DRESSING.

Otago Witness, Issue 714, 5 August 1865, Page 15

DRESSING.

The dressing-stuff having been prepared, particular care must be paid to the heat at which it is applied, as well as to the duration of the bath. The heat of the

dressing should be, in winter, about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and in summer about 100 degrees ; and should never, under any circumstances, be allowed to fall lower than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The duration of the bath must depend on the heat of the dressing-stuff. With the stuff at 90 degrees, the sheep should be kept in for fully 60 seconds ; if it be up to 110 degrees, half of that time will be sufficient.

Of these dippings it is essential that there should be two, an inteival of about 12 days being allowed to intervene between them. Attempts to cure with one dressing have been made times innumerable, and the results have been in the proportion perhaps of one success to one hundred failures.

Rams and sheep very badly scabbed should be spotted with a decoction of tobacco of double the strength recommended above, two or three days before they are dipped, or even one day, if longer cannot he managed

Whilst in the dip, the complete saturation of the head and neck of the sheep must be attended to. Both the head, neck, and back of each sheep should be well Tubbed with the crutches, which are always in UFe at dips.

Where large numbers of sheep are to be dipped, the work may be much simplified, and the operation more thoroughly performed, by heating the dip itself by means of steam. Not only can the wash by this means be kept easily at the temperature requisite, but it can aldo be prepared much more quickly and accurately than where the water is boiled in the usual manner.

It has been found that where sulphur was used in sheep dressing, that from amongst the first two or three lots of sheep which passed through the dip, several always died. This is said to arise from an accumulation of gas in the drip-ping-stuff or wash, and is provided against by stirring it up forcibly with poles for ten minutes or so, before the first lot of sheep are thrown into it.

To prevent the subsidence of the sulphur in solution in the dip, to which it has astrong tendency, it is necessary from time to time to keep it well stirred up from the bottom, in effecting which a strong broom will be found very useful. The person in charge of the dip should see that each sheep comes out of its bath well saturated, and ita fleece well charged with sulphur. The efficiency of sheep-dressing is very much impaired by the sheep being exposed to a fall of rain within forty -eight hours after the dressing. Scab is more difficult of cure in a damp climate (and in damp weather) than in a dry climate.

After the discovery of scab in their flocks, sheep owners frequently defer dressing them for long periods. Besides the risk to neighboring flocks resulting from this neglect, and the chance of reinfection from these very neighbors at a future da}', such delay itself enhances the difficulty of a cure.

It is quite necessary that the conveyance of scab by means of the clothes of shearers coming from stations where scab exists, as well as on the pieces ol rag wrapped round the handles of their shears, should be provided against. Suspicious garments may be made safe by boiling.

To put sheep after dressing into scabby yards, or on to scabby folding grounds, is to run a most unnecessary risk of having them re -infected.

The remedy for scab, the most certain and specd y iv its effects, and the most simple in its application, is corrosive sublimate diss >lved in water. The drawbacks to its employment are a heavy mortality often consequent on its use, and its injurious effects on the health of those who make the application of it. As it is very portable, the weight rerequired being fifteen times larger than that of tobacco and sulphur, it may be recommended on emergencies, when great delay would take place before tobacco and sulphur could be obtained. Victoria was formerly all but cleared of scab by the application of this remedy. In those days, the sheep being hand-dressed, they did not swallow any of the liquid in which they were dipped, and deaths were not, in consequence, excessive amongst them. They were dressed twice. The strength of the stuff was half an ounce of corrosive sublimate to one gallon of water.

The sublimate was prepared by being reduced to a very fine powder or dust, put into a tub or other ivaoden vessel, together with some salammoniac, and boiling water poured upon it, "which was stirred until the sublimate was dissolved. It was then fit to be mixed -with tbe proper quantity of hot water.

The New Zealand "Herald" thus reports a valuable discovery in the North :— " By the arrival of the Sylph, from Russell, we learn I that a very valuable copper mine had been discovered at Waugamomu, near the Biy of Islands. It is spoken of as being very rich, and some very good specimens have been sent up in the Sylph, by Mr Collett, C.E. Another vein of copper is also reported to to have been struck at Tiki Tikiora."