To be given once daily, for three or four days; then give the diarrhœa mixture (named above) for three or four days; and, if necessary, repeat this treatment for another six or eight days. Nutritious, dry, and digestible food is desirable. Constipation. Symptoms. -The excrement becomes hard, and is voided with difficulty and after long intervals. Treatment. Give 3 or 4 ounces of Epsom salts with drachm of ginger. This will generally stimulate the bowels to action; if not, repeat, in three or four hours, Epsom salts 4 ounces, and mustard ounce. Should the bowels prove obstinate, change the purgative and give linseed oil 4 ounces; if still no action after four or five hours, repeat linseed oil 4 ounces and mustard ounce. Warm and thin gruel given freely, together with gentle friction, will promote the action of the medicine. Cause.-Dry herbage-free use of hay and corn-also inflammatory action induced in the coats of the stomach by irritating and indigestible food. DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF RESPIRATION. Catarrh.-Symptoms. -The sheep coughs, often with manifest pain and generally a discharge from the nose. Cause.-Inflammatory action in the membrane of the nasal organs and throat-from sudden and severe changes in the temperature. Prevention. This not always available, and chiefly consists in giving shelter by removing the flock to another field or to the yards. Inflammation of the Lungs. - Symptoms. - Increased pulserapid breathing-rumination very slow, and seldom performed -loss of appetite-painful cough; and as the disease progresses, the brightness of the eye is lost-the sheep staggers in its walk, and gradually sinks under the attack. Treatment.-Bleed freely from the neck vein-if a strong sheep 1 or 11⁄2 pint. This should be followed by strong purgatives to act on the bowels. If the fever continues, the bleeding must be repeated and carried as far as nearly to produce faint ness. The If the sheep will not feed, drench with gruel. following medicine will be found valuable as an assistant in reducing the fever : *The bowels must be watched: if too much purged give the diarrhea mixture; if constipated give salts; but of the two, avoid constipation. If two setons are inserted in the breast they will be beneficial. Cause.-Neglect of coughs before inflammation is communicated to the lungs; chills and colds in general. Prevention. Avoid excessive driving of sheep, or any other proceeding whereby they get the blood heated, and when lying upon cold and exposed land get inflammation. Secure as much as possible dry land for the sheep during the night. DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF CIRCULATION. Fever.-Symptoms. ---The heart beats high-the pulse is quick -great thirst-general lassitude and reluctance to move, without any part of the body being particularly affected-loss of appetite, and the sheep separates from the flock. Treatment.-Saline purgatives, combined with medicines for lowering the action of the heart, such as the following to be given daily, and Epsom salts sufficient to purge. Prompt measures are desirable. Cause. A rapidly increased circulation, stimulated by the animal having taken cold from wet or exposure. In its present stage it has not settled upon any particular part of the body, and early attention may prevent its doing so. Prevention. Little can be done in this way, except by avoiding as much as possible unnecessary exposure in bleak and damp situations. DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF LOCOMOTION. Foot-Rot. Symptoms. - Lameness and excessive tenderness of the foot, often causing the sheep to go down upon their knees whilst feeding. Treatment.-Pare the foot well, and wherever there may be any tenderness of feeling under the hoof, which is readily detected by sharply pressing with the nail, it must be cut away until the operator is assured that over the whole of the foot there is a firm attachment between the sensible and insensible portions. Hesitation is here fatal to success; for where any suppuration exists there will matter be found, and unless exposed and corrected, it must break out again on some future occasion. The sore being thus exposed, some caustic must be applied to destroy the matter and produce a healthy surface. For this purpose various materials are employed. Butter of antimony, strong acids, &c., have been used. I always use finely powdered bluestone, which is carefully sprinkled over the surface laid bare by the paring. The foot is then freely dressed with tar, and the sheep put upon a floor covered with recently crumbled quicklime. Here they remain for two or three hours, and are then turned into a dry yard for the night. This I have found a successful mode of procedure. Cause. Upon this point there is considerable doubt. Many attribute it to the softening influence of damp and marshy soils ; but I believe the true cause has yet to be discovered, although I am free to admit that it exists and operates powerfully when the sheep are on damp land. I have recently been very much struck with the fact that lands equally moist are rendered less injurious by the use of lime as a manure. So much so, that I have seen adjoining farms in many places, which are subject to the rot in proportion as the farmers have been in the habit of drawing lime. I do not presume to say that the prevalence of foot-rot is in every case to be traced to this influence, but a careful observation leads me to believe that there is a connection between them. I very recently observed a singular case bearing upon this point, in which only one field on a farm was free from the rot; no apparent difference could be detected further than a heap of lime which had been a sporting place for the sheep. Upon and around this place they constantly played; but as soon as this was worn down the field became as bad as any other on the farm. V.