Tobacco for Sheep and Lambs.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 19 January 1911, Page 4

Tobacco for Sheep and Lambs.

In answer Id a <|iioi'i.si, tlio Director of Lire Stock and Moat Division gives -t'he following reply _ through the Agricultural -Journal in regard to giving t:c<'>;ic-<> to shorn: ••Tin' best way to give, tobacco L'» sheep is in the leaf, ami nijif in the I (inn of ordinary smoking tobacco, the quantity for a full-grow n sheep being two-thirds of an oin.ee every se.md day, or about one-third ol an ounce daily. It is dimV.fiil whether tliis is of any value as_ a treatment for I lie following report of an officer of the I'nited Suites Giu-erunient is. of interest in tin's connection :--- 'There lias been considerable dis-cus-ion recently in various Ihestock and agricultural .journals concerning the feeding of tobacco ; to sheep as a remedial measure against stomach worms. I will therefore briefly refer to some experimental work along this line conducted at the experiment station of this bureau In .June, 1908, a flock of sheep and lambs in wibich stomncli-wonns were known ito lie present, were separated into throe 10t.?,, with fire lambs and seven or ei'Jit fully iirown sheep in each, and 'placed ' in three similar .«mall pastures. Let 1 was fed on leaf tobacvo «rown in : lot 2. tobacco eutitinqs olitaiuo: 1 , from a cigar factory: while lot .S was fed no tobacco at all. Sonic difficulty was experienced in the sheep in 10-t 2 to eat the cuttings, and they finally had to 'be started on the leaf, afterwards changing to the culltings, so that, it was not until late in July that they reallyJiegan to consume the cuttings'. By the middle of August the sheep in eneh of lots 1 and 2 v/ere consuming ten ounces of tobacco every two days, an average per head of a lilt-tie over two-thirds of an ounce every 18 hours. This represented tihe maximum which thoy would eat. and." I lie- feeding of this quantity-every -IS hours was continued, until early in December. There was no noticeable difference in Jtthe condition of the sheep in the three lots, which remained fairly good throughout \i'\? experiment. One lamb in the lot which was not fed tobacco died in July from unknown causes, no pn.st-mori'om examination being possible, r.s the carcase was devoured by buzzards 'bofore the death of the nnimal was discovered. In the later part of December and the parly part of Jan-, •aary the lambs and some of the ewes were kil'ed and examined, witilv the result that stomach-worms wrvo found to be present in all three lots. Fn most eases there were only a few,, hut in one lamb several thousand .stomach-worms were found. .Strangely enough, this was a lamb from out of the lots whicili> had -been fed tobacco. The conclusion reached in this experiment is that the feeding of tobacco had no noticeable effect either upon the stomach-worms or upon the sheep. The results obtained cannot be considered decisive, but they suggest the possibility that the favourable reports which have been made relative to tobacco as a remedy , for stomachworms have hcen based' on coincidences, the good results observed in sii'li instances having been due to some other cause than the tobacco. Tn fact, it has been noted that some sheep raisers who'have tried tobacco have reported it a failure. At the present, time, therefore, tobacco mmst be considered a remedy of doubtful efficiency as far as stomachworms are concerned."