Part 25 (2/2)
”The principles he wished to lay down were, to husband the animals'
powers by placing them in a situation where they should not be exposed to the debilitating effects of cold storms; to supply them with nutritious food, and such as contained but a small quant.i.ty of water; and, as a stimulant to the digestive organs, to mix it with salt.”
The remarks of Professor S. are valuable to the American farmer. First, because they throw some light on the character of a disease but imperfectly understood; secondly, they recommend a safe, efficient, and common-sense method of treating it; and lastly, they recommend such preventive measures as, in this enlightened age, every farmer must acknowledge to be the better part of sheep doctoring. The reader will easily perceive the reason why the food of sheep is injurious when wet or saturated with its own natural juices, when he learns that the digestive process is greatly r.e.t.a.r.ded, unless the masticated food be well saturated with the gastric fluid. If the gastric fluid cannot pervade it, then fermentation takes place; by which process the nutritive properties of the food are partly destroyed, and what remains cannot be taken up before it pa.s.ses from the vinous into the acetous or putrefactive fermentation; the natural consequence is, that internal disease ensues, which often gravitates to the feet, thereby producing rot. This is not all. Such food does not furnish sufficient material to replenish the daily waste and promote the living integrity. In short, it produces debility, and debility includes one half the causes of disease.
It must be a matter of deep interest to the farmer to know how to prevent disease in his flock, and improve their condition, &c.; for if he possessed the requisite knowledge, he would not be compelled to offer mutton at so low a rate as from three to four cents a pound, at which price it is often sold in the Boston market. We have already alluded to the fact that neat cattle can, with the requisite knowledge, be improved at least twenty-five per cent.; and we may add, without fear of contradiction, that the same applies to sheep. If, then, their value can be increased in the same ratio as that of other cla.s.ses of live stock, how much will the proprietors of sheep gain by the operation? Suppose we set down the number of sheep in the United States at twenty-seven millions,--which will not fall far short of the mark,--and value them at the low price of one dollar per head: we get a clear gain, in the carca.s.ses alone, of six millions seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The increase in the quant.i.ty, and of course in the value, of wool would pay the additional expenses incurred. It is a well-known fact that, when General Was.h.i.+ngton left his estate to engage in the councils of his country, his sheep then yielded five pounds of wool. At the time of his return, the animals had so degenerated as to yield but two and a half pounds per fleece. This was not altogether owing to the quality of their food, but in part to want of due care in breeding.
It is well known that many diseases are propagated and aggravated through the s.e.xual congress; and no matter how healthy the dam is, or how much vital resistance she possesses,--if the male be weak and diseased, the offspring will be more or less diseased at birth. (See article _Breeding_.)
Dr. Whitlaw observes, ”The Deity has given power to man to ameliorate his condition, as may be truly seen by strict attention to the laws of nature. An attentive observer may soon perceive, that milk, b.u.t.ter, and meat, of animals that feed on good herbage, in high and dry soils, are the best; and that strong nourishment is the produce of those animals that feed on bottom land; but those that feed on a marshy, wet soil produce more acrid food, even admitting that the herbage be of the bland and nutritious kind; but if it be composed in part of poisonous plants, the sheep become diseased and rotten, much more so than cattle, for they do not drink to the same degree, and therefore (particularly those that chew the cud) are not likely to throw off the poison. Horses would be more liable to disease than cattle were it not for their sagacity in selecting the wholesome from the poisonous herbage.
”A great portion of the mutton slaughtered is unfit for food, from the fact that their lungs are often in a state of decomposition, their livers much injured by insects, and their intestines in a state of ulceration, from eating poisonous herbs.”
Linnaeus says, ”A dry place renders plants sapid; a succulent place, insipid; and a watery place, corrosive.”
One farmer, in the vicinity of Sherburne, (England,) had, during the s.p.a.ce of a few weeks, lost nearly nine hundred sheep by the rot. The fear of purchasing diseased mutton is so prevalent in families, that the demand for mutton has become extremely limited.
In the December number of the London Veterinarian we find an interesting communication from the pen of Mr. Tavistock, V. S., which will throw some light on the causes of disease in sheep. The substance of these remarks is as follows: ”On a large farm, situated in the fertile valley of the Tavey, is kept a large flock of sheep, choice and well bred. It is deemed an excellent sheep farm, and for some years no sheep could be healthier than were his flock. About eighteen months ago, however, some ewes were now and then found dead. This was attributed to some of the many maladies sheep-flesh is 'heir to,' and thought no more about. Still it did not cease; another and another died, from time to time, until at length, it becoming a question of serious consequence, my attention was called to them. I made, as opportunities occurred, minute post mortem examinations. The sheep did not die rapidly, but one a week, and sometimes one a fortnight, or even three weeks. No previous illness whatever was manifested. They were always found dead in the att.i.tude of sleep; the countenance being tranquil and composed, not a blade of gra.s.s disturbed by struggling; nor did any circ.u.mstance evidence that pain or suffering was endured. It was evident that the death was sudden. We fancied the ewes must obtain something poisonous from the herbage, and the only place they could get any thing different from the other sheep was in the orchards, since there the ewes went at the lambing time, and occasionally through the summer. But so they had done for years before, and yet contracted no disease. Well, then, the orchards were the suspected spots, and it was deemed expedient to request Mr. Bartlett, a botanist, to make a careful examination of the orchards, and give us his opinion thereon. The following is the substance of his report:--
”The part of the estate to which the sheep unfortunately had access, where the predisposing causes of disease prevailed, was an orchard, having a gradual slope of about three quarters of a mile in extent, from the high ground to the bed of the river, ranging about east and west; the hills on each side being const.i.tuted of argillaceous strata of laminated slate, which, although having an angle of inclination favoring drainage on the slopes, yet in the valleys often became flat or horizontal, and on which also acc.u.mulated the clays, and ma.s.ses of rock, in detached blocks, often to the depth of twenty feet--a state of things which gives the valley surface and soil a very rugged and unequal outline; the whole, at the same time, offering the greatest obstruction to regular drainage.
