When arrived at their destination, they must be thoroughly washed, to free them from all dirt, and closely examined as to any diseases they may have contracted, which, if discovered, should be promptly removed. A variety of suitable food and good shelter must be provided, for the autumn, winter, and spring ensuing, and every necessary attention given them. This would be necessary if indigenous to the country; how much more so, when they have just undergone a campaign, to which neither they nor their race have been accustomed!
Sheep cannot be kept on the prairies without much care, artificial food, and proper attention; and from a false system of economy, hitherto attempted by many, losses have occurred from disease and mortality in the flocks, sufficient to have made ample provision for the comfort and security of twice the number lost. More especially do they require proper food and attention, after the first severe frosts set in, which wither and kill the natural grasses. By nibbling at the fog,
(the frostbitten, dead grass,) they are inevitably subject to constipation, which a bountiful supply of roots, sulphur, &c., is alone sufficient to remove.
Roots, grain, and good hay; straw, or corn-stalks, pea or bean vines, are essential to the preservation of their health and thrift during the winter, everywhere north of 39°. In summer, the natural herbage is sufficient to sustain them in fine condition, till they shall have acquired a denser population of animals, when it will be found necessary to stock their meadows with the best varieties of artificial grasses.
The prairies seem adapted to the usual varieties of sheep introduced into the United States; and of such are the flocks made up, according to the taste or judgment of the owners. Shepherd-dogs are invaluable to the owners of flocks, in those unfenced, illimitable ranges, both as a defence against the small prairie-wolf, which prowls around the sheep, but which are rapidly thinning off by the settlers; and also as assistants to the shepherds in driving and herding their flocks on the open ground.
DISEASES OF SHEEP.
The dry and healthful climate, the rolling surface, and the sweet and varied herbage, which generally prevail in the United States, insure perfect health to an originally sound and well-selected flock, unless peculiarly exposed to disease. No country is better suited to sheep, than most of the northern and some of the southern parts of our own. In Europe, and especially in England, where the system of management is necessarily in the highest degree artificial, consisting frequently in early and continued forcing the system, folding on wet, plowed grounds, and the excessive use of that watery food, the Swedes turnip, there are numerous and fatal diseases. Hence the long list which lumbers the pages of foreign writers on sheep.
The most destructive of these are the rot, and epidemics which are scarcely known in America, except by report. The diseases incident to our flocks may generally be considered as casualties, rather than as inbred, or necessarily arising from the quality of food, or from local causes. It may be safely asserted, that with a dry pasture, well stocked with varied and nutritious grasses; a clear, running stream; sufficient shade and protection against severe storms; a constant supply of salt, tar, and sulphur in summer; good hay, and sometimes
roots, with ample shelters in winter; young sheep, originally sound and healthy, will seldom or never get diseased on American soil.
The few diseases which it may be necessary here to mention, will be treated in the simplest manner. Remedies of general application, to be administered often by the unskilful and ignorant, must neither be elaborate nor complicated; and, if expensive, the lives of most sheep would be dearly purchased by their application.