-On Carts and Waggons. By T. W. P. ISAAC, of Northgatestreet, Bath; and EDWARD SPENDER, of Mannamead, Plymouth. PRIZE ESSAY. I. THE RESPECTIVE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CARTS AND WAGGONS. WHILE great attention is now being directed towards the science of agriculture, such as is involved in a knowledge of soils, manures, &c., the mechanics of agriculture should not be forgotten. And here we refer not to such important branches as steam-ploughs, reaping-machines, &c., which are in no danger of being overlooked, but to such less particulars as those vehicles which the farmer makes use of every day. He may employ the best manures, and apply his steam-power in the most efficient manner, and yet every time that his horses draw the former into the field, or carry fuel for the latter, there may be a loss of strength, and consequently a waste of money. At present there is little likelihood that the cart or waggon will be superseded by steam. It is well then to consider the various kinds of these vehicles with a view of deciding upon that which can be used with the greatest economy. It is calculated by Mr. Morton, in his 'Cyclopædia of Agriculture,' that full onehalf of the horse labour on a farm is that of carriage (p. 400). The efficacy of the machines employed in this labour is thus, as Mr. Morton remarks, of great moment; and their construction, so as to facilitate the accomplishment of their purposes, seems to be one of the most important questions in agricultural mechanics. Inasmuch as a large portion of this carriage is field-work, the "strength and make" of the implement plainly ought to be accommodated to the circumstances of rough roads and soft ground rather than to those of the turnpike road. The evidence which has been offered by various persons interested in this matter, as to the best kind of carriage, is, as far as we know, unanimously in favour of the one-horse cart. Not only is its first cost less than that of the waggon, but it will also carry more in proportion to its size. Mr. Loomes, in the sixth volume of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, says, that the one-horse cart carries far more than half the load of the twohorse waggon: thus A one-horse cart will carry- A two-horse waggon will carry- He asserts even that for harvest and manure-work four onehorse carts are fully equal to four two-horse waggons, with the additional advantage that the former are not so liable to poach the land when it is wet, while the labour of the four horses thus saved enables the farmer to plough in the manure as soon as laid on the land. And though it requires one person to every 25 cwt. with a cart, and one to only 45 cwt. with a waggon, the latter is not really less economical, since a boy at 8d. per day is as capable of managing one horse as a man of driving two horses. Mr. Love, in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, vol. xii., argues no less strongly in favour of carts. They are more useful for all kinds of work. Thus in hauling farmyard manure, the quantity which a one-horse cart will hold is about one solid yard, which will measure 11 yard when thrown into the cart, and weigh 16 to 20 cwt. This, with the weight of the cart (6 cwt.), would make about 24 cwt. for one horse. A twohorse cart or waggon will hold 14 yard of dung, and this, with the weight of the waggon (12 cwt.), equals about 1 ton per horse. There is clearly a loss of labour here, since three one-horse carts will draw nearly as much as two two-horse waggons-i. e. a loss of one horse in four, which is equivalent to 1s. per yard. From this deduct the extra driver, who need be nothing more than a boy at 6d. or 10d. per day, and the result is 10d. per load, or one-fourth in favour of the one-horse cart. In hay-harvest the result is similar. A cart 12 ft. long by 6 ft. wide, standing 3 ft. from the ground, and with a load about 10 ft. from the ground, will have 20 cubic yards of hay upon it, weighing 16 to 20 cwt., which, with the weight of the cart, makes a fair load of 25 cwt. for the horse. Waggons when loaded weigh 48 cwt., half of which is the weight of the waggon. Therefore, in waggons requiring two horses, each horse draws only 12 cwt. hay, although drawing the same gross weight as the horse in the cart, who can carry 18 cwt. hay. So that four horses with two waggons would carry 50 cwt. hay; while three horses with carts would bring 54 cwt. hay, the total loads being 75 cwt.; while the total gross waggon-load is 96 cwt., or 24 cwt. per horse, or only 1 cwt. less than the total drawn by the one horse in the cart, so that we save one-fourth of the horse labour. Again, in hauling lime, three men with six horses and carts will carry 7 tons lime; and adding 2 tons for the carts = 9 tons, or 30 cwt. per horse; the expenses of six horses at 3s. per horse = 18s., and three men at 2s. 6s. 24s., 3s. 6d. per ton. With two waggons the same weight might be brought, but it seldom is. Two waggons weigh nearly three tons. Then eight = = = |