounce of Epsom salts, a drachm of Jamaica ginger, and sixty drops of essence of peppermint. The salts alone, however, will effect the cure; as will, also, an equivalent dose of linseed oil, or even hog’s lard.
This difficulty is removed by giving two table-spoonfuls of castor oil every twelve hours, till the trouble ceases; or give one ounce of Epsom salts. This may be assisted by an injection of warm weak suds and molasses.
Common diarrhœa—purging, or scours—manifests itself simply by the copiousness and fluidity of the alvine evacuations. It is generally owing to improper food, as bad hay, or noxious weeds; to a sudden change, as from dry food to fresh grass; to an excess, as from overloading the stomach; and sometimes to cold and wet. It is important to clearly distinguish this disease from dysentery. In diarrhœa, there is no apparent general fever; the appetite remains good; the stools are thin and watery, but unaccompanied with slime, or mucus, and blood; odor of the fæces is far less offensive than in dysentery; and the general condition of the animal is but little changed. When it is light, and not of long continuance, no remedy is called for, since it is a healthful provision of Naturefor the more rapid expulsion of some offending matter in the system, which, if retained, might lead to disease.
Treatment.Confinement to dry food for a day or two, and a gradual return to it, often suffices, in the case of grown sheep. With lambs, especially if attacked in the fall, the disease is more serious. If the purging is severe, and especially if any mucus is observed with the fæces, the feculent matter should be removed from the bowels by a gentle cathartic; half a drachm of rhubarb, or an ounce of linseed oil, or half an ounce of Epsom salts to a lamb. This should be followed by an astringent; and, in nine cases out of ten, the latter will serve in the first instance. Give one quarter of an ounce of prepared chalk in half a pint of tepid milk, once a day for two or three days; at the end of which, and frequently after the first dose, the purging will have ordinarily abated, or entirely ceased.
“Sheep’s cordial” is also a safe and excellent remedy—in severe cases, better than simple chalk and milk. Take of prepared chalk, one ounce; powdered catechu, half an ounce; powdered Jamaica ginger, two drachms; and powdered opium, half a drachm; mix with half a pint of peppermint water; give two or three table-spoonfuls morning and night to a grown sheep, and half that quantity to a lamb.
From the introduction of foreign bodies into the biflex canal, or from other causes, it occasionally becomes the seat of inflammation. This canal is a small orifice, opening externally on the point of each pastern, immediately above the cleft between the toes. It bifurcates within, a tube passing downon each side of the inner face of the pastern, winding round and ending in acul de sac. Inflammation of this canal causes an enlargement and redness of the pastern, particularly about the external orifice of the canal. The toes are thrown wide apart by the tumor. It rarely attacks more than one foot, and should not be allowed to proceed to the point of ulceration which it will do, if neglected. There is none of that soreness and disorganization between the back part of the toes, and none of that peculiar fetor which distinguishes the hoof-ail, with which disease it is sometimes confounded.
Treatment.Scarify the coronet, making one or two deeper incisions in the principal swelling around the mouth of the canal; and cover the foot with tar.
This is occasioned by an inflammation of the mucous or inner coat of the larger intestines, causing a preternatural increase in their secretions, and a morbid alteration in their character. It is frequently consequent on that form of diarrhœa, which is caused by an inflammation of the mucous coat of the smaller intestines. The inflammation extends throughout the whole alimentary canal, increases in virulence, and becomes dysentery, a disease frequently dangerous and obstinate in its character, but, fortunately, not common among sheep, generally, in the United States. Its diagnosis differs from that of diarrhœa, in several readily observed particulars. There is evident fever; the appetite is capricious, commonly very feeble; the stools are as thin as in diarrhœa, or even thinner, but much more adhesive, in consequence of the presence of large quantities of mucus. As the erosion of the intestinesadvances, the fæces are tinged with blood; their odor is intolerably offensive; and the animal rapidly wastes away, the course of the disease extending from a few days to several weeks.
Treatment.Moderate bleeding should be resorted to, in the first or inflammatory shape, or whenever decided febrile symptoms are found to be present. Two doses of physic having been administered, astringents are serviceable. The “sheep’s cordial,” already described, is as good as any; and to this, tonics may soon begin to be added; an additional quantity of ginger may enter into the composition of the cordial, and gentian powder will be an useful auxiliary. With this, as an excellent stimulus to cause the sphincter of the anus to contract, and also the mouths of the innumerable secretory and exhalent vessels opening on the inner surface of the intestines, a half grain of strychnine may be combined. Smaller doses should be given for three or four days.
