THE

Hawke's Bay Government Gazette.

(PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY).

All public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereunto annexed, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those persons to whom they relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.

JOHN DAVIES ORMOND, Superintendent.

VOL. XI. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1870. No. 2.

REPORT OF INSPECTOR OF SHEEP.

Inspector of Sheep Office,
Napier, Jan. 13, 1870.

SIR,—I have the honour to forward a report on the condition and state of the flocks in this province, and other matters under my supervision.

I have inspected or passed through nearly all the flocks in the southern district of this province, and have much pleasure in reporting their continued freedom from scab.

I regret to have to report that a number of small flocks confined in paddocks in the low-lying districts of Meane, Paakura, and Waitangi, are affected with foot rot. Nearly all the sheep so affected are merinos, chiefly old ewes, which were brought from hilly country last autumn, and sold at the Meane sale yards to the graziers of that and the adjoining districts. These sheep were turned on to the low wet paddocks, and no attention whatever given to their feet; from the very nature of those lands there can be little or no wear of the hoof; it grows long, and, unless pared with the knife, soon overlaps the sole, and from continual pressure on this lengthened wall or crust, inflammation ensues, the foot becomes hot and sensitive, the animal limps slightly; in a short time the crust of the hoof splits or breaks, the sensitive parts of the foot are exposed, dirt enters, ulceration commences, and the foot becomes one mass of disease. From the highly contagious nature of this disease, the whole flock quickly become affected in a greater or less degree; and when the disease is permitted to reach this stage, a cure is almost hopeless, at least, the cost of effecting a cure, where labour is high and sheep so low, would probably be more than the sheep are worth. I have invariably recommended the owners of sheep in this advanced stage of the disease to get rid of them by boiling down those which were at all fat, and feeding pigs with those which would not pay to boil down; and I am pleased to state that by many this course has been pursued. It cannot be too strongly urged upon those who graze sheep on low lands, the necessity of going through their sheep carefully, say every two months, during the winter and spring, and paring the hoofs of those in the least elongated. Where this elongation is pretty general in a flock, it is highly desirable, where practicable, to remove them after paring, to a drier situation, or to drive them occasionally over any gravel or stony country which may be available. The sheep, also, on the Karemu lands should, I think, have their feet looked to at least once or twice a year, say the end of autumn and the beginning of spring. I trust those owning sheep affected with foot rot will do their utmost to eradicate it this summer, or get rid of them in the way I have before indicated, and guard against a recurrence of it next winter; and that it may not again figure so prominently in the Inspector’s Report. For it will be found a very troublesome disease if it once gets into a