Diseases of Sheep.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XIII, Issue 2386, 1 July 1895, Page 2

Diseases of Sheep.

Professor Limon, in addressing the A. and P. Society at Napier said : An alarming condition of things was manifesting itself in the terrible spread of infection in the form of lice, worms, foot-rot, and other diseases. This necessarily led to a constitutional decline in their flocks, which, if not promptly checked, would lead to untold trouble in the future. Many people regarded the excessive presence of lice as a sign of constitutional strength, but the reverse was the case. Constitutional disease was not the product of months, but of years and years and this being the case it was folly to think that stock could be restored to robush health by the application of a single drench. Then with regard to over-stocking, some people of course said, “ Oh, we have not over-stocked, we have made no increase in our flocks,” but they were entirely wrong, for they had made no allowance for the gradual decline which invariably followed the falling off in the value or feed, which was being nipped down by stock year after year. Feed must be allowed periodical rests for recovery if stock was to be kept healthy, and if a maximum of wool was desired. Sometimes it was necessrry to give certain classes of pasture a rest for two or three years, in other cases a complete change of methods was essential, and cultivation had to be resorted to, top dressing and bush harrowing being necessary for the removal of undesirable grasses, The destruction then of natural and artificial feed might often be attributed to years of over-production and decline in the value of grasses. The lungs of many of the sheep he had examined w r ere absolutely rotten. Why ? Not because of lung-worm—-which was merely the effect of a cause —but because of the wretched state of the constitution. To restore this they must proceed to work judiciously and with common sense.'