The proper treatment, upon the appearance of flies or maggots, has already been detailed under the head of “Feeding and Management,” to which the reader is referred.
Sheep are much less subject to this disease than cattle are; but encounter it, if kept in wet, filthy yards, or on moist, poachy ground. It is an irritation of the integument in the cleft of the foot, slightly resembling incipient hoof-ail, and producing lameness. It occasions, however, no serious structural disorganization, disappears without treatment, is notcontagious, and appears in the wet weather of spring and fall, instead of in the dry, hot period of summer, when the hoof-ail rages most. A little solution of blue vitriol, or a little spirits of turpentine—either followed by a coating of warm tar—promptly cures it.
For foul noses, dip a small swab in tar, then roll it in salt; put some on the nose, and compel the sheep to swallow a small quantity.
If there be no wound of the soft parts, the bone simply being broken, the treatment is extremely easy. Apply a piece of wet leather, taking care to ease the limb when swelling supervenes. When the swelling is considerable, and fever present, the best course is to open a vein of the head or neck, allowing a quantity of blood to escape, proportioned to the size and condition of the animal, and the urgency of the symptoms. Purgatives in such cases should never be neglected. Epsom salts, in ounce doses, given either as a gruel or a drench, will be found to answer the purpose well. If the broken bones are kept steady, the cure will be complete in from three to four weeks, the process of reunion always proceeding faster in a young than in an old sheep. Should the soft parts be injured to any extent, or the ends of the bone protrude, recovery is very uncertain; and it will become a question whether it would not be better to convert the animal at once into mutton.
This is an inflammation of the udder, sometimes known as “caked bag,” with or without general inflammation. Where it is simply an inflammation of the udder, it is usually caused by too great an accumulation of milk in the latter prior to lambing, or in consequence of the death of the lamb.
Treatment.Drawing the milk partly from the bag, so that the hungry lamb will butt and work at it an unusual time in pursuit of its food, and bathing it a few times incoldwater, usually suffices. If the lamb is dead, the milk should be drawn a few times, at increasing intervals, washing the udder for some time in cold water at each milking. In cases of obdurate induration, the udder should be anointed with iodine ointment. If there is general fever in the system, an ounce of Epsom salts may be given. If suppuration forms, the part affected should be opened with the lancet.
The “swelled neck” in lambs is, like the goitre, or bronchocele, an enlargement of the thyroid glands, and is strikingly analogous to that disease, if not identical with it. It is congenital. The glands at birth are from the size of a pigeon’s egg to that of a hen’segg, though more elongated and flattened than an egg in their form. The lamb is exceedingly feeble, and often perishes almost without an effort to suck. Many even make no effort to rise, and die as soon as they are dropped. It is rare, indeed, that one lives.
A considerable number of lambs annually perish from this disease, which does not appear to be an epizoötic, thoughit is more prevalent in some seasons than in others. It does not seem to depend upon the water, or any other natural circumstances of a region, as goitre is generally supposed to, since it may not prevail in the same flock, or on the same farm, once in ten years; nor can it be readily traced to any particular kind of food. When it does appear, however, its attacks are rarely isolated; from which circumstance some have inferred that it is induced by some local or elimentary cause. Losses from this disease have ranged from ten per cent. to twenty, thirty, and even fifty per cent. of the whole number of lambs. Possibly, high condition in the ewes may be one of the inducing causes.
Treatment.None is known which will reach the case. Should one having the disease chance to live, it would scarcely be worth while to attempt reducing the entanglement of the glands. Perhaps keeping the breeding-ewes uniformly in fair, plump, but nothighcondition, would be as effectual a preventive as any.
What is popularly known as the “grub” is the larva of theœstrus oris, or gad-fly of the sheep. It is composed of five rings; is tiger-colored on the back and belly, sprinkled with spots and patches of brown; its wings are striped.
The sheep gad-fly is led by instinct to deposit its eggs within the nostrils of the sheep. Its attempts to do this—most common in July, August, and September—are always indicated by the sheep, which collect in close clumps, with their heads inward, and their noses thrust close to the ground, and into it, if any loose dirt or sand is within reach. If thefly succeeds in depositing its egg, the latter is immediately hatched by the warmth and moisture of the part, and the young grubs, or larvæ, crawl up the nose, finding their devious way to the sinuses, where, by means of their tentaculæ, or feelers, they attach themselves to the mucous membrane lining those cavities. During the ascent of the larvæ, the sheep stamps, tosses its head violently, and often dashes away from its companions wildly over the field. The larvæ remain on the sinuses, feeding on the mucus secreted by the membrane, and apparently creating no further annoyance, until ready to assume theirpupaform in the succeeding spring.