”These are spots selected for orchard draining in England; the truth being lost sight of, that surfaces and soil for apple-tree growth require the most perfect admixture with atmospheric elements, and the freest outlet for the otherwise acc.u.mulating moisture, to prevent dampness and acidity, the result of the shade of the tree itself, produced by the fall of the leaf.
”On this estate these things had never been dreamt of before planting the orchards. The apple-tree, in short, as soon as its branches and leaves spread with the morbid growth of a dozen years, aids itself in the destructive process; the soil becomes yearly more poisonous, the roots soon decay, and the tree falls to one side, as we witness daily, while the herbage beneath and around becomes daily more unfit to sustain animal life. Numerous forms of poisonous fungi, microscopic and otherwise, are here at home, and nourished by the carburetted and other forms of hydrogen gas hourly engendered and saturating the soil; while on the dampest spots the less noxious portions of such hydrates are a.s.similated by the mint plant in the shape of oil; and which disputes with sour, poisonous, and blossomless gra.s.ses for the occupancy of the surface, mingled with the still more noxious straggling forms of the ethusa, occasionally the angelica, vison, conium, &c.
”This state of things, brought into existence by this wretched and barbarous mode of planting orchard valleys, usually reaches its consummation in about thirty years, and sometimes much less, as in the valley under notice. Thus it is that such spots, often the richest in capabilities on the estate, (the deep soil being the waste and spoil of the higher ground and slopes,) become a bane to every form of useful vegetation; and, at the same time, are a hotbed of luxuriance to every thing that is poisonous, destructive, and deleterious to almost every form of animal life. And such an animal as the sheep, while feeding among such herbage, would inhale a sufficiency of noxious gases, especially in summer, through the nostrils alone, to produce disease even in a few hours, though the herbage devoured should lie harmless in the stomach. But with regard to the sheep in the present case, we fear they had no choice in the matter, and were driven by hunger to feed, being shut into these orchards; and thus not only ate the poisoned gra.s.ses, but with every mouthful swallowed a portion of the water-engendering mint, the acrid crowfoot, ranunculus leaves, &c., surrounding every blade of gra.s.s; while the other essential elements of vegetable poison, the most virulent forms of agarici and their sp.a.w.n, with other destructive fungi, were swallowed as a sauce to the whole.
This fearful state of things, to which sheep had access, soon manifested its results; for although a hog or a badger might here fatten, yet to an animal so susceptible to atmospheric influences, unwholesome, undrained land, &c., as the sheep, the organization forbids the a.s.similation of such food; and although a process of digestion goes on, yet its hydrous results (if we may use such a term) not only overcharge the blood with serum, but, through unnatural channels, cause effusion into the chest, heart, veins, &c., when its effects are soon manifested in sudden and quick dissolution, being found dead in the att.i.tude of sleep.”
It is probable that the gases which arose from this imperfectly drained estate played their part in the work of destruction; not only by coming in immediate contact with the blood through the medium of the air-cells in the lungs, but by mixing with the food in the process of digestion.
This may appear a new idea to those who have never given the subject a thought; yet it is no less true. During the mastication of food, the saliva possesses the remarkable property of enclosing air within its globules. Professor Liebig tells us that ”the saliva encloses air in the shape of froth, in a far higher degree than even soap-suds. This air, by means of the saliva, reaches the stomach with the food, and there its oxygen enters into combination, while its nitrogen is given out through the skin and lungs.” This applies to pure air. Now, suppose the sheep are feeding in pastures notorious for giving out noxious gases, and at the same time the function of the skin or lungs is impaired; instead of the ”nitrogen” or noxious gases being set free, they will acc.u.mulate in the alimentary ca.n.a.l and cellular tissues, to the certain destruction of the living integrity. Prof. L. further informs us that ”the longer digestion continues,--that is, the greater resistance offered to the solvent action by the food,--the more saliva, and consequently the more air, enter the stomach.”
STAGGERS.
This disease is known to have its origin in functional derangement of the stomach; and owing to the sympathy that exists between the brain and the latter, derangements are often overlooked, until they manifest themselves by the animal's appearing dull and stupid, and separating itself from the rest of the flock. An animal attacked with staggers is observed to go round in a giddy manner; the optic nerve becomes paralyzed, and the animal often appears blind. It sometimes continues to feed well until it dies.
_Indications of Cure._--First, to remove the cause. If it exist in a too generous supply of food, reduce the quant.i.ty. If, on the other hand, the animal be in poor condition, a generous supply of nutritious food must be allowed.
Secondly, to impart healthy action to the digestive organs, and lubricate their surfaces.
Having removed the cause, take
Powdered snakeroot, 1 ounce.
” slippery elm, 2 ounces.
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