A Long Woolled Ram Ruting of the English. Agriculturate, conty at Ccxford fury Bills LondonyPublished by Joseph Rogerson, 24 Norfolk Street Strand, Nov 1, 1839. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER, 1839. No. 5.-VOL. III.] [NEW SERIES. PLATE I. The subject of our first Plate is a Long-woolled Ram, of the Oxfordshire breed, bred by and the property of Mr. C. Large, of Broadwell, Oxfordshire. This animal was exhibited at the late meeting of the English Agricultural Society at Oxford, on the 17th July last, and obtained a prize of thirty sovereigus. The best evidence of the excellence of Mr. Large's flock, will be found in the fact of his having obtained three prizes, in class 10, for the best long-woolled sheep, not Leicesters-namely, for the best shearling Ram, thirty sovereigns; for the best Ram of any age, thirty sovereigns; and for the best Pen of five Ewes, ten sovereigns. PLATE II. FALLOW DEER.-A SCENE IN WINDSOR PARK. (For Description see page 318.) ON THE PREVAILING EPIDEMIC shown that the course of this disease should be IN CATTLE. TO MR. C. KREEFT, LONDON. DEAR SIR,I have received the Farmer's Magazine for October, and at page 264 am somewhat surprised that any Veterinary should be un acquainted with the epidemic which it would appear has now also broken out in your country amongst the horned cattle. It may therefore, not be unacceptable to the readers of the Farmer's Magazine to gain further information. The disease which is quite correctly described in The Veterinarian and cannot be mistaken, is nothing else than the Mouth-rot (Mundfaule) with which the agricultural countries on the continent have now been visited these several years. Like the cholera it came from the East, from Poland, through Pomerania and the Marks of Prussia, reaching this neighbourhood about a year and a half ago; and taking also a westerly course through other parts of Germany to Holland, &c., thence crossing the sea, and even now making its appearance in England. Similar to the cholera it is circumscribed to some places, whilst surrounding provinces are uninfected, but will, no doubt, be visited at some future period. Thus, for instance, the disease a few years since prevailed in the adjoining districts, while in Mecklenburg our cattle remained healthy; now the surrounding countries are free from it, and it is raging in ours. There is neither prevention nor cure for the mouth-rot; on the contrary, experience has OLD SERIES.] entirely left to nature, and that all remedies which are applied merely tend to make bad worse and to protract it. It is never known to be mortal, and provided the animal be otherwise of good constitution, is lightly got over, say in three days, although in some cases it appears in a more virulent form and then may last nine to fourteen days. No remedies whatever should be applied, and the patient drenched only with a little bran-mash if the disease should be protracted, just to prevent starvation, but even this ought not to be resorted to except in extreme cases, for if the pain will anyways permit, the animal will gladly take to food again, of which it prefers soft hay. On this account it is advisable to take such of the cattle as are very severely attacked into the stable, that the feeding may be attended to, but if they are only slightly attacked and the weather is not too cold and raw, or too hot, they had better remain on the pasture. The cattle becomes greatly reduced by the mouth-rot, and suffer from weakness a considerable time afterwards; for this reason the loss in miik and butter becomes important, and the more seriously felt by the dairy owner, as it may not be advisable to use the milk of the cows infected with the mouth-rot. I use the word advisable, for although I know myself, from experience, that it is innoxious, yet this is not sufficiently exhibited, and there have been instances that persons have sickened, and pigs died after partaking of the milk. If in a herd a single head should sicken of the mouth-rot, it is soon propagated to the whole, Y [No. 5.-VOL. XI. |