Having remained in the sinuses during the fall and winter, they abandon them as the warm weather approaches in the latter part of spring. They crawl down the nose, creating even greater irritation and excitement than when they originally ascended, drop on the ground, and rapidly burrow into it. In a few hours, the skin of the larvæ has contracted, become of a dark-brown color, and it has assumed the form of chrysalis. This fly never eats; the male, after impregnating two or three females, dies; and the latter, having deposited theirovain the nostrils of the sheep, also soon perish.
The larvæ in the heads of sheep may, and probably do, add to the irritation of those inflammatory diseases, such as catarrh, which attack the membranous lining of the nasal cavities; and they are a powerful source of momentary irritation in the first instance, when ascending to, and descending from, their lodging-place in the head. But in the interval between these events, extending over a period of several months, not a movement of the sheep indicates the least annoyance at their presence. They are, moreover, found in the heads of nearlyall sheep, the healthy as well as the diseased, at the proper season.
Treatment.Though the presence of the grub constitutes no disease, some think it well to diminish their number by all convenient means. One simple way of effecting this is, by turning up with a plough a furrow of earth in the sheep-pasture, into which the sheep will thrust their noses on the approach of theœstrus, and thus many of them escape its attacks. Some farmers smear the noses of their sheep occasionally With tar, the odor of which is believed to repel the fly. Another plan, deemed efficacious in dislodging the larvæ from the sinuses, is as follows: Take half a pound of good Scotch snuff, and two quarts of boiling water; stir, and let it stand till cold. Inject about a table-spoonful of this liquid and sediment up each nostril, with a syringe; repeat this three or four times, at intervals, from the middle of October till January. The efficacy of the snuff will be increased by adding half an ounce of asafœtida, pounded in a little water. The effects on the sheep are immediate prostration and apparent death; but they will soon recover. A decoction of tobacco affords a substitute for snuff; and some recommend blowing tobacco smoke through the tail of a pipe into each nostril.
The first symptom of this troublesome malady, known, likewise, as foot-ail, which is ordinarily noticed, is a lameness of one or both of the fore-feet. On daily examining, however, the feet of a flock which have the disease among them, it will readily be seen that the lesions manifest themselves for several days before they are followed with lameness.
The horny covering of the sheep’s foot extends up, gradually thinning out, some way between the toes and divisions of the hoof, and above these horny walls the cleft is lined with skin. When the points of the toes are spread apart, this skin is shown in front, covered with short, soft hair. The back part of the toes, or the heels, can be separated only to a little distance, and the skin in the cleft above them is naked. In a healthy foot, the skin throughout the whole cleft is as firm, dry, and uneroded as on any other part of the animal.
The first symptom of hoof-ail is a slight erosion, accompanied with inflammation and heat of the naked skin in theback partsof the clefts, immediately above the heels. The skin assumes a macerated appearance, and is kept moist by the presence of a sanious discharge from the ulcerated surface. As the inflammation extends, the friction of the parts causes pain, and the sheep limps. At this stage, the foot,externally, in a great majority of cases, exhibits not the least trace of disease, with the exception of a slight redness, and sometimes the appearance of a small sore at the upper edge of the cleft, when viewed from behind.
The ulceration of the surface rapidly extends. The thin upper edges of the inner walls of the hoof are disorganized, and an ulceration is established between the hoof and the fleshy sole. A purulent fetid matter is discharged from the cavity. The extent of the separation increases daily, and the ulcers also form sinuses deep into the fleshy sole. The bottom of the hoof disappears, eaten away by the acrid matter, and the outer walls, entirely separated from the flesh, hang only by their attachments at the coronet. The whole fleshy sole is now entirely disorganized, and the entire foot is a mass ofblack, putrid ulceration; or, as more commonly happens, the fly has struck it, and a dense mass of writhing maggots cover the surface, and burrow in every cavity.
