Savannah Morning News

Vermin in Sheep.

How to get rid of vermin in sheep is a question which sheep raisers frequently ask and they do not always get a satisfactory answer. It is believed that the most satisfactory season to get rid of vermin in sheep is when they are sheared. Dipping the entire flock once or twice then in a decoction of tobacco or a solution of arsenic will kill every tick. The dipping process at this season of the year is out of the question, however. There are several remedies in use among experienced farmers whose flocks come to the barn in the fall bearing a crop of these parasites. Perhaps the most economical plan, and the one attended with the least labor, is to fumigate the flock with sulphurous acid gas. This, if not carried too far, will have a tendency to promote the health of the sheep, and is sometimes resorted to with good results when sheep are suffering from grub in the head. The fumigation can be effected in the sheep shed or in the tie-up in the barn. When in the latter the windows should all be opened, as the gas is a deadly poison, and if inhaled too extensively will exterminate the entire flock as well as the vermin. Care must also be used to prevent setting fire to the building. The safest plan is to have four boards three feet long, from four to six inches wide, and nail them together so as to form the sides of a box. Place this upon the floor and put in a wheelbarrow load of loam or sand. Take a large iron kettle and put a few shovelfuls of live hard wood coals into it. Set a small iron kettle, old frying pan or skillet upon the coals, throw a wooden blanket over the whole, and place it upon the earth in the box above mentioned, first shutting the flock into the enclosure and providing a quantity of roll brimstone, which can be obtained from the druggist or grocer. Take the blanket from the kettle and place a piece of a roll of brimstone about four inches long in the vessel upon the coals. This will soon melt and burn, generating gas. Bear in mind that there must be free ventilation through the place. Stay by the fire and see that no accident occurs. Continue the fumigation about twenty minutes, at the end of which carry the kettle to some safe place in the open air and allow the flock to remain. Repeat the fumigation every day for a week. This is a sure remedy for lice on cattle and fowls, and is said to be very beneficial in epizootic in horses. It is claimed that ringworm, mange and greasy heels in horses have been cured by the above remedy, also that severe cases of tubercles of the lungs, glanders and farcy have been relieved by inhaling this gas.