The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-08-29 00:00:00

LYMB REGIS.
Mg. TREY, the new M.P. for this borough, gave
a private ball at his residence, High Cliff Rouse, on
Psiday

BRADFORD ABBAS.

THZ CONDITION or ANIMALS IN DORSET. —J. 8., of
this pariah, writing to the Aorta:.Rural Gazette of August
19. says :—CATTLE. —As yet I have not heard of &Angle
case of the " murrain " for with all its new names. I
think this old term will be best understood. We have,
. however, a disease very prevalent, which is described by
Clater under the terms Main, bawkes, or gargyse, now
called foot.and-mouth disease. In my own pariah a
farmer is said to have 30 cows attacked with the disease,
and it is in various parts of the county. My bailiff tells
me that about 12 years IWO his father had about the ,
same number of cows attacked, and as nearly as he can
recollect the summer was much the same as in this year,
which I take it has be, n remaikable for hot days with
north or east winds, and cold nights. His remedy was
then ground oats, with the coarser bran removed, made
into gruel, with which the beasts were drenched two or
three times a day; this yielded support in cases where
the mouth was so sore as to prevent eating, and the
bran left acted mechanically upon the bowels, and he
did not lose one, while his neighbours who did not do this
lost their animate from sheer exhaustion. This is interest-
ing as showing the periodical appearance of diseases
incidental to animals. We have heard of • few cases of ,
'pleura apoplexy in Somerset, but only in the districts ,
in which this disease has ever prevailed. &MEP. —ln
our own flock and others a few ewes are annually lost, '
apparently from souse blond disease of the Botanic
apoplexy clue, in as far as I can matte out from a post ,
morlem examination and the guidance of the writings
and lectures which I have heard or read by Professors
Brown and Simoods. The most trouble•ome we have,
however, with our sheep—and it is very prevalent—is
that of fame feet, Professor Brown's paper in the B,th
and West of England A ricultuml Siciety's Journal has
so fully described it that it leaves little more to be
wished. I quite think with him that this is to be pre-
vented, by careful periodical examination of the whole
flock, waahing and paring of the feet, hut all people, and
especially shepherds, are slew to use preventive measures
Dry t.pland pastures seem the least liable to produce—
sandy atnbbles and lo w meed owe in wet weather aggravate
it. Tit^ best thing would seem to be to separate affected
sheep and put them in as dry a position as possible, pare
mid apply atin.ttliting and astringent remedies. PIGS
I have Loud ct many sadden losses among this stock
frost unexpls,.,l oatisee, but! have had no opportunity
of seeing into th.ln. Our county has promise of rich
pasturage. and more than an average crop of roots, but
with animals that were so sorely pinched in many places
last ; ar plenty is even more destructive, at times than
scarcity. Recent events sill result in good if it only
teaches the farmer how important it is that he should
study the principles of healthy and diseased action, and
this if it only taught him how erode are the common
farriery notions with which he is too often content to
pot up ; but while those in charge of cattle believe in
the existence of the tail-worm, talk of the Crank-unia,
or attribute SO much to • beast being "Mosorop" (mouse-
scope,) we shall have very little reliable evidence about
our cattle diseases. 1 had an ill-favoured steer of about
four years old which no treatment could improve.
"Oh r says Hodge, "he his the tail-worm."—Myself
'What is the t til.worm ?—Hodge : It is a worm begins
at the Lillie, and creeps all along the back-bwon till he
gets to the bead, sod then the beast's teeth drop out, and
his dies, Pedge tells me he is " moscrop."—Myself : Moe-
crop; that means mouse-crope.—Podge : Bea, sure, a
slimy (auglice shrew-mouse) crept over his lines, and
he'll lose the power of his hinder-quarters. Pudding
said he had get the u Craukums."—Myself : Well, that
is • queer name, and what may be its nature ?—Pudding:
"Oh that's a disease of the ox." Now l knew that
before. True, the poor beast had some affection of the
hocks, but whether of a local character, or whether from
partial paralysis, or what, I could not make out.
This ease eosins with variations every day. Country
people are not learned about cattle diseases, nor do we
think the usual druggers know much more. What we
want, therefore, is not to be told, "resaits" for every
real or fancied ailment, but to be taught the principles
of dimmed notion.