POISONOUS SHEEP DIP.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7625, 24 December 1886, Page 4

POISONOUS SHEEP DIP.

. The mail from South " Africa brings tidings of * another of those wholesale poisonings of sheep that have happened ■ from time to time, filling the mind of the farmer with consternation in the '. localities where they occur. This time it is a farmer in the J3loembontein district ..i'-whose stock has lio.cn so ruthlessly de--""stroyed, and to the extent of nearly a thousand sheep. Tho particulars of the case must be of special interest to all owners of sheep. The dip used was one of tho best known of the class distinguished as powder (lips (arsenical), and has long had the reputation of being prepared with great care. The farmer used it with some degree of confidence in face of the printed statement with cacli package, to the effect that this powder dip might he used with perfect safety if the directions were followed. Unfortunately the results have contradicted this. The directions were followed with ordinary care, yet nearly a thousand of the sheep dipped were poisoned. How did this cccur? It appeals tho sheep were suffering from scab, and twice dipping, at an interval of a fortnight, was considered desirable. A large dipping tank was used that contained some of the solution of the same dip held over from a previous dipping. - This was added to in the usual manner, and the flock was dipped. Owing to the hot weather or some other cause, this dipping caused some soreness and inflammation of the pelt (or skin of the .animals), but much attention was not paid to it. The sheep were dipped a second time as recommended in the directions accompanying the dip, with the result '-' that afterwards nearly a thousand of them ■ died, and in groat agonies, caused, as has since been proved, by the absorbtion of • arsenic through the skin. Thecaseappears to he a good deal analogous to that which occurred at Ber\vick-on-T\veed some years since, when 850 sheen wore poisoned. Tliq moral of those shocking disasters ' (for shocking they must be called when they might he so easily avoided, and with so much advantage) is obvious, viz., that even the best prepared poisonous dips are altogether too dangerous to be fit for use upon animals. ■ Some thirty years since there was sullicient reason tor using poisons of various kinds for sheep dipping, as at that time no really efficient and at the same time safe remedy had been discovered ; but we have progressed since ' then, and one of the boons science has contributed', to agriculture is that of thoroughly, efficient yet absolutely safe means of exterminating each of tho ■ numerous insect pests that infest sheep • and cattle, be they in the shape of ticks, lico, flie3, or the resulting diseases of scab, mange, or itch, and tints delivering farmers from tho anxiety and loss that have always been inseparable from the '. use of poisonous mixtures. — Homo News.