The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Saturday December 6, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 969, 6 December 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Saturday December 6, 1879.

We devote' the greater portion of this afternoon's issue to the interests of the QGvttbff. settlers in the Bay. The prosperity of the towns of a pastoral district, .depends altogether on the prosperity' of 'the country settlers ; and for this reason we do not offer air/atidogy for the absence of more. g|a6ral.riews. .

to contagion, and, as prevention is better than cure, wherever flocks are discovered to be infected every precaution should be taken to isolate the diseased sheep and prevent contact with the clean. -% To this end,-, legal enactments, if vigorously carried out by the Inspectors, are sufficient to check the evil, which cannot however be thoroughly exterminated until the whole country is fenced. The cause of scab in sheep is the presence of minute insects, which are about one-fortieth of an inch in length, the male being slightly smaller than the female. These insects have soft thinskinned bodies, and possess style-like mandibles, forming a retractile horny tube, which enable them to burrow beneath the skin and bury themselves within the integuments of the animal they infest. A red spot marks the place where the insects enter the skin. On the tenth or twelfth day this spot begins to swell, and a pustule rapidly forms, which about the sixteenth day breaks, and the female appears with progeny of from eight to fifteen young acari attached to her legs. These immediately burrow beneath the skin, where they in their turn grow and propagate. These numerous r pustules, as they dry, form hard crusted scabs : hence the name of disease. The excessive irritation produced by the presence of these acari induces the. animal to rub against every hard object, and also to bite itself whereit can reach, thus tearing the wool and producing a very ragged fleece, by which the presence of scab in a flock is easily recognized. The usual progress of the disease is as follows : — The appearance of the scab in its earlier stages is indicated by a rough and inflamed condition and reddish hue of the skin. When closely examined the skin also feels granular to the touch. These granulations are the germs of the pestules which contain the acari at a later stage of their growth. A few days further on an extensive eruption of pustules is detected about the upper parts of the back and towards the shoulders, and the sheep furiously scratches itself against every post, stump, tree ■, or other object in ! the way. The pustules speedily ripen, break, and run together, forming the characteristic incrusation or scab. The skin under the scab is raw and sore, and continues bo until the scab dries and scales off. The acarus or parasitical insect, which j had its receptacle in the pustule, so soon as the latter dries moves away to a clean part of the skin, and burrowing there, sets up a new point of inflammation and a further extension of the disease. Thus shifting its position, the acuras spreads the scab all over the sheep's body, and by adhering to the various rubbingplaces where the diseased sheep have been scratching themselves, the insect is transferred to the fleece of any luckless sheep that touches the spot ; and if by one pair, male and female, or a pregnant female alone, effect a lodgment on the fleece of a clean sheep, so quickly | do they propagate that in a few weeks from the first infection the sheep will be covered with these parasites. The sheep: in this diseased state quickly loses condition, its skin becomes foetid, scurfy, and sore-looking, its fleece harsh, rugged and torn off in patches, its gait feeble and staggering, its whole appearance repulsive, and at no very distant period it succumbs to the disgusting disease. The scab insects which are hatched at the later period of the summer generally survive x>vo*- the. win,ter, and, whether fed on the juices of the sheep's skin or existing by the means of the moisture obtainable on the rubbing-places to which they adhere, they often retain sufficient vitality in the ensuing spring to generate the scab again in sheep which were apparently or actually made clean in the autumn or winter previously. Where the latter has been the casethat is, where there has been a positive cure or eradication of the disease, and it nevertheless returns again with the opening warmth of spring — the contagion has probably been reproduced by the the rubbing L places frequented by the sheep; All such rubbing-places should therefore be purified by fire, and this can be best and most conveniently effected by setting fire to the grass and, scrub on' the run or pasture ground; The young acarus, if kept apart from all moisture, quickly perishes and dries up ; but the survival of the adu't insects from the following spring is sufficient to show that great perseverance must be exercised in 'the efforts to eradicate the scab. The disease will reappear again $md again, and some so-called cleansing solutions never do affect the germs of the disease by destroying the young acari burrowing deep in the sheep's skin ; whilst other applications, which are sufficiently destructive to the immature insects, cannot be applied effectively without at the same time doing mischief to the health of the sheep, and great injury to the staple of wool. Except in a very early stage scab is easily distinguished from all other cutaneous diseases to which sheep are subject, on the one hand by the symptoms described above, which are peculiar to scab ; and, on the other, by contrast with the distinctive appearances so well known to persons of ordinary experience among sheep, which denote grass seeds, wounds, fever spots, prickly heat, and rubbers, the only ailments for which scab is at all likely to be mistaken. Cure. — In the words of Youatt, " the cure of scab lies in the destruction of this insect." This is a simple and most important view of the case, and the only question is, What is the best remedy, and the simplest method of application 1 Various substances have been recommended, at different times, for the cure of scab, some of them, such as compounds of arsenic or corrosive sublimate being of a very dangerous nature, requiring great judgment and care in their application; Tobacco has also its advocates ; but in every case when the substance used is of a strong poisonous nature it is more, or less absorbed into the system of the animal to which it is applied, and death may result instead of cure. The object to be attained, therefore, in the cure of all diseases of sheep produced by insects is the destruction of the insect by a substance which wiirbe harmless to the sheep if absorbed into the system. Sulphur ofters all the requisites of an innocuous application for sheep, and at the same time a certain specific for the destruction of all insect life ; but for this purpose it must Be appled in the form of a soluble .salt- by its combination with alkali, Such* aii'soda ''or lime. There is

no doubt that the real value of Gissard's Fluid, so much used by gardeners, entirely depends on sulphur in a state of thorough solution ; and several: patent sheep-dipping compositions, as; cures for scab rest qn the same basis'. The manfacture of soluble sulphur as hyposulphite of lime is so simple that any shepherd could do it with little instruction. The following is one of the best processes in use. Take in the proportion of one part by weight of the best quality of fresh quicklime, and slake* it carefully without . an excess of water. Crush the slaked lime with a heavy roller, and pass it through a fine sieve, so as to remove all the small lumps. Add to it two parts by weight of flowers of sulphur, mixing the two ingredients thoroughly, and again passing through the seive, so "as to insure perfect incorporation. . Shovel the mixture thus obtained into a boiler containing boiling rain-water, in the proportion of 91b. of the mixture to every ten gallons of water, and, stirring well from the bottom, keep on the boil for half an hour, when the liquor f is ready for use. Or another method is to put the sulphur into the water and let boil for fifteen minutes, stirring all the time ; then add the quicklime unslaked, and keep on stirring until the liquor is of the colour of dark brandy. This latter method is preferred for making small quanties. The temperature of the dip should be maintained at 110° to 120°, and each sheep [ should be soaked in the dip for ten | minutes, during which time their heads should be ducked twice, and the solution well rubbed into the fleece with a cruch. The process of dipping i should be repeated within fourteen days.