The fore-feet are generally first attacked; and, most usually but one of them. The animal at first manifests but little constitutional disturbance, and eats as usual. By the time that any considerable disorganization of the structures has taken place in the first foot, and sometimes sooner, the other forefoot is attacked. That becoming as lame as the first, the miserable animal seeks its food on its knees; and, if forced to rise, its strange, hobbling gait betrays the intense agony occasioned by bringing its feet in contact with the ground. There is a bare spot under the brisket, of the size of a man’s hand, which looks red and inflamed. There is a degree of general fever, and the appetite is dull. The animal rapidly loses condition. The appearance of the maggot soon closes the scene. Where the rotten foot is brought in contact with the side, in lying down, the filthy, ulcerous matter adheres to, and saturates the short wool—it being but a month and a half, or two months, after shearing—and maggots are either carried there by the foot, or they are soon generated there. A black crust is speedily formed round the spot, which is the decomposition of the surrounding structures; and innumerable maggots are at work below, burrowing into the integuments and muscles, and eating up the wretched animal alive. The black, festering mass rapidly spreads, and the poor sufferer perishes, apparently in tortures the most excruciating.
Sometimes but one forefoot is attacked, and subsequently one or both hind ones. There is no uniformity in this particular; and it is a singular fact that, when two or even threeof the feet are dreadfully diseased, the fourth may be entirely sound. So, also, one foot may be cured, while every other one is laboring under the malady. The highly offensive odor of the ulcerated feet is so peculiar that it is strictly characteristic of the disease, and would reveal its character, to one familiar with it, in the darkest night.
Hoof-ail is probably propagated in this country exclusively by inoculation—the contact of the matter of a diseased foot with the integuments lining the bifurcation of a healthy foot. That it is propagated in some of the ways classed under the ordinary designation ofcontagion, is certain. That it may be propagated by inoculation, has been established by experiment. The matter of diseased feet has been placed on the skin lining the cleft of a healthy foot under a variety of circumstances—sometimes when that skin is in its ordinary and natural state, sometimes after a very slight scorification, sometimes when macerated by moisture; and under each of these circumstances the disease has been communicated. The same inference may be drawn, also, from the manner in which the disease attacks flocks. The whole, or any considerable number, though sometimes rapidly, are neversimultaneouslyattacked, as would be expected, among animals so gregarious, if the disease could be transmitted by simple contact, inhaling the breath, or other effluvium.
The matter of diseased feet is left on grass, straw, and other substances, and thus is brought in contact with the inner surfaces of healthy feet. Sheep, therefore, contract the disease from being driven over the pastures, yarded on the straw, etc., where diseased sheep have been, perhaps even days, before. The matter would probably continue to inoculate, until driedup by the air and heat, or washed away by the rains. The stiff, upright stems of closely mown grass, as on meadows, are almost as well calculated to receive the matter of diseased feet, and deposit it in the clefts of healthy ones, as any means which could be artificially devised. It is not entirely safe to drive healthy sheep over roads, and especially into washing-yards, or sheep-houses, where diseased sheep have been, until rain has fallen, or sufficient time has elapsed for the matter to dry up. On the moist bottom of a washing-yard, and particularly in houses or sheds, kept from sun and wind and rain, this matter might be preserved for some time in a condition to inoculate.
When the disease has been well kept under during the first season of its attack, but not entirely eradicated, it will almost or entirely disappear as cold weather approaches, and it does not manifest itself until the warm weather of the succeeding summer. It then assumes a mitigated form; the sheep are not rapidly and simultaneously attacked; there seems to be less inflammatory action constitutionally, and in the diseased parts; the course of the disease is less malignant and more tardy, and it more readily yields to treatment. If well kept under the second summer, it is still milder the third. A sheep will occasionally be seen to limp; but its condition will scarcely be affected, and dangerous symptoms will rarely supervene. One or two applications made during the summer, in a manner presently to be described, will suffice to keep the disease under. At this point, a little vigor in the treatment will rapidly extinguish the disease.
Treatment.The preparation of the foot, where any separate individual treatment is resolved upon, is always necessary, atleast in bad cases. Sheep should be yarded for the operation immediately after a rain, if practicable, as the hoofs can then be readily cut. In a dry time, and after a night which left no dew upon the grass, their hoofs are almost as tough as horn. They must be driven through no mud, or soft dung, on their way to the yard, which would double the labor of cleaning their feet. The yard should be small, so that they can be easily caught, and it must be kept well littered down, to prevent their filling their feet with their own excrement. If the straw is wetted, their hoofs will not, of course, dry and harden as rapidly as in dry straw. If the yard could be built over a shallow, gravelly-bottomed brook, it would be an admirable arrangement; for this purpose, a portion of any little brook might be prepared, by planking the bottom, and widening it, if desirable. By such means the hoofs would be kept so soft that the greatest and most unpleasant part of the labor, as ordinarily performed, would be in a great measure saved, and they would be kept free from that dung which, by any other arrangement, will, more or less, get into their clefts.