CORRESPONDENCE.

Colonist, Volume VI, Issue 626, 23 October 1863, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

SCAB IN SHEEP, AND THE NELSON SCAB ACT

To the Editor of the Colonist. Sib^-I have just seen the Act of the Nelson Pro-; vincial Council, intituled "An act to prevent the! spread of the Scab, in Sheep," although what kind of; scab, whether the acarious or eruptive, is not specified. If the title is to be read correctly, it means, that; the sheep of the flocks already clean must be kept clean, whereas, those already smitten may remain as they are—a kind of impossibility, which none oxcept modern legislators would propose, far less hope to have accomplished. . « If the inspectors should be as well informed as their masters on this vexatious and ticklish subject, then a: fine mess is likely to be made ere the act is repealed. Scab Acts have been more numerous in Australian Legislation than any other acts which encumber the statute books. , The Hew South Wales Parliament have been recently tinkering at their fifth ; Victoria produced four; Adelaide, two; Wellington,' one or two 5" but the last of Nelson, ought to wear the garland, as not only a very one-sided affair^but also very impracticable and likely to be h r,i^ly expensive to little pur- ■ pose. All, this blundering arises through the want of following the excellent advice given to a committee by one of the most talented and scientific men all the Austral Island group can produce (namely, Dr. Ben* nett, of Sydney), when giving: his evidence on this said scab in sheep. ,'f-Jt would (he said) be interesting before legislating, to ascertain the true nature of tbis malady;" a knowledge as limited now as it was twenty years ago. That talented gentleman, Professor Gamgec, at present (or lately) acting as British Commissioner to ascertain the sanitary and diseased condition of domestic animals in Great Britain and Ireland, sap in his report on scab in sheep, " The outbreaks were numerous (1862) in the south of Scotland and in Lincoln and: Cambridge shires. This malady deserves a special inquiry. It would bo impossible to devise a better Bystem than the present to ensure the greatest animal destruction, as the remedies used prove often as destructive as the scabies itself, one of the most easily prevented diseases which afflict domestic quadrupeds.". . The modes, of managing |hoep on the Cheviot Hills w Qr^Dpiaa Uouatftuw, nut the flew Zeatad Isto

are not widely dissimilar. But the flockowners-in Britain are nearly.all men bred to their business,iland who spare ho cost, trouble, or labor, to keep their sheep free from this parasitic'malady. Comparisons will not be made, as thevmay.be rather " malodorous."

In one point the Nelson Act makes a step in advance. If the collective wisdom defines not what is scab in sheep, it directs in what wash the animala are to be dipped. But the word sufficient steps in and renders the dipping and curing a matter of doubt, especially as the Inspector can see a penalty of'£So pending over him should Ke grant a clean certificate for non-cured sheep. The best and surest as well as cheapest way would be, tft dip in turbid water, and dip until the sheep are all drowned, which drowning will be then held as a sufficient cure at the most moderate cost—no penalty being inflicted on the Inspector for killing in his attempt at curing. He may, therefore, like Hornbrook—• --,-., ... ;.-..■ :

"Go on from day to day; ; i , Destroy, poison, drown, or slay," , ■ . And be well paid for it. ', Without noticing at farther length this most incongruous and impolitic Act, the writer of these notes cannot avoid commenting on the startling and sweeping assertion in the editorial leader of the Nelson Examiner of Tuesday last, that " there is not a single flock of sheep in Marlborough unaffected with scab." He confesses to have been startled at bo bold an impeachment. Now, it so happened that only a few weeks ago, about 300 wedders or wethers (write the word as you please) were landed by the Lyttelton from Wairau, the said sheep being the property of Mr. H. Bedwood, sen. Although the day was rainy, he (the writer) went on purpose to examine these sheep, both as to condition, size of carcase, quality of wool, and other particulars, knowing how well the Redwood's usually manage. He has seen more scabbed sheep in the sum of his experience than Nelson' Province can boast of, clean and unclean, and he is ready to tell the Examiner, or any other examiner,' that those wethers were as free from sarcoptic scab; as he believes the editor to be free from parasitic itch. The inference is conclusive, that if those wethers were free from the contagion of scab—for contagious the disease; is, not infectious—then others of the same flock and on the same run are equally clean also, r Q.E.D. : :

Such unconditional asseverations in a respectable newspaper will naturally attract fixed attention in these. Isles as elsewhere, and deductions not very flattering to the sheep managing capabilities of New Zealanders must be a reasonable consequent. As to the simple modus of a curative process, it is not my intention to enter, acting on a patent maxim, that advice unasked, is of no value—advice thrown away, so I intend not to give any; only thus far, that the merely mechanical operation of dipping, in any preparation is no security that the malady is healed. It may be for a time arrested. • Various applications stain the wool and deteriorate the value, many are detrimental to the animal system; and to conclude, almost all the potent minerals, salts, and acrid herbs have been brought into action by (in) humanity to cure a disease which will submit to a very simple application under judicious treatment; ; . .r ; ' Finally, as acarious scab never is and never can be developed spontaneously (Gamgee) ; so when begun, the disease becomes chronic, and will never spontaneously heal—"it is a fixed contagion" (Leibig). ' ■ -nous;'-. [Knowing something of our intelligent correspondent's experience in sheep management—ah experience ranging over a period of half a century in Britain and Australia,—we should* and so would bur sheep-farming and mutton-eating readers, feel indebted to him if he. would narrate the modus of the proper curative process, the application of which it appears such a vast number of New Zealand and Australian sheep urgentlyrequire.—Ei>;].- ■