Republican Herald

FROM THE NEW-ENGLAND FARMER.

POISONED SHEEP.

Mr. Fessenden, This being the season which requires particular attention to sheep, perhaps I may render some service to my brother farmers, by making public through the medium of your paper, a few practical observations tested by experiments of my own, relating to these profitable and necessary animals. Many farmers or wool growers seem to treat them with too much neglect, and others with too much care; some confine them closely, while others permit them to run at large. Too much confinement does not contribute to their health, and too much liberty exposes them to various evils, one of which is poison. This I believe is the sole cause of the destruction of more of this species of animals, than all the dogs in the universe, although the loss by these is very considerable. It is not my design to write a treatise on the management of sheep, but to state briefly what I know to be the way or manner in which this poison is generally taken, and to point out a specific remedy.

Poison is most prevalent among them in the spring of the year, and is taken by them, as the first green herbage to which they generally have access in sufficient quantities to satisfy their hunger, in what are commonly called laurel and white bush, either of which is greedily eaten by them at this season. The symptoms, or rather the disorder itself, cannot be mistaken; it is a kind of intoxication, or insensibility, which, without proper treatment, generally terminates in death, though life, in some instances, continues many days.

--The remedy is but to give the poisoned animal a small lump of butter, or a quantity of oil or grease of the skunk, by some called polecat; the latter is said by some to be preferable, but the first if given while the animal has sufficient life, or warmth, to enable it to swallow, or receive it into the stomach, effects a cure. The operation of either is this; nausea or sickness is soon produced which dislodges the poisonous vegetables eaten, and the cure is done.

A FARMER.