Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1875 — A Sheep Never Dies in Debt. [ARTICLE]

A Sheep Never Dies in Debt.

One great advantage sheep have over stock is they never die of the contagious diseases which they contract. ‘ They get the scab or footrot or something else, and if unchecked it gets them in bad condition, and would ultimately perhaps kill them. But the very worst contagious diseases to which sheep are subject give the owner ample time to treat the affected .animals, and the disr eases are generally of a character which yield rapidly to treatment. But a man may have a lot of hogs and feed them hundreds of bushels of corn daily, and about the time the bottoms of his cribs are neared and he is thinking of selling, some disease breaks out among them—no one knows what it is of what to do for it—one animal after another, following in rapid succession, is affected, and the greater portion die. I have known farmers to be well-nigh ruined by the appearance of a contagious disease of this character. Sheep are happily exempt from such rapid and fearful mortality. Besides, when a sheep dies—and they do die sometimes—its pelt is sufficient to pay for its keeping from the last shearing to its death. It makes no difference when it dies, or what kills it, the sheep never dies in debt. — N. THerald.