SHEEP DIPS.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 145, 18 December 1896, Page 2

SHEEP DIPS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— The dipping season is nearly with as again, and I think the majority of sheepfarmers have not given the yearly process of sheep dipping the consideration it deserves. I mean in the matter of dips used. With your kind permission the subject might be discussed in your columns. There is 8 very expensive powder dip in the market, the person interested no donbt in its sale praises its merits in the New > Zealand Farmer. He informs as cheap deeps are expensive in the end. To that statement I have a contrary opinion. 1 He says when sheep are being dipped the dip water should be stirred up from the bottom, at times or often. Does not this prove that undissolved powder dips ' cannot be uniform in their action ? It is supposed that these powder dips con* sist of arsenic and sulphur. If so, the latter is most injurious to come in coni tact with wool, but for scab, arsenic and sulphur combined make, I should think , the best cure. Some of the liquid foreign dips are produced from material which was, a short time ago, considered a waste product from gas retorts. The i action of these resembles carbolic. A i friend of mine had a quantity imported. > It killed lice and ticks on the sheep at a > less cost than home made dip. My > friend wrote for a second consignment, i but found a company had been formed i buying up the rights of this waste proi duct, in consequence of which this dip > is now exported as one of our expensive i foreign dips. We should in our interests . ascertain if they are harmless in their , action to the yolk in the wool. Anything i interfering with that mast be hurtful to the sheep. The yolk is nature's proteci tion to keep the cold, penetrating, winter rains from the Bkin. The yolk of the > wool is proved upon analysis to be a , substance nearly pure potash. The i French people in washing their wool, extract this potash in such qoanti* ties as to be marketable. The Yorkshire wool manufacturers use a potash soap wash from the first process in the manufacture. It is the only lubricant which enables the combs to act, and it is used nntil the very finishing of the cloth and blankets. Does it not seem that our best and most inexpensive dip should be made at home ? Surplus fats and tallows making our potash soap, from the,, latter make our dip wash, with the usual quantity of solvent arsenic. Let five or six farmers combine in a district, and at cost of say, £6, fix up their furnace to , dissolve the arsenic. With this, best of 1 all dips, the expense would be from 10s i to 12s per 1000 sheep dipping. The cost would be small when compared i with these doubtful foreign dips which i cost about £2 10s for same number of : sheep, saving money to the country. This i inexpensive dipping could be done twice in the year with profit to the farmer, i much comfort to the sheep, and a certain \ improvement to the yolk and wool. > The following is an extract from a friend's letter who, at the time, was i Managing Director of large chemical : worka. He says, " I gather from your letters, etc.. that New Zealand is similar to England, a healthy country for sheep. i Your foreign dips are, as a rule, prepared for countries where scab is always ' present. The very best dip you can use is a potash soap water, with perfect i solvent arsenic mixed as mentioned. Nothing equals it for giving that lasting 1 kindly feel to wool for Yorkshire fingers to handle when sampling your bales at i the London wool sales." In conclusion it would be interesting i and improving if other sheep farmers would pive opinions on dips and dipping. i I am, etc., John Holdbn.