MORTALITY AMONGST HOGGETS.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 230, 3 February 1894, Page 2

MORTALITY AMONGST HOGGETS.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE STAK. Sir, — In my letters on the mortality among lambs at docking time one of the principles that I submitted as being essential to success was " skilful treatment ;" by that I not only meant skilful manipulation, but also that the surroundings should be such as would conduce to the success of the operation. No surgeon would dream of performing au operation on a patient in a tainted room, nor will sensible farmers perform surgical operations on lambs in a yard tainted with putrifying animal matter. Mr Gilruth, Government veterinary surgeon, in No. 10 leaflet issued by the Agricultural Department, recommends "scrupulous cleanliness of yards." He thus supports one of the principles I haye enunciated, for my invariable practice is to burn everything immediately after docking, and I frequently sprinkle a carbolic solution over the portions of the yards most liable to cause blood poisoning. But now for another matter. At the last Halcombe stock sale, the auctioneer informed me that a settler near Wanganui lost five thousand hoggets out of a flock of nine thousand last winter and spring. I have also heard of many other settlers losing 20, 80, and 50 per centum of their hoggets during the winter months. In fact, so serious have the losses become that many are afraid to keep their hoggets and flood the market with them, often times selling at less than their real value. In writing on the above I do not wish any settler to take my opinions, or the principles I enunciate, or the methods I adopt, as from an authority, but as an argumentum ad crumenam, an appeal to interest. I am willing to discuss through the press with any bona fide settler any of the points I raise, but I shall certainly ignore any vulgar or impertinent letters. These losses among hoggets on our coast are too serious to be treated in a sneering or flippant manner. While making suggestions for the consideration of my fellow settlers, I am at the same time anxious to get all the information I can, on the subject, verbally from settlers from books, and from observation* I think I may take it for granted that unfortunately very serious losses have occurred among hoggets during the winter months for several years past. Naturally the question arises : What are the causes of such losses ? I submit that the causes are — (1) That the lambs are born with weakly constitutions owing to lack of sufficient care being taken in the selection of the ewes and lambs; or (2) to inferior or foul feed ; or (3) to external parasites; or (4) to internal parasites ; or (5) to general bad management, want of shelter, bad feet, &c ; or (6) to epidemics. No, 1 1 must pass over, as the subject is a very wide one, involving a knowledge of the symptoms of all the diseases sheep are heir too. My own plan is : Whenever I observe a sign or symptom that I do not understand to hunt up the subject on the first opportunity and watch very closely the sheep. No 2. The grasses suitable for sheep, and the proper grasses for certain soils, ought to be taught to every IV, V, and VI standard boy in our public schools. I am duly grateful to my tutor for having carefully instructed me in these matters when a youngster, and now I find the knowledge of great use. Four years ago when I took possession of my present place I found only cocksfoot, Yorkshire fog, wliite clover, rye, and a little tiniothy. Fires have (helped to get rid of a great deal of cocksfoot and fog, and in their place I have sown Pacey's perennial rye, Poverty Bay rye, sheep's Fescues, meadow foxtail, crested dog's tail, red clover (since the introduction of the bumble bee), cow grass, alyske, and meadow fescue, a little yarrow, a liberal sowing of timothy, and some prairie grass. The sheep eat very close the yarrow and crested dog's tail, but the two I like best are prairie grass and meadow foxtails The former grows most luxuriantly in August — the month we want feed most — and the latter starts early in spring. The above mixture would not suit every farm. My own land includes heavy clay loam, friable loam, swamp soil, and sandy alluvial deposit, and thus gives the sheep a perfect change of ground and feed. As to foul feed I need not say anything ; if I had paddocks clear of logs, I should move the sheep daily, so as to ensure exercise as well as clean feed, except in lambing time, when I should give as wide a range as possible. No 8. Ido not propose to act as advertising agent for any of the proprietors of the various dips that are on the market. They have doubtless each of them merits of their own. I use a caustic potash, soft soap, and arsenic dip, and there was scarcely a tick to be found on any of the ewes or their lambs when shorn. I dip late, and in cool weather, for the reason given by G. Armitage, M.R.C.V.S., in his book on the sheep, page 46 : Mr Young, of Kirkliston, Australia, thus writes — " In warm weather, and especially if the sheep be in fine condition, the use of an arsenic dip is very dangerous, so much that, in one instance, on using during the summer a solution, containing only 2drs of arsenic to the gallon of water, ten per cent, of the sheep (fat wethers) died. And, as another instance, I may mention that a neighbour in December of last year (summer time in Australia) dipped a flock of picked ewes and lambs in an arsenical solution, the strength of which I do not know, and the result was that 1300, being exactly one-half of them, died." Common sense is required in dipping sheep as in everytlung else pertaining to tiiem. If the sheep are plunged into the dip and allowed to swim out at once, I venture to say 10 per cent, of them will have dry skins along the sides of the back, but if they are plunged into the dip, then pushed under the solution again once or twice, the wool opens out by this method, and when allowed to drag themselves out of the dip they will be found to be saturated all over the body, and if. the solution is of proper strength every tick will be killed. If the hoggets are infested with ticks they cannot thrive.. I will leave leave Nos 4, 5, and 6 for my next article. I am, etc., George Wilks. Clare Lea Farm, Feilding. [Whilst we are ready at all times to publish matters of interest to our readers — especially to farmers — we must impress on our correspondents the virtue of brevity. Our space is limited.— Ed. F